Scammers can exploit email forwarding flaws to impersonate high-profile domains
"The original protocol used to check the authenticity of an email implicitly assumes that each organization operates its own mailing infrastructure, with specific IP addresses not used by other domains. But today, many organizations outsource their email infrastructure to Gmail and Outlook. As a result, thousands of domains have delegated the right to send email on their behalf to the same third party."<p>"For example, state.gov, the email domain for the Department of State, allows Outlook to send emails on their behalf. This means emails claiming to be from state.gov would be considered legitimate if they came from Outlook’s email servers. As a result, an attacker can create a spoofed email–an email with a fake identity–pretending, for example, to come from the Department of State--and then forward it through their personal Outlook account. Once they do this, the spoofed email will now be treated as legitimate by the recipient, as it is coming from an Outlook email server."