Fake emails: how easy are they ... to spot or make?

With Utegate and that fake email occupying so much of our parliamentarians' time, just how easy is it to dupe someone?

Fake emails flood Australian inboxes every day but digital forensics experts say they can be easy to spot - or create, if you know the tricks.

Using a regular email program, fraudsters can create emails that appear to come from any address they want in a few minutes, said Graham Thompson, a digital forensics consultant who assists in police investigations.

Scammers use the same tricks to fool victims into thinking emails are coming from their bank, or from a friend who urgently needs money transferred to a bank account after being mugged abroad.

The trick in exposing what's fake or real, Thompson explained, is to obtain an electronic copy of the email and look at the "internet headers".

These can be revealed by clicking on email options in the program you use. They will reveal the real email and IP addresses used to send the message.

"I can make an account that says joebloggs@parliament.gov.au on the 'from' field, but it doesn't mean when you reply that it's going to go back to that address, and it doesn't mean it's from that address," Thompson said.

"I can send you an email now that basically says I'm your boss, but unless you look at the header of it to see it's actually coming from a separate account and a separate IP address, you wouldn't know.

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Source: brisbanetimes.com.au

By: Asher Moses