[Cryptography] If you *work* for Apple, please update your email software

[Dennis Hamilton]

-----Original Message-----
From: cryptography <cryptography-bounces+orcmid=msn.com at metzdowd.com> On Behalf Of Henry Baker
Sent: Friday, October 3, 2025 17:25
[ ... ]

Guess what name Apple Mail shows you? [A: "Bank of America", the so-called "Display Name"]

Guess how hard it is for a non-wizard to see the "nigerianprince at fraud.com" part on an Apple product ?

Thanks, Apple, for protecting our loved ones from the ugliness of email addresses, while exposing them to the far-larger problems of fraud and spam.

I can't believe that Apple is still complicit in this "Display Name spoofing" in 2025... I can't believe that the plaintiffs bar hasn't sued Apple for this nonsense, which has been going on for several decades.

[orcmid] 
I'm sorry Henry, this situation is endemic and Apple Mail is probably not the worst culprit.  This happens on Android Phones, in Microsoft Outlook, and most wonderfully, on Facebook.

There are ways to learn to check what the actual sending email is and my family know how to look, even though I am often called on to come over and confirm that it's definitely spam or, more likely, a phishing attack.

The Facebook case is a doozy.  It is evidently relatively easy to create a fake account that pretends to be someone else's, create a façade using authentic images and other profile materials; and then go after the original's friends list.   The beauty of is that recipients from the imposter are often suspicious and they will notify the authentic account holder that they've been hacked. But they haven't.  And the authentic account holder can't report the imposter, because only the recipients can dig out the different user id in the messages they've received.  And most don't know to do that and make a report to Facebook.

I no longer rely on Facebook for much, so this might have been resolved in some matter.  I remain doubtful.

I am a little surprised that this is new news.

 - Dennis E. Hamilton