We have recently seen a significant increase in occurrences where users are getting Spam email messages that appear to come from their own address (i.e. “joe@domain.com” gets a Spam email addressed from “joe@domain.com”).  We discussed this issue tangentially in a previous posting: Bounce Back & BackScatter Spam – “Who Stole My Email Address”? However, many users wonder how this is possible, while others are concerned that their Spam filters are not catching these messages.

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Email Defense has been updated with several significant enhancements. These include an improved user interface and full support for Mozilla FireFox. Additionally, this new release includes the following significant addition:

Sender Policy Framework (SPF):

• We are adding a Sender Policy Framework classifier to the Spam detection system to help identify and block fraudulent “spoofing” emails —  those sent by Spammers using forged “From” addresses.
• For each inbound message, the SPF classifier will look up the sending domain’s Domain Naming System (DNS) record and its list of authorized IP addresses (if such are specified). Messages that carry an IP address not found on the authorized list will be given a higher ‘spam-likelihood’ score.
• By determining whether or not the relationship between the DNS record and the IP address is legitimate, Email Defense can more accurately filter out fraudulent spoofed emails. As a result, this reduces risk for end-users who might be duped by the email into divulging confidential personal information.
• LuxSci supports the addition of entries to your DNS records which will support SPF — to help make it harder for Spammers to forge email from your domain. If you would like us to add an SPF record to your DNS entries or if you would like help in determining what SPF records to add yourself, contact our support team.