What is email spoofing?
Email spoofing is the set-up of an email account that pretends to be someone else’s and uses another person’s address, or email address, to send unsolicited spam or advertisements in spam mail. This form of online fraud is quite prevalent, especially when people are using free email accounts. This makes it essential for Internet users to protect themselves from email spoofing and other Internet scams.
When an Internet user sends an email, it is routed to the recipient’s computer, and the computer checks whether the message passed through an authentic server or a hijacked server. The server that receives the message checks whether the signature contained in the email is genuine. If it is, the server returns a positive response. However, if the server does not recognize the signature, it considers the message bogus or spam. Since many commercial domains use their domain names for their email servers, spoofing attacks occur by hijacking legitimate domains and sending spoofed messages to them.
Email spoofing involves masquerading as an authorized sender, such as an online merchant or website owner. Cybercriminals use the victim’s email address to register various accounts on different websites. They then try to access personal information belonging to this target. Some of the personal data they obtain include the victim’s name, address, credit card number, social security number, and passwords. Some of these cybercriminals also use the display name of the actual sender in the emails they send.
Aside from impersonating a legitimate business sender, there are other reasons why an email spoofing operation can lead to a business email compromise. Sometimes, hackers steal employees’ financial or personal information. They can use the information they obtain to run up huge bills or access a business site’s secured areas. Another reason could be to get passwords of bank accounts or credit cards that are not used regularly.
But more often than not, the most popular reasons cybercriminals spoof valid emails are to grab the identities of popular Internet users. This is done to send scam emails to as many people as possible. In addition, several Internet users have reported that these cybercriminals often use graphics or photographs that resemble actual products and services, so it is straightforward for them to lure potential victims.
To minimize the threat of email spoofing, business owners should make it a point to check their websites and emails for any suspicious-looking content. It would be even better if they already had an IP address based on the website’s domain name where they receive the bulk of their emails. Business owners can also prevent the attack by blocking all unnecessary web content, programs, and activities from the client’s server. The IP address of the client-server can then be blocked from any future attempts to gain access to the domain name or IP address. In addition, it would also help if the business owner blocks all incoming messages, but not outgoing messages.