How to spot a spoof

"Spoofing" is a trick used by spammers, scammers, and hackers to make an e-mail that came from them look as if it came from somewhere else. We saw this before with the messages purporting to be about a package delivery.

Today I got one purporting to be from Hallmark. There are several red flags:

• It says I received a card, but it doesn't say from whom.
• The subject line starting with "Hey..." is not Hallmark's usual style.
• The "To" line says "undisclosed recipients."
• The subject line is missing a comma after that inappropriate "Hey."

OK, this last one is a copy editor's nitpick. The real clincher is that if you mouse over the "here" link without clicking, a popup shows the link actually directs to a server that's identified only by its IP address and not hallmark.com. It's also set to download a .exe, or executable file.
Since the file is called "Hallmark.exe," the unsuspecting might go so far as to launch it, and install a virus on their computers.
Hallmark offers a few other things to watch for, including these:

• The e-mail will come from the sender's e-mail address, not Hallmark.com
• Hallmark cards are displayed on their Web site, not downloaded.

Spread the word. Hackers will continue to send this garbage as long as there are uninformed people opening it.