Email spoofing is the act of forging a sender's address to trick recipients and deliver spam or phishing emails. A strong email security framework helps detect and block spoofed messages.
A spoofed email is a form of malicious communication that poses a significant security threat.
This guide explores how to prevent email spoofing attacks by creating awareness and increasing recognition of spoofed emails, allowing individuals and businesses to defend themselves against this type of targeted attack.
Email spoofing is a common form of phishing attack designed to make the recipient believe that the message originates from a trusted source. To complete the scam, a spoof email sender creates an email address or email header to trick the recipient into believing the message originates from a trusted contact.
Email protocols lack built-in authentication to detect spoofed emails, which makes email spoofing a favorite tactic of cybercriminals worldwide. It’s also one of the easiest online attacks to perform since it requires little technical experience.
The ultimate goal of sending from a spoofed email address is to trick the recipient into opening the message and either clicking a link or responding to its contents.
The sender relies on impersonation to encourage the recipient to interact with their malicious content by taking compromising actions, such as:
Entering credentials into a site
Sending money directly to the attacker
Downloading malware onto their computer
Not all spoofing incidents are serious. However, more harmful spoofed email communications can cause significant damage. Some of the more serious risks associated with spoofing include:
Malware insertion
Identity theft
Access to personal/business assets
Spam filter avoidance
Reputational damage
Financial losses
Regardless of the goal of the attacker, spoofing can cause serious damage and disruption to organizations. Understanding how these attacks function is the first step to preparing an email spoofing prevention strategy.
The majority of spoofing campaigns attempt to extract personal information or install malware by using common household names, known executives, or friendly vendors. This familiarity encourages recipients to click a link in the email or download an attachment.
If you know how to recognize a spoofed email, you know not to fall for their tricks.
For example, one of the most common types of spoofing campaigns involves PayPal. The spoofed email will claim that the receiver’s account has been suspended, and they need to click on the link in the email to resolve the issue. The email looks official, almost exactly like an email from PayPal would.
But when the user clicks the link, their PayPal username and password will be stolen through the fake domain. When this PayPal account is associated with a business, these consequences are even more dire.
Other examples of popular phishing campaigns include:
Credit Card Confirmation: This type of campaign sends messages to thousands of consumers claiming that their credit card information may have been compromised. These emails include a link for the user to “confirm” their credit card details.
Wire Transfer Request: The victim receives an urgent email from the CEO or other executive requesting a wire transfer to a known partner. Due to the urgency of the email, the victim transfers the funds to the partner, not realizing that they’ve fallen victim to spoofing.
Tech Support Request: An employee receives an email from their corporate IT department asking them to install a piece of software. The email looks real, but when the employee acts, they’re injecting ransomware directly into the company network
While many spoofing campaigns may seem amateurish, these exact scenarios have caused billions of dollars in losses for individuals and businesses worldwide.
The consequences of falling victim to a spoofed email address attack can be devastating. Sensitive information such as passwords, bank account numbers, and Social Security numbers (SSNs) can be used to commit identity theft and fraud.
Some examples of the more dire consequences of email spoofing include:
Loss of revenue
Decline in customer confidence
Credit card fraud
Utility fraud
Dark web leaks
Victims of spoofing can see their business operations upended completely, which is why knowing how to stop spoofing emails is essential for protecting data. Some small businesses that have suffered from a spoofing attack have taken years to recover from the fallout financially, simply because they opened an email or clicked on a link a little too quickly.
Even larger companies see dire consequences, often resulting in drops in stock prices and loss of consumer confidence.
Because many organizations do not have email spoofing protections in place to prevent their email addresses from being spoofed, businesses that receive these emails must remain vigilant and prevent spoofed messages from slipping through the cracks.
Although modern email providers use intelligent spam detection procedures to automatically eliminate most spoof messages, committed attackers bypass these traditional filters.
Figuring out how to stop email spoofing on Gmail and Outlook requires a new type of email security platform that can detect these scams. Organizations should also consider security awareness training, which can help employees recognize when they might have received a spoofed email and react to it appropriately.
Figuring out how to stop email spoofing isn’t rocket science; you just need to know what to look for. The majority of spoofing campaigns attempt to extract personal information or install malware by utilizing common household names, known executives, or friendly vendors, encouraging recipients to click a link in the email or download an attachment. If you know how to recognize a spoofed email, you know not to fall for their tricks.
For example, one of the most common types of spoofing campaigns involves PayPal. The spoofed email will claim that the receiver’s account has been suspended, and they need to click on the link in the email to resolve the issue. The email looks official, almost exactly like an email from PayPal would.
But when the user clicks the link, their PayPal username and password will be stolen through the fake domain. When this PayPal account is associated with a business, these consequences are even more dire.
Other examples of popular phishing campaigns include:
Credit Card Confirmation: This type of campaign sends messages to thousands of consumers claiming that their credit card information may have been compromised. These emails include a link for the user to “confirm” their credit card details.
Wire Transfer Request: The victim receives an urgent email from the CEO or other executive requesting a wire transfer to a known partner. Due to the urgency of the email, the victim transfers the funds to the partner, not realizing that they’ve fallen victim to spoofing.
Tech Support Request: An employee receives an email from their corporate IT department asking them to install a piece of software. The email looks real, but when the employee acts, they’re actually injecting ransomware directly into the company network.
While many spoofing campaigns may seem amateurish, these exact scenarios have caused billions of dollars in losses for individuals and businesses worldwide.
Due to the lack of built-in address authentication inherent within SMTP, several frameworks have been developed to overcome this vulnerability.
These frameworks are vital for defending against a spoof email address campaign. The most popular options include:
Sender Policy Framework (SPF): SPF automatically checks whether an IP is authorized to send emails from a specific domain.
Domain Key Identified Mail (DKIM): Signs all outgoing messages with two cryptographic keys. DKIM also validates incoming messages.
Domain-Based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC): DMARC allows the sender to inform the receiver that the email has been protected by SPF/DKIM protocols.
All organizations should have these protections in place, but research shows that a majority do not. As a result, recipients must take action to prevent these attacks from bypassing their security infrastructure. In addition, employees should remain vigilant and wary of requests for money or personal information.
Some other best practices include:
When a link is present and credentials are requested, manually type in the domain and access any accounts from there, rather than clicking on any email links.
Take the time to raise awareness about email spoofing. Businesses can do this by creating security awareness training programs for employees, particularly during Cybersecurity Awareness Month.
Copy and paste the email contents into a popular search engine like Google. Chances are, others have reported the same email as a scam already.
Avoid opening attachments from suspicious senders.
While the consequences of falling victim to spoofing can be grim, a commitment to prevention can beat back the vast majority of phishing campaigns.
Spoofing campaigns are rarely given the same attention as ransomware or other high-profile attacks. However, they deserve additional awareness, as they lead to billions of dollars in losses globally for individuals and businesses.
Thankfully, spoofing is a relatively simple attack to thwart.
For example, Abnormal’s Cloud Email Security is capable of spotting all types of spoofed emails, including uncommon signs that other security solutions miss. Using hundreds of thousands of signals, including DMARC and SPF, Abnormal can stop email spoofing attacks before they reach inboxes, alongside dozens of other attack types.
With the right solution in place, one that uses a behavioral data science approach to understand the normal and stop the abnormal, you can protect your organization from all types of email spoofing.
Learn more about how Abnormal prevents email spoofing. Book a demo today.
