Spoofing occurs when an e-mail sender misuses an unsuspecting victim's address by falsifying its routing information so it appears to come from the victim's account. When the message reaches its intended target, all reply messages go to the victim's address, not the actual sender. Spoofing is used by spammers to rmain anonymous.
Roughly half of the states have enacted legislation regulating spam and prohibiting spoofing. For example, Washington, Illinois, and Maryland enacted statutes explicitly prohibiting spammers from sending commercial e-mails that use a third party's domain name without permission, contain falsified routing information. or have a misleading subject line. Illinois' statute allows both the injured person and ISP the right to recover attorney's fees and costs, or the lesser of $10 for each unsolicited, illegal e-mail transmitted, or $25,000 per day.
