How Spammers Spoof Your Email Address (and How to Protect Yourself)!!!!
Most of us know spam when we see it, but seeing a strange email from a friend—or worse, from ourselves—in our inbox is pretty disconcerting. If you’ve seen an email that looks like it’s from a friend, it doesn’t mean they’ve been hacked. Spammers spoof those addresses all the time, and it’s not hard to do. Here’s how they do it, and how you can protect yourself.
Spammers have been spoofing email addresses for a long time. Years ago, they used to get contact lists from malware-infected PCs. Today’s data thieves choose their targets carefully, and phish them with messages that look like they came from friends, trustworthy sources, or even their own account.
It turns out that spoofing real email addresses is surprisingly easy, and part of why phishing is such a problem. Systems Engineer, aspiring CISSP, and Lifehacker reader Matthew tipped us off to how it works, but also took us by surprise by emailing a few of us at Lifehacker from other Lifehacker writers’ email addresses. Despite the fact that we knew it was possible—we’ve all gotten spam before—it was more disconcerting to actually be tricked by it. So, we talked to him about how he did it and what people can do to protect themselves.
While there is no fool-proof way to prevent either type of abuse to your email address, you could adopt some “best practices” when it comes to your email security:
Change your password frequently.
Always run full virus scans on your computer (at least once a week).
Avoid including your email address in online blogs and posts. Try using (at) and (dot)com instead of @ and .com to prevent malicious automations from harvesting your address.
Avoid using your primary email account for everything online. If you are signing up for something like a mailing list, contest, application form, or something similar, use a free throwaway email account like Gmail or Hotmail, something you don’t mind deleting if it gets abused.
Only use your primary email to communicate with people you know or trust.
