Email Spoofing
Changing a name in email so that it looks like the email came from somewhere or someone else...is spoofing.
Used by spammers it is a defense against people finding out who they are. It's also used by general malcontents to practice malicious behavior.
It can be a legitimate and helpful tool for someone with more than one email account from an ISP-provided email.
For instance, you have an account, yourname@gnet, but you want all replies to go to yourname@mudcat.org. You can spoof yourself so that all the mail sent from the gnet account looks like it came from your mudcat.org account. If anyone replies to your email, the reply would be sent to yourname@mudcat.org
This is also helpful if you temporarily use a Web-based email account but want the replies to go to your regular email address.
Doing this for anyone but yourself is absolutely illegal. You should not ever spoof anyone else, not even in fun.
To change your email identity, go into the mail preferences of your email client, or Web-based email host. Look for fields about identity. They will normally default to your email address and your name. You can change them to whatever you want.
Sincerely,
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