Spoofing is the act of disguising a communication or identity so that it appears to be associated with a trusted, authorized source.
Like most cyber attacks, spoofing relies on social engineering to be successful. Cybercriminals take advantage of trusted relationships by impersonating a person or organization that the victim knows. This reduces the level of doubt and suspicion, making it possible to take advantage of the human nature of trust.
It is fairly common for attackers to spoof multiple points of contact, such as an email address and website, in order to initiate the communication and carry out the actual attack. For example, cybercriminals may spoof an email address in order to engage a potential victim and then use a spoofed website to capture the user’s log in credentials or other information.
How to spot spoofing before it’s too late
By pretending to be a trustworthy individual or company, cybercriminals gain a victim’s confidence to either steal their data or access their device. They will use email addresses, sender names, phone numbers, or website URLs that look familiar.
But if you look closely, you’ll notice the names are misspelled by one letter or symbol. This is a huge red flag to watch out for.
In addition, these sources will often ask you to download software, send money, or disclose personal, financial, or other sensitive information with a sense of urgency or danger. Beware of such requests and always check their reliability.
Look out for these common signs of a spoofing attack, and you’ll have a much lower chance of getting fooled.
In addition, you should consider installing an anti-phishing app (like RedFox Anti-Phishing & Scam Detector) that will quickly and efficiently detect any malicious website link that comes to you via email, social networks, messaging apps or via SMS.
