A deceptive practice where an individual or entity disguises themselves as a trusted source to gain unauthorized access or deceive recipients. In the context of email, spoofing typically involves falsifying the sender’s email address or domain to make it appear as though the email is coming from a legitimate or trusted source. The goal of spoofing is often to trick recipients into divulging sensitive information, clicking on malicious links, or performing actions that benefit the attacker. Spoofing can compromise security, lead to identity theft, or facilitate fraud, and is commonly addressed through authentication methods like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC to verify the authenticity of email sources and prevent such deceptive practices.