What is Email Spoofing?
Spoofing or the Indonesian term is "faking" is one of the internet crimes by committing fraud for the purpose of taking individual data. The way spoofing works is to disguise yourself as an individual or organization that you know.
Since spoofing comes in the guise of a known contact, it's easy to gain your trust. The result is that the spoofing party can easily steal data, money, or damage the security of computer devices.
Spoofing has a mode of crime through various media, including email, website or URL, Caller ID, SMS, Man-in-the-middle (MitM), and IP. But what is currently rampant is "Email Spoofing".
Email Spoofing is an act of fraud through the mode of sending emails using fake addresses or pretending to be certain parties in our email contacts. Usually, spoofing emails will direct recipients to click on certain links in the email that contain malware.
If the link is successfully clicked by the recipient of the email, there will be a chance of data theft, inserting a virus or malware on a computer device, and the worst is causing the loss of our money.
Email Spoofing is easier than other types of spoofing because the way it works tends to be very simple. Email Spoofing does not require an authentication system through OTP or the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) system to trick potential victims. Moreover, currently there are many scattered on the internet software or services to create fake sender generators.
How to Prevent Email Spoofing
After learning about the definition and characteristics of email spoofing, now is the time for Exabytes Friends to know about tips and ways to prevent being a victim of email spoofing. Already curious? Come on, just look at the discussion below!
Mengecek IP Adress Pengirim
We can detect the IP Address of the email sender whether it comes from a fake mailer sender website address or not. The trick is when Exabytes Friends receives a suspicious email inbox, then you can see the IP Address of the email sender through the "Show Original" button or "Show Original Version" in the top right menu of the email. An example can be seen in the image below.
Lalu silakan cari pada bagian “Received from”. Pada bagian tersebut kalian dapat melihat IP Address pengirim email dan mengeceknya melalui internet apakah IP Address tersebut dimiliki oleh website resmi atau website scammer. Selamat mencoba!
Enable SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is a system used to validate whether the email received is classified as spam, spoofing, or not. By activating SPF, the incoming email will go through the authentication stage first by checking the SPF record from the email sender to the DNS System.
To find out whether your computer has SPF enabled or not, you can check via the link https://mxtoolbox.com/spf.aspx
Not Carelessly Clicking on Attachments or Email Links
It is well known that scammers often place malware in email links and attachments. Therefore, to avoid spoofing emails, you should first check the security of email links and attachments.
You can check the security of an email link by hovering over it. And see if the link reads foreign and strange or not. Then if you receive an email attachment, before opening or downloading it, make sure first if the attachment is actually sent by an official sender that you already know.
Using SpamExperts
SpamExpert Protection or simply known as SpamExperts is a tool that can be used to overcome email spamming, email phishing, and even email spoofing.
The main function of this tool is to select emails that enter your inbox, and exclude emails that are detected as spamming and suspicious emails from untrusted senders.
SpamExpert consists of two types, namely SpamExperts Incoming (managing incoming emails) and SpamExperts Outgoing (ensuring that the emails we send are actually received by the target audience).
Conclusion
Spoofing is one of the cybercrimes that can harm someone even to the point of financial fraud. Simply put, spoofing is a type of online fraud that is carried out by impersonating or pretending to be a party known to the audience.
One type of spoofing that is most often experienced by many parties today is Email Spoofing. Email Spoofing is an act of fraud through the mode of sending emails using fake addresses or pretending to be certain parties in our contacts. Usually, spoofing emails will direct the recipient to click on certain links or document attachments in the email that contain malware.
Although Email Spoofing is detected as a dangerous form of cybercrime, Exabytes Friends don't need to worry. You can recognize Email Spoofing based on certain characteristics to avoid it.
The characteristics of Email Spoofing are using unofficial public email domains (such as gmail or yahoo), inserting suspicious links or documents, requesting audience's personal data, the message in the email contains many typos, and using word selection that seems forceful, threatening, and panic.
In addition to understanding the specific characteristics of Email Spoofing, you can also apply prevention methods by installing SPF (Sender Policy Framework), using SpamExperts, and checking the IP Address of the email sender first.
Well, that's enough discussion this time about Email Spoofing. Hope it's useful, yes!