What’s the difference between being hacked and spoofed?

What can I do?

As spoof emails can be set up without accessing an email account, we’re unable to stop this from happening altogether. However, most will be recognised by spam filters and blocked accordingly.

As a precaution, change your email account password. You can also run a number of security checks which include anti-virus scans and forwarding rules you don’t recognise. If you’ve gone through all these steps, it’s possible your email address is being spoofed.

What’s the difference between being hacked and spoofed?

When your email account is hacked, an unauthorised third party has access to your email account. This indicates they’ve obtained the password, either through malware being installed on your device or when you’ve entered your details into a fraudulent phishing email.

If my account’s not been hacked, how are emails still being sent to my contacts?

It’s possible that your email account was hacked in the past, and the hackers took a list of all your contacts you’ve emailed previously. This allows them to send spoofed emails that look like they’ve come from you.

Unfortunately, once the hackers have access to your contacts, it is not possible to stop them from sending spoofed emails.

Note: There are other ways that hackers can obtain details of the people you email, such as public mailing lists or through other email addresses they’ve compromised.

Will deleting my email account stop Email Spoofing?

Unfortunately no. As email spoofing does not require access to your email account, the spoofed emails can continue to be sent even if your email address no longer exists.