Reporting Spam and Phishing Emails in Outlook

Key Points:

• No email system can effectively block 100% of spam and phishing emails that are sent by bad actors.  However, the Reynolds email content filtering system can block more than 95 percent of them.
   
• Users that suspect that an email is spam or phishing can use Outlook -- either the desktop client or the Internet version -- to report it to our network security team.  The team can the review the message and provide real-time feedback as to whether the email is indeed spam or phishing, or if it is actually legitimate.
   
• Users only need to report the message once and then delete it.  Never reply to it or click on any links or files within the message to avoid receiving more unwanted messages or inadvertently downloading and installing malware on your computer!

Instructions:

To report a potentially suspicious message using the Outlook desktop client application (i.e., Outlook 2016):

1. Click on the message in your mailbox to view the contents in your preview pane.  If you don't have the preview pane enabled, double-click the message to open it (but do not click on any link within the message).
    
2. Click the Report Message option within the ribbon.
   
   
    
3. Choose the category of the message (e.g., Junk or Phishing).
   
   

To report a potentially suspicious message using the Outlook Internet application (via Microsoft 365):

1. Click on the message in your mailbox to view the contents in your preview pane.  If you don't have the preview pane enabled, double-click the message to open it (but do not click on any link within the message).
    
2. Look for a red shield with an exclamation mark -- this is the Report icon.  Click the downward facing chevron next to the icon and select either Report Phishing or Report Junk.
   
   
   
   
   
   Note: If you click the Report icon itself rather than the downward facing chevron, the message will get reported as phishing by default.