What steps can I take to stop someone from spoofing my email address?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from MXToolbox shares monitoring your domain's reputation with services like Google Postmaster Tools can help you identify if your domain is being used for malicious purposes and take steps to mitigate the damage.
Email marketer from EasyDMARC explains using subdomains for different email purposes (e.g., marketing, transactional) can help isolate the impact of spoofing attacks and make it easier to implement security policies.
Marketer from Email Geeks explains if DMARC policy is at p=reject, and proper authentication is in place, there might not be much more to do. The responsibility then falls on receiving domains to validate DMARC and respect the set policy.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares implementing BIMI can help display your brand logo next to your emails in supporting inboxes. This can help recipients identify legitimate emails from your domain and distinguish them from spoofed emails.
Email marketer from Reddit shares reporting spoofing incidents to organizations like the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) can help them track and combat these attacks.
Email marketer from Valimail shares regularly monitoring DMARC reports provides insights into who is sending emails on behalf of your domain and whether they are passing authentication checks. These reports can help you identify and address spoofing attempts.
Email marketer from Proofpoint shares training employees to recognize the signs of email spoofing can help prevent them from falling victim to phishing attacks that use your spoofed domain.
Marketer from Email Geeks clarifies that DMARC won't protect against the use of the domain in the Reply-To address.
Email marketer from SendGrid shares monitoring security breaches and data dumps for leaked email addresses and passwords can help you identify compromised accounts that could be used for spoofing attacks.
Email marketer from Mailjet recommends implementing measures to prevent email list scraping on your website can help reduce the risk of your email addresses being used for spoofing attacks. Using captchas and rate limiting on forms.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce suggests using a dedicated IP address for sending emails can help improve your domain's reputation and make it easier to identify and address spoofing attempts.
What the experts say4Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that you can report email spoofing incidents to government agencies like the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) or the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).
Expert from Spam Resource shares advising your customers about the possibility of email spoofing and how to identify suspicious emails can help protect them from phishing attacks that use your spoofed domain. This can be done through website announcements, social media posts, or email newsletters.
Expert from Email Geeks shares awareness of spammers abusing forms, using the 'share with a friend' function to send authenticated spam. Suggests checking site security to prevent being used as a spam vector.
Expert from Word to the Wise highlights that DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) is the primary tool to help prevent email spoofing and phishing attacks by enabling domain owners to protect their brand and domain.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from DMARC.org explains DMARC builds upon SPF and DKIM by allowing you to specify how receiving servers should handle emails that fail authentication checks (e.g., reject, quarantine). Implement a DMARC policy in your domain's DNS settings.
Documentation from RFC Editor explains MTA-STS (Mail Transfer Agent Strict Transport Security) is a mechanism enabling mail service providers (MSPs) to declare their ability to receive TLS 1.2 or higher encrypted SMTP connections and for sending MTAs to discover and enforce such policies.
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains to use an SPF record, which lists all the IP addresses and domains that are authorized to send emails on behalf of your domain. Receiving servers use this record to verify if a message comes from an authorized source. Create an SPF record in your domain's DNS settings.
Documentation from Microsoft Support shares DKIM, which adds a digital signature to outgoing emails. This signature can be verified by receiving servers to confirm the message wasn't altered during transit and that it truly came from your domain. Enable DKIM signing in your email platform's settings.
Documentation from Cloudflare shares DNSSEC adds a layer of security to your DNS records, making it more difficult for attackers to tamper with them. This can help prevent DNS-based spoofing attacks.