In general, the term spoof refers to hacking or deception that imitates another person, software program, hardware device, or computer to bypass security measures. One of the most commonly known spoofings is IP spoofing.

IP spoofing

IP spoofing is a method of bypassing security measures on a network or gaining access to a network by imitating a different IP address. Some security systems identify a user by their IP address or IP address range. If the attacker spoofs their IP address to match this criteria, it may help bypass security measures. This technique is also used to deceive a web page, poll, or Internet contest into thinking the user is someone else, manipulating the site’s automatically collected data.

  • IP spoofing.
  • E-mail or address spoofing.
  • Phone number or Caller ID spoofing.
  • Web page spoof.
  • Related information.

E-mail or address spoofing

E-mail spoofing or address spoofing is faking a sender’s e-mail address to fool the recipient of the e-mail into thinking someone else sent them the message. This form of spoofing is often used to bypass spam filters, tricking users into thinking an e-mail is safe when it contains a virus or is spam.

  • Getting bounce back e-mails from addresses I don’t know.

Phone number or Caller ID spoofing

Anyone can fake the number or area code from where they are calling. This type of spoofing is done by telemarketers to hide their true identity and by hackers to access to unprotected phone voicemail messages.

A common recent tactic used by telemarketers is to make calls using numbers similar to yours using caller ID spoofing. For example, you may be in the 801 area code with the prefix 123 and get numbers from 801-123-4567 or 801-232-7654. Although this form of telemarketing is illegal, telemarketers use this tactic because more people are likely to answer phone calls from local numbers.

Web page spoof

A web page spoof is a fake web page or spoof on another commonly visited page. For example, a malicious user may create a spoof page of Microsoft’s, eBay, PayPal, or Google’s homepage that looks identical but is hosted on a different server. These pages are commonly used in phishing e-mails to extract information from users such as usernames and passwords or send malicious files to them. Web page spoofing may also be done through IP cloaking.

There is no way to prevent someone from spoofing a number and calling your phone. However, if you have a smartphone, you can black the number to prevent the same number from calling you again in the future.

  • How to protect yourself while on the Internet.
  • How to know if a computer was hacked.

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Another form of web page and domain spoofing is domain squatting. Where a person may register a domain that’s similar to another domain to redirect its visitors or pretend to be the company for phishing attacks.

  • Computer security help and support.
  • Network and network card help and support.