The Hidden Threat: Why Even Tesla, PayPal, and DHL Are Still Spoofable in 2025

Mithun GS
Jul 2
3 min read

⚠️ Introduction: Spoofing Isn't Dead — It's Evolving

In 2025, we’ve got encrypted messengers, verified social handles, and multi-factor authentication for everything — yet email spoofing is still alive and thriving.

And here’s the truth most don’t want to hear:

Even billion-dollar companies like Tesla, PayPal, and DHL are leaving the door open.

🚨 What Is Email Spoofing?

Email spoofing is when an attacker sends a message that appears to come from a trusted sender — but it's not. It’s the foundation of most phishing attacks, Business Email Compromise (BEC), and identity fraud.

The shocking part?It often works because brands fail to configure two basic security protocols:

✅ DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)
✅ DNSSEC (Domain Name System Security Extensions)

What We Found: Real DNS & DMARC Config Analysis

We ran live DNS scans on tesla.com, paypal.com, and dhl.com — and here’s what we uncovered:

🔴 DHL.com

DNSSEC: ❌ Broken trust chain
- 5 critical errors (CDS, CDNSKEY, NSEC3PARAM)
- No validated cryptographic signatures
DMARC: p=reject on root, ❌ no sp=reject for subdomains

🧨 Spoofing Risk: Extremely HighAttackers can spoof subdomains like billing.dhl.com or track.dhl.com without being blocked.

DNSViz analysis of dhl.com shows DNSSEC authentication chain with multiple errors and warnings highlighted, indicating issues in DNS responses and potential validation problems.

🟠 Tesla.com

DNSSEC: ⚠️ Incomplete delegation
- NS, A, and AAAA record warnings
DMARC: p=reject on root, ❌ no sp=reject

🧯 Spoofing Risk: Medium to HighEmails like updates@service.tesla.com could bypass filters.

DNSViz analysis of tesla.com shows DNSSEC authentication chain with multiple errors and warnings highlighted, indicating issues in DNS responses and potential validation problems.

🔴 PayPal.com

DNSSEC: ❌ 5 errors, 5 warnings
- Subdomain failures in denial-of-existence proofs
DMARC: p=reject, ❌ no subdomain enforcement

💳 Spoofing Risk: Very HighFake addresses like security@refunds.paypal.com could appear legitimate.

DNSViz analysis of paypal.com shows DNSSEC authentication chain with multiple errors and warnings highlighted, indicating issues in DNS responses and potential validation problems.

🧠 Why Subdomains Matter

Most brands protect their root domain (@paypal.com), but forget to secure subdomains like:

info@updates.dhl.com
alert@battery.tesla.com
service@verify.paypal.com

Without sp=reject in the DMARC policy, these subdomains are often unprotected, and attackers exploit that loophole daily.

🧩 DNSSEC: The Missing Link

Even when DMARC is configured, without DNSSEC, attackers can tamper with DNS responses — forging sender records and redirecting users.

DNSSEC ensures your domain’s records haven’t been spoofed at the DNS level.If it’s missing, your email can’t be trusted — no matter how it looks.

🔐 Real Email Security Requires 3 Things:

✅ DMARC with p=reject and sp=reject
✅ DNSSEC with a valid trust chain
✅ Verified sender identity (e.g. S/MIME, digital certificate)

✅ How to Check Your Own Domain

Use these tools:

You’ll be surprised how many domains, even big ones, fail silently.

📌 Final Thought

Hackers don’t spoof the obvious. They spoof what looks close enough.

If a billion-dollar company lets support.billing.paypal.com go unsecured, attackers will use it. And most people will fall for it, because it looks real.