Outlook | Report Phishing or Spam Messages
Please note: This article is for Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Office 365 accounts only.
Overview of reporting Phishing or Spam emails at Minneapolis College
The "Report Message Shield" is a option in Outlook, allowing you to quickly and easily report suspicious messages to the Minnesota State Information Security, Risk, and Compliance Team and Microsoft simultaneously. This replaces the need for you to report phishing emails to Technology Support. By using this button, you are helping the Minnesota State Information Security, Risk, and Compliance Team more rapidly identify dangerous attacks and automate the cleanup process.
The process of flagging a suspicious email is very simple, keeping in mind that each version of Outlook may look slightly different:
While viewing the message, select the "Report Message" option from the Outlook ribbon
Select the appropriate option (Junk, Phishing, etc.)
If you receive phishing or even junk email in your inbox, please use the Report Message add-in to identify the message to help improve our email filters.
Definition of Junk Email
JUNK: Junk mail, sometimes referred to as Spam, is typically unsolicited, of a commercial nature (e.g. advertising), and usually sent in bulk. These messages may be treated similar to the way we would treat the garbage we get our snail mail and can simply be deleted. Some of the protections in Microsoft 365 help identify as Junk and put them in your Junk folder, so items already there do not need to be reported. We generally discourage users from even opening messages in their Junk folder. If the user is absolutely certain that a message has been incorrectly classified as Junk, they can: highlight the message, click on Report message, then select Not Junk to move the item back to their Inbox and help "tune" the Office 365 Junk filters.
Definition of Phishing Email
PHISH: While they can be similar to SPAM, phish messages also carry a heavy dose of malicious intent - attempting to collect information from Internet users, to be used for illicit purposes (such as potential identity theft, embarrassment, ruined reputations and harassment, disrupted operations of accounts, compromise of brand integrity for businesses and loss of data, spread of malware, or theft of intellectual property.)
Spam or Junk vs Phishing
Spam or Junk | Phishing |
Spam emails is referred to as junk email and is unsolicited messages sent in bulk by email. | Phishing emails are fraudulent emails designed to steal users private information and data. |
Spam emails are a form of commercial advertising designed to flood the email inbox of users. | Phishing is a social engineering attack on the mail and often carried out via emails with the intention of obtaining sensitive information |
Spam is basically junk email flooding the inbox. | Phishing is not just limited to emails. |
Spam emails utilize commercial content. | Phishing emails utilize strong social engineering techniques. |
It is an electronic equivalent of unsolicited email. | It is the equivalent of an is users’ act of illicitly obtaining users’ information |
Spam mail main is sent by botnets. | There are multiple types of Phishing emails for example -: |
Spam mails are dangerous because they contains malicious links that can infect our computer with malware. | We can prevent our device from Phishing mails by Implementing SPF, DKIM and DMARC. |
Examples include-
| Examples include-
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Report a message in the Outlook Desktop Client
The Report Message button may be located in different location based on your screen size and version of Outlook you have.
Select or open the email you want to report. Click the Report Message button located in the top right of the ribbon and choose Phishing or Junk.
Classic version
New version
Choose Report
[Classic version]
[New Outlook]
Report a message in the Outlook Web
Select a message, click on the ellipsis in the top right and scroll down to Report Message.
Report a message from the iPhone Outlook App
Open the message and click the ellipses on the right
Click Report Message
Report a message from the Android App
Open the message and click the ellipses on the right
Click Report Message