Preventing Email Spoof

What is a spoof email and how can they be prevented? A spoof email appears to come from one email address but in reality comes from a completely different one. How does this happen? There are two main reasons for email spoof:

a) An email worm. These are mass mailing worms and are simply written to prove that their writer write worms. Once a computer has become infected, the worm accesses the address book. It then sends emails (plus a copy of itself) to every address in the book. The "clever" bit is that it uses one address to send the email to and another address to claim to be the sender. The recipient receives an email (plus the worm) that appears to come from a particular email address. It doesn't. In fact all you can tell from looking at the email is that it came from a computer whose address book contained both your email address and the apparent sender's address.

These worms are what causes you to receive all those undeliverable messages for emails that you apparently sent to addresses you've never heard of. You didn't send them, of course. The undeliverable message just tell that somewhere out there is a computer whose owner a) doesn't keep their address book up to date, and b) doesn't have effective anti-virus software installed

b) Phishing emails. You know the ones - the bank software crashed last night, the bank is implementing new security measures and would you be so kind as to enter all your details please! There is usually a virus spyware to click that will take you to an imitation of the bank's website. Most up to date web browsers contain a phishing filter and will warn you of known or suspected phishing sites. If the link you click on does take you to a website, take a look at the address bar of your web browser. Does it really look like the address of ta bank website:

http://ww.bumisaranautama.com/lololo/www.lloydstsb.com didn't look real to me. Often the phisher has hacked into a legitimate website and added their fake bank site.

It isn't easy to prevent spoof emails. The ones that are spread by worms can be prevented simply by making sure that your computer has effective antivirus software installed and that it is updating itself regularly. Be sure to renew your subscription as having a virus database that is 6 months out of date wont help you. Your antivirus software is only as good as the last time it was updated. New items of malware appear daily.

Phishing emails can't be prevented by the average user. Keep your wits about. If you use internet banking and there is an option for telling your bank NOT to send you emails, use it. Then you know for certain that any email that claims to come from your bank is a spoof. If you are suspicious or not certain about the authenticity of an email from your bank, phone them. They won't mind, I did just that for a client and they were very helpful.

I am an IT teacher specialising in teaching beginners and mature learners. I aim to make computer learning fun and friendly. See my website at http://www.it-teacher.co.uk