The document provides tips on how to recognize email scams by learning to spot suspicious elements like generic salutations, alarmist messages, grammatical errors, requests for personal information, and emails that do not come from official college domains. Examples are given of phishing emails disguising themselves as being from Houston Community College but with email addresses from outlook.com, gmail.com, and foreign domains, as well as links that do not match the displayed text. Readers are advised to be wary of these types of suspicious emails.

1. How to Recognize an Email Scam
•This training is provided to you by Houston
Community College’s Cyber Security and
Compliance Team

2. Cyber Security and Compliance Team
•The Cyber Security & Compliance Team has the unique role of
implementing effective security management programs to
eliminate or mitigate the risks posed by potential threats to HCC’s
information resources.
•If you have any questions, please contact us via email at
IT.Security@hccs.edu. Please use your HCC student email
address when communicating with us.
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3. Avoid Phishing Emails
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Learn how to
spot scams
Suspicious email address
Generic salutations
Alarmist messages
Grammatical errors
Requests for personal info
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4. Phishing Example
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Subject indicates it is from HCC.
But e-mail is from “outlook.com”,
not “hccs.edu”
Not an official signature block for
an HCC entity.

5. Phishing Example
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Subject indicates it is from HCC.
But e-mail is from “gmail.com”,
not “hccs.edu”
Not an official signature block for
an HCC entity.

6. “Hover to Discover” Example
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Subject gives no indication that it
is from HCC. E-mail is from
“@ucom.ne.jp”, not “@hccs.edu”
When you “hover” over the link,
note the url. It does not match
with the e-mail address.
Not an official signature block for
an HCC entity.
Note the generic salutation.