Reporting Spam and Phishing Messages

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Last updated: Oct 28, 2024 by Griffin Freiberg
2 min read

A new feature in Outlook lets you flag emails as either Phishing or Junk. By using this Report tool, the message will be reported to Microsoft to assist them in improving their filters. Please note that this reporting feature is only available in newer versions of Outlook.

Phishing or Junk?

Junk is harmless mail that is usually asking you to buy something. Junk is usually product catalogs, coupon books, or notifications of sales that you may or may not have signed up for.

Phishing emails are trying to extract sensitive information from you for malicious purposes.

Phishing emails require your participation. Do not participate.

Report an email

  1. Open Outlook and view the phishing/spam email.
    Do not click on any links or attachments.

  2. In the top ribbon, click on the Report button. Choose the appropriate option.

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  3. If you did not click on any of the links from the email, no further action is required. However, if you did click on any links from a phishing message or suspect that your account was otherwise compromised in any way,

    1. Change your NetID password immediately.

    2. Contact the ITS Tech Support Center at (860) 486-4357, techsupport@uconn.edu, or via the online chat at techsupport.uconn.edu.

Report Message Add-in Options

When you are using the Report Message add-in options,

  • Reporting a message as Junk will add the sender to your Blocked Senders List and move the email to your Junk Folder. You will receive the option to report the message to Microsoft.

  • Reporting a message as Phishing will move the item to your Junk Folder and report the item to Microsoft for analysis.

How does Reporting help?

Outlook, and all email services, use “filters” to monitor email transmissions. All emails are scanned by a computer for certain words, phrases, tones, etc. in an attempt to find and intercept malicious emails. If something suspicious is found, it raises a flag.

Filters are a list of known-to-be-bad, or suspicious, flags. If an email matches a certain flag, or too many flags*, the email is intercepted and stopped in its tracks.

Every time you Report an email, you are potentially adding a new flag to a filter or applying more weight to an existing flag. Every proper report can help the global community.

*We don’t know precisely how different email companies handle flags internally.

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