This holiday season, watch out for email spam with subjects like:

• Holiday e-card
• Holiday sales/discounts/deals
• Travel notifications

Criminals will continue to spam people throughout the holidays with the hopes that the email subject line will trick someone.

Our Cornell email addresses are listed in the Cornell directory (cornell.edu/search), along with our names and job titles. That, coupled with all the real holiday messages we need to keep an eye out for, means scammers who do their homework have an increased chance of hooking someone.

Be vigilant to avoid opening attachments, and to not follow links in unsolicited emails. Just one bad click can download malware that will start snooping on your computer. Some of these can share everything you type back to the criminals.

To learn how you can protect yourself, see the Internet Safety section of Cornell’s IT Security website.

To see more examples of common holiday scams, both online and offline, visit the Better Business Bureau website: www.bbb.org/holidayscams/