Why is this important to prevent clicking on spam emails?
Are you reading who the email comes from too fast?
Have you found yourself being tricked into opening an email? Did you open up and click on a link due to the email address tricking you? EMCC IT would like to help you understand the different parts of an email address.
The first part you most likely see of an email address is a free-form area that can have anything in it called the Email Display Name. The example below is from a scam mer that decided to put estrellamountain.edu inside the Email Display Name
The Email Display Name is helpful when identifying who an email is from quickly but can lead to people clicking on spam emails if they trust any Email Display Name.
That brings us to the next part: how to verify an email address. The email address which is located next to the Email Display Name. The parts of an email address are <inbox name>@<Domain>. An In box name can have virtually any1hing in it. This can be used to trick people, as we can see below!
Let us look at the last part we will go over which is after the "@" symbol which is the domain. The domain part can help us identify spam. There are numerous reasons and rules but the basics are that Periods or Dots are used to separate the individual "parts" of a domain. Keep in mind ONLY periods and dots, so if you see "Support-Amazon.com" that is a fake domain created meant to trick people because it contains a hyphen. Words can also be added to the domain names to try and trick you into opening the email. The following is an example of a domain being manipulated to look like it is coming from Amazon Support
The domain in this address is Amazonsupport.com not Amazon.com. If you were able to catch these types of attacks before responding to or clicking on a link in that email you would have correctly identified and prevented a phishing email!
If you get an important email that requires you to act now, we suggest slowing down. Take your time reading the email and not just the Email Display Name. Ensure the domain is the correct domain. All emails related to EMCC will end in Maricopa.edu or Estrellamountain.edu.