Email spoofing is when the sender of the email forges (spoofs) the email header's from address, so the sent message appears to have been sent from a legitimate email address.
If you have received a high volume of undeliverable notices in your inbox, there is a strong chance your email address is being spoofed.
What to do if your email has been spoofed
Spoofing is a temporary issue that will often be resolved in a few weeks when the spammer will move onto another email address. A temporary problem does not make it any less frustrating, but it is important to consider this generally does not indicate account compromise.
We suggest running a full virus scan on your local computer. The virus scan ensures that you have not experienced any malware or virus infection and helps eliminate the possibility that you have a compromised account.
After running the anti-virus scan and coming back without issues, you should then update your email password through your webmail, making sure that you have a robust and secure password.
Once you have completed these steps, you can expect fewer undeliverable messages to be received in your inbox as the changes take effect.
To avoid further clutter in your inbox, you can also create filtering settings to move the undeliverable messages into a holding folder.
Note: Hover suggests running regular anti-virus scans on your local computer and changing your email password every six months to ensure account security.
How to avoid being spoofed in the future
You can use a few techniques to prevent further spoofing attempts against your email address.
- Avoid using your full email address when posting on the internet. At a minimum, type your email address without the characters: youremail(at)yourdomain(dot)com.
- Avoid suspicious mailing lists and other services that request your email address.
- Avoid using similar passwords between multiple accounts and services.
- Avoid using public or unsecured Wi-Fi sources when traveling or away from your home.
When determining the spoofing origin, the chance of a clear answer can become rather unlikely. Often spoofing messages are sent from other infected computers, which are quickly discarded by the spammer. These changes allow the spoofing messages regularly to come from different IP addresses, further complicating the ability to determine where the messages are originating.
It is important to remember that spoofing is a temporary issue that typically will pass within a few weeks. By keeping your account secure and updated, you can expect your mailbox to experience much fewer spam or spoofing messages.
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