Spoofing

Spoofing means faking the origin of a message or call so it appears to come from someone you trust. It covers several tricks: caller-ID spoofing puts a bank's real number on your screen, email spoofing forges the sender so a message looks internal, and domain spoofing mimics a legitimate web address. The point is always to borrow an identity you already trust and so lower your guard.

Because the routing behind phones and email was never built to prove who is really sending, faking these details is easier than most people assume — which is why a 'genuine-looking' number or address proves very little on its own. Defend against it by verifying through a separate channel you chose yourself: call back on a published number, or open the company's app rather than replying. Spoofing is the enabling layer beneath many phishing, vishing and bank-impersonation scams — the disguise that makes the rest of the con believable.