Spoofing is a form of deception, both in the real world and online.

Most offline spoofing is supposed to be funny, but on the internet spoofs are usually serious and may have unpleasant consequences.

A spoofed e-mail might carry a virus or a spoofed website could be used to steal your credit card details.

E-mail spoofing

The most common sort of spoofing online now is 'e-mail spoofing', making an e-mail message appear to have come from one place when really it came from another.

Spammers hide by spoofing

It is generally used by spammers, who do not want their real address to appear in the e-mails they send.

Since the messages they send out have web links in them, they do not care if people click 'reply’ and send an e-mail to the wrong place.

It also makes it a lot harder for ISP to track them down and close their accounts.