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A Joe job is a type of email spoofing that involves sending out huge volumes of spam email from what appears to be someone other than the actual source. Usually Joe jobs are done out of revenge, and sometimes in response to marketing competition. Disgruntled Joe job perpetrators have been known to sabotage email accounts or websites (by including website URLs in emails) that belong to anti-spam advocates.
With regard to market competition, a website selling a similar product to another may enlist Joe job email spoofing. This can cause the spoofer’s competitor to receive many customer complaints and possibly lose customers who are annoyed and frustrated at receiving spam.
Techopedia Explains Joe Job
The term Joe jobfirst came about in early 1997, when a disgruntled past user of Joes.com decided it was time to take revenge on the website’s owner, who had barred the user a year before for sending out bulk emails to newsgroups through on of the site’s free pages. The user enacted revenge on Joes.com by sending out mass email spoofs that contained the website owner’s name as the sender.
A Joe job is one of the most primitive forms of cybercrime and is nearly impossible to prevent. However, steps can be taken to reduce the damage of an attack, the most important of which is to clearly inform website users that the site is under attack.
Internet providers should be contacted immediately if a Joe job occurs. Website owners should also contact law enforcement.
