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E-mail safety information

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E-mail safety links A - Z

General Safety Tips

Chain letters
How to deal with them.

Hoaxes, rumors and urban legends
How to tell the difference between a hoax and reality.

Obtaining E-mail Headers

Phishing
Tips for protecting yourself and your phone.

Scams and fraud
How others will try to trick you.

Spam
What you can do about junk e-mail.

Spoofing

Useful Software

Viruses
Protecting yourself from e-mail viruses and how to spot a fake.

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Spoofing

What is spoofing?

SpoofingExplanation :: Detection :: Solution :: Prevention

Spoofing is the term for falsified e-mail addresses that appear to come from a sender when in fact, the message is really being sent by a spammer. They can be difficult to spot and cause many problems, both for recipients and spoofed e-mail address owners.

How spoofing operates

E-mail spoofing can assume a variety of forms, but basically, a spoofed e-mail has appears to have been sent from one source when it actually was sent from another source entirely. Phishing attempts and e-mail worms typically use spoofed e-mail addresses to trick users into believing that an e-mail has come from a trusted source. The actual sender effectively hides behind a user's address by falsifying its routing information, making it appears to come from the legitimate user's account.

However, any replies to a spoofed e-mail go directly to the legitimate e-mail account (not the sender who has spoofed the e-mail) causing embarassment and inconvenience. The legitimate user can find their e-mail Inbox bombarded with viruses, bounced e-mail, flame e-mails and in some cases can have their account suspended or shut down by their Internet Service Provider (ISP) for violating its anti-spam policy.

Meanwhile, the sender avoids all of these consequences, leaving innocent users to deal with the aftermath.

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Parts of this Web site were taken from Parry Aftab's book The Parent's Guide to Protecting Your Children in Cyberspace. Marvel and all character names and the distinctive likenesses thereof are trademarks of Marvel Characters, Inc., and are used with permission. TM & © 2004 Marvel Characters, Inc. All rights reserved. www.marvel.com. Super Heroes is a Co-owned registered Trademark.
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