Technical Support > Email Spoofing

"Email Spoofing" is receiving multiple "undeliverable" or "postmaster" bounce back messages, when you are NOT the original sender of the email

Spammers are using your email address in the "reply to" field of the email software that they're using. They are then sending large amounts of spam. Many of the messages they're sending are not deliverable because the addresses are not valid or the mail is being rejected. When happens next is that the mail is returned to the sender, using what is specified in the "reply to" field. That's your address.

Any mail sent to a recipient that is undeliverable is returned to the sender. This is part of Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3), the rules of mail sending on the internet.

Spam filters are not marking these messages as spam because it has been made to appear that you sent these messages, and they are being returned to you as normal (again, part of Post Office Protocol 3).

What can be done?

The best solution is to create a few mail rules in your email software (such as Outlook or Entourage) that sort these messages into a junk mail folder. This automatically clears them from your inbox, but also allowing you to review the messages before deleting them. Or, you can configure the Mail Rule delete the messages right away, if that's your preference.

One thing to keep in mind is that if you send a legitimate message to a customer, for example, and the message is not delivered successfully you will very likely want to receive the "mail delivery failure" notice so that you know that your customer has not received your email. This is why we suggest sorting these messages to a junk folder on your personal computer instead of opting to delete them.

Email spoofing is an industry-wide problem, affecting hosts and users all over the world. It is an illegal activity in most states here in the U.S.

More information is available at Wikepedia.

Please contact us if you have any questions.