In our daily routine, we come to hear about the email spamming, and most of us know spam from Stanger’s email. But seeing a strange email from our friend, or ourselves in our inbox itself is pretty disconcerting. If you have seen an email that looks similar to that from a friend that doesn’t mean that they have been hacked. Spammers are hovering over the internet spoof all address every time, and it is not hard to do so. And hence this article is going to give you the complete information about how spammers hack the mail and how can you overcome that.
Years ago, these spammers used to get the contact list from malware (infected PCs). And today the scenario is little altered. Today data thieves choose their targets carefully and phish them with a message that looks as it has come from their friends or a trustworthy source or sometimes even from their own account. Spoofing real email address is surprisingly easy, and this is why Phishing is such a problem.
Sometimes people go the extra step to create Funny Email Addresses also but this intentionally doesn’t mean phishing but since these Funny Email Addresses are catchy, you might be tricked as well.
How Spammers Does Spoofing With Email Address
The tools that are used by spammers to spoof the email address are surprisingly easy to get. The only thing needs to get it done is nothing but a working SMTP server (aka, a server that sends the email) and the right mailing software.
Any good web host provides you with the SMTP server. You additionally can install SMTP on the system you own. This has port-25, the port used for outgoing email and usually blocked by ISPs. And this is especially given to block the mass-mailing malware as seen in the early 2000s.
And for this, some are using PHP Mailer. Spammer in general use this PHP mailer and compose the message, put in the ‘from’ and ‘to’ in the address and when done click on the Send button below.
On the recipient’s end, they get an email in their inbox which looks like it came from the address you typed in.
The biggest Caveat is that while clicking a reply on the spoofed message, anything sent back goes to the real owner of the address but not the Spoofer. Since the main intention of the spammers is that you click on the provided link to open the attachment.
The concept is clear. Since SPF never really caught on the way it was intended, you need not add your device IP address to list and again it makes you wait for 24 hours every time you are traveling or want to send the email from your new smartphone. Concluding to the phishing it can be said that phishing remains a significant problem and it is just so easy that everyone can easily do it.
What Steps You Can Take to Protect Yourself
While spammers are sending the email to the user end without losing its realm, the only way to predict that the email is not from the person it seems to be is simply dig into the header and find out precisely what you are looking for. That is a pretty tall order for the savvy among us. A quick reply to the spoofed email would generate confusion as well.
Hence if you are looking for the ways to overcome these havoc and protect yourself from the message like this. There are a couple of things you can take care of.
Turn to own your Spam Filter and User the Tools like Priority Inbox
Setting up your spam in your mail is the first step towards your phishing security. Similarly, if you sue the services like Gmail Priority Inbox or Apple’s VIP, you essentially let the email server figure out the important people for you. And if an important person is spoofed, you probably will get it.
Learn reading Message Headers and Tracing IP Address
The better way to prevent the spam email is simply via the ability to read the header and it is a good skill to have. This helps you track down the IP address of the sender, able to open the header and find out if it matches up with the previous emails from the same person before. You can also do the reverse lookup on the sender’s IP to find out where it is.
Avoid clicking on Unfamiliar Links on Download Unfamiliar Attachments
This may sound like a no-brainer, but all it takes for an employee of a company seeing an email from their boss or someone in the company, to simply open the attachment and click on Google Docs link to expose the corporate network. Many think that we are above the trick of being tacked away but this is the common case and happens all the time.
Pay attention to the email you have got and better visit the company’s website directly to log into it and find what they want to see and don’t prefer to download the email attachment. Additionally, keep your computer’s anti-malware up to date.
