04/07/2022

Wait, what? Email spoofing and how to protect yourself

With the increase of people becoming more reliant on working from home and using the internet, email spoofing is on the rise. Email spoofing is the act of sending emails with a forged sender address. It tricks the recipient into thinking that someone they know or trust sent them the email. Usually, it’s a tool of a phishing attack, designed to take over your online accounts, send malware, or steal funds.

Spoofed email messages are easy to make, but also easy to detect. Recently our own President and CEO, Susan Wallace had her email account spoofed. Those of us who receive emails from Susan on a regular basis noticed immediately that the writing style was not hers and the request was not one she traditionally makes, which raised a flag. A quick look at the sender information showed her name, but the email address attached to it was not a “LeadingAgeOhio.org” URL, thus easy to detect. 

If you receive a suspicious email from an employee, agency or even a friend, do not respond or open any attachment, contact your IT group or whoever in your organization that handles your email system. More information on email spoofing is available in this October 2021 article from CyberNews.com.