Unwanted email (spam) and email that attempts to gain personal or organizational data (phishing) is a constant battle. Go ahead and suit up and we'll guide you through a couple clear steps to report spam and phishing attempts to fight back against the spammers and bots.

We use various levels of protection to keep spam and phishing attempts from getting to your Inbox, but it will happen every once in a while. When it does, the best weapon in your arsenal is good awareness as well as the Report Message function in Microsoft Outlook. 

Let's start with awareness. 

How do you know if it an email is a phishing attempt/spam?

• Do you know the sender? If so, does the email address the message was sent from match that user's email address? Anything from our staff will be from one of our domains (mountaincity.church or acsedu.org).
• Does the email make sense given the sender? Is there a sense of urgency to respond/take action/click a link right away? Can you confirm the necessary action with the sender a different way (i.e. phone call/text to confirm it is a legitimate request)?
• Hovering over any links in the email (NOT CLICKING THEM), does the tooltip that appears seem to point to a valid website for what they are asking? If the link is to view a Teams message but the link goes to myvirussite.com, probably best to not click that one.

• How is the spelling and grammar? This is usually a pretty tell-tale sign that the sender is not who they are pretending to be.

Once you've identified the email as spam or a phishing attempt, you'll need to report it. Here's how to report an email in Outlook on the desktop/web and on your mobile device:

Desktop App

1. Open the email in question
2. Under the Home or Message tab in the ribbon, click on 'Report Message' in the Protection group
3. Select 'Junk' or 'Phishing' depending on the type of email it is
4. The email will be reported to Microsoft and removed from your Inbox

Office.com

1. Open the email in question
2. In the message preview, at the top of the message to the right of the Sender's information, click the 'Report Message' icon (Envelope with a yellow exclamation point)
3. Select 'Junk' or 'Phishing' depending on the type of email it is
4. The email will be reported to Microsoft and removed from your Inbox

Outlook App on Mobile Device

1. Open the email in question
2. To the right of the sender's information, click the three dots to expand the options menu
3. From this list, scroll down and tap on the 'Report Message' icon (Envelope with a yellow exclamation point)
4. Select 'Report as phishing' or 'Report as junk' depending on the type of email it is
5. The email will be reported to Microsoft and removed from your inbox

What are the benefits of reporting the message as spam or phishing instead of just deleting it? 

Great question! Even though it may not feel like we're winning the war against spam with our report, by taking these steps we help to improve Microsoft's spam filters so that less spam gets through in the future. And, if an email that went out to our organization is reported enough, Microsoft will remove that message from everyone's Inbox to avoid anyone accidentally giving away any personal or organizational data. 

Using the Report Message function is a great way to combat spam as an organization and gives off "everyday hero" vibes.