Email Spoofing Case Study: Steve Long's Joe Job Incident

Late last year, Steve Long opened up his e-mail account and got a huge surprise: A ton of rejected or redirected e-mails he didn't write. "I thought, 'Oh, I wrote in the wrong address.' 137 (e-mails) later I realized something's wrong," he said. . . Late last year, Steve Long opened up his e-mail account and got a huge surprise: A ton of rejected or redirected e-mails he didn't write. "I thought, 'Oh, I wrote in the wrong address.' 137 (e-mails) later I realized something's wrong," he said.

That "something wrong" turned out to be what the anti-spam industry calls a "Joe job." It's a simple way of making spam look like it didn't come from the original sender.

A Joe job is one of the oldest, and easiest, spamming tricks in the book, said spam consultant Ben Westbrook, chief executive officer of Mail-Filters.com.

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