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Home / Glossary / Spoofing
Glossary · Security

Spoofing

In plain language

Faking who a message or call comes from so you trust it.

The metaphor

Like writing someone else's name on the return address of an envelope: the post office does not check it, so the letter arrives looking genuine.

Going deeper

How it works

  • Email spoofing forges the sender's name or address.
  • Display-name spoofing puts a trusted name in front of a random address.
  • Phone spoofing fakes the caller ID.
  • Email checks (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) help receivers reject forged mail from your domain.

How WILDCARD handles it

Domain Security publishes SPF, DKIM and DMARC for your domain so forgeries are rejected. Email Security catches spoofed senders on mail coming in.

In practice
  • A scammer sends 'from' the owner's name with a different address.
  • A fake invoice arrives from a supplier's lookalike domain.
  • A call shows the bank's number on caller ID and is a fraud.

A question owners ask

Can someone send email that looks like it is from my domain? Without SPF, DKIM and DMARC set up properly, yes. With them in place, receiving inboxes can reject the forgery.

Where WILDCARD handles this
Domain
Security
  • Email deliverability
  • Reputation monitoring
  • Management and renewals
Start with Domain SecurityMeet Domain Security →
Email
Security
  • Real-time email filtering
  • Phishing and impersonation caught
  • External senders flagged
Start with Email SecurityMeet Email Security →
Related terms
AIArtificial IntelligenceBECBusiness Email CompromiseCACertificate AuthorityDKIMDomainKeys Identified MailDMARCDomain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and ConformanceDNSDomain Name SystemDomain nameDomain registrar
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