Glossary

Email spoofing

Email spoofing

Email spoofing is the practice of forging email headers – especially the “From” address – to make a message appear as though it was sent from someone else. It’s commonly used in phishing and scam campaigns to impersonate trusted brands, organizations, or individuals. 

Spoofing typically involves: 

  • Faking the “header from” address (the one visible to users) 
  • Skipping or failing authentication checks (like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) 
  • Sending from unauthorized servers or IPs to exploit domain trust 

Spoofed emails don’t require access to the impersonated sender’s infrastructure – they rely on weak or absent domain authentication to slip through undetected. 

Enabling DMARC with strict policies helps domain owners prevent unauthorized parties from spoofing their domain. Recipients can also use these authentication signals to reject or quarantine suspicious messages. 

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