SPF records are used to prevent spammers from spoofing your domain name. Recipient servers can use the SPF record you publish in DNS to determine whether an email that they have received has come from an authorized server or not. They can then make a decision about how to treat that email. You can read a more detailed run down of SPF records here.
Over recent years SPF has gone from a “nice to have” to a “must have”. Even if they aren't perfect, they are quite effective and are part of being a good email citizen on the internet. But some email admins don't see it that way, despite the fact that without an SPF record:
- Spammers can spoof your domain name to spam other networks, harming your brand's reputation.
- Attackers can spoof your domain name for phishing and whaling attacks, potentially leading to ransomware, malware, and financial loss or fraud.
- Other email servers on the internet may reject your email because they can't determine its legitimacy.
Barracuda Email Security wil carefully examine inbound emails for correct SPF records to protect users from potentially malicious emails!
Sometimes even very reputable companies won't have their SPF records setup correctly and they may be sending emails from another source than they hav specified in their important SPF record. This will cause the email to either bounce or get caught in your quarantine!