It is difficult to exaggerate the impact of COVID-19 on the email situation. Marketers are more than ever leveraging email channels to communicate with their subscribers. Volumes are skyrocketing and there are no signs of a slowdown, as explained in the June State of Email webinar. It's no wonder that the crisis has made malicious characters bold and take action. Scammers Cork Bicycle Rent zone and spammers have used pandemic uncertainty and email influx to launch domain spoofing attacks. This is an increase of 220% compared to the annual average of the pandemic's heyday. Spoofing is not a new strategy (in fact, it has existed since the 1970s), but it has evolved into a global security threat in recent years.
What is spoofing?
The definition of spoofing is legitimate email forgery. Sounds simple, but it's actually a very complex issue that can be confusing to even the most experienced email marketers. A quick Google search reveals different types of spoofing attacks and how they are organized. These attacks come in many forms, including IP and domain spoofing, phone number spoofing, and GPS spoofing.
Domain spoofing tends to be most noticeable. In domain spoofing attacks, fraudsters use the reputation of existing brands to trick unconscious subscribers into providing sensitive data. You can access your subscriber's personal data by tricking them into manipulating messages, opening compromised attachments, and clicking links. Ultimately, each type of spoofing attack aims to impersonate a legitimate source to gain access to sensitive information, commit fraud, or spread malware.
It is reported that 90% of cyber attacks start with email. So it's our job as an email marketer to protect our subscribers like a family. Of course, spoofing attacks do more than just harm consumers. There are also long-term implications that can have a devastating impact on the brand. Brand reputation, subscriber trust, deliverability issues, and loss of revenue are just the surface of the damage caused by spoofing attacks.