diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index fad64dc07..15b5d5172 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -11,6 +11,10 @@ Release date: TBA
 
   Refs PyCQA/pylint#3941
 
+* Improve detection of namespace packages for the modules with ``__spec__`` set to None.
+
+  Closes PyCQA/pylint#7488.
+
 
 What's New in astroid 2.12.11?
 ==============================
diff --git a/astroid/interpreter/_import/util.py b/astroid/interpreter/_import/util.py
index c9466999a..b5b089331 100644
--- a/astroid/interpreter/_import/util.py
+++ b/astroid/interpreter/_import/util.py
@@ -52,8 +52,11 @@ def is_namespace(modname: str) -> bool:
                 # Check first fragment of modname, e.g. "astroid", not "astroid.interpreter"
                 # because of cffi's behavior
                 # See: https://github.com/PyCQA/astroid/issues/1776
+                mod = sys.modules[processed_components[0]]
                 return (
-                    sys.modules[processed_components[0]].__spec__ is None
+                    mod.__spec__ is None
+                    and getattr(mod, "__file__", None) is None
+                    and hasattr(mod, "__path__")
                     and not IS_PYPY
                 )
             except KeyError:
diff --git a/tests/unittest_manager.py b/tests/unittest_manager.py
index 6c13da787..5a4e943e1 100644
--- a/tests/unittest_manager.py
+++ b/tests/unittest_manager.py
@@ -144,6 +144,15 @@ def test_module_unexpectedly_missing_spec(self) -> None:
         finally:
             astroid_module.__spec__ = original_spec
 
+    def test_module_unexpectedly_spec_is_none(self) -> None:
+        astroid_module = sys.modules["astroid"]
+        original_spec = astroid_module.__spec__
+        astroid_module.__spec__ = None
+        try:
+            self.assertFalse(util.is_namespace("astroid"))
+        finally:
+            astroid_module.__spec__ = original_spec
+
     def test_implicit_namespace_package(self) -> None:
         data_dir = os.path.dirname(resources.find("data/namespace_pep_420"))
         contribute = os.path.join(data_dir, "contribute_to_namespace")