How often do you get scam emails? Phishing scams are emails or text messages intended to steal your personal information. 
The Chronicle’s own Jerry Bellune has been targeted by several phishing email campaigns recently. We thought it would be a good time to remind you how to spot phishing attacks, in case you’re the next target.
• Check the email address of the sender What’s the domain? The domain is the part after the @ symbol. Make sure it isn’t a free email service. Large companies, financial institutions and organizations will not use free email accounts. Even Google doesn’t use @gmail for their email. 
Official correspondence from Google comes from @Google.com. A recent phishing email Jerry received claimed to be from Yahoo but had an @msn.com address.
• Make sure the email domain is correct and spelled correctly. It is common for scammers to use letters that look right but aren’t. 
• See if the links in the email match the email and are the correct domain. Hover your mouse over links to see what the web address is without clicking the link. Clicking the link will put your system at risk.
• Read the email. Is it well written? Grammatical errors and misspelled words are red flags. Thanks to spellcheck and translation software they are less common.
• Beware attachments or suspicious links. They may look innocent, but they usually contain malware. Malware is a malicious software that can do any number of bad things to your system. 
Links can load malware onto your computer or lead to websites that steal your personal information.
Next: More tips to spot phishing scams.