Office 365 - Submit a message as spam/phishing
This document describes how users can help us improve campus junk mail filtering by reporting messages that were not flagged as spam. Doing this sends the feedback to the campus filtering engine and allows us to better identify spam in the future.
Important:
Before you submit a message as spam/phishing, you should verify if the message is actually spam/phishing or graymail. To manage mail that is not spam/phishing, review the junk email and phishing documentation.
If you are seeing 'Report Spam' link/action within your message, please remove this add-in - it has been deprecated.
- Follow steps to remove/disable deprecated Report Spam add-in:
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- Start Outlook.
- Double click on any message to open it in a new window.
- Expand the "Report Spam" section by clicking it.
- Click Get more add-ins - you will be redirected to your add-ins.
- Select My add-ins.
- Scroll down until you see the add-in labelled "Report Spam."
- Click on the three dots located at the bottom right of the add-in and select Remove.
- Close the "ADD-INS" manager.
- Restart Outlook.
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- Follow steps to remove/disable deprecated Report Spam add-in:
The "Report spam" add-in is only supported within modern Outlook clients. If you are using any non-Microsoft supported email client (e.g., Thunderbird, Apple Mail, Android/iOS native mail, etc.) or an older version of Outlook (2007/2010), you will not see the "Report Spam/Phishing" link within the toolbar/ribbon. However, it is still possible to report the message as spam/phishing, so that UW-Madison's spam/phishing filtering system can adjust to catch similar messages in the future. To report a message as spam, forward the message as an attachment to report-spam@doit.wisc.edu or use the "To report a message that has been misclassified as spam manually" instructions below. Note: you can attach more than one junk email when forwarding a message to us.
The recommended method for reporting spam/phishing messages via any Microsoft Outlook client is to use the "Report Spam/phishing" link as described below. Do not use the "Junk" or "Mark as junk" features in any Outlook client as this process will create an automatic rule within your account to deliver future emails from this specific "From" address to your Junk Email folder - because most spam senders change their "From" address frequently, this additional step is usually not an effective way to block spam. Furthermore, there is a limit to the number of addresses that can be added to your Blocked Senders at which point the Blocked Senders tool will no longer function.
To report a spam/phishing message that was not delivered to your Junk Email folder (click on the plus sign to expand the specific client section)
- Outlook on the web
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- Log into your Office 365 account via Outlook on the web.
- Within the message window, select on the More Actions
- Go to the bottom of the list and select UW-Madison - Report Spam/Phish
- Click on the action you want to perform.
After a few seconds, the message will be processed and submitted to our system for analysis (copied to our abuse@wisc.edu account for Cybersecurity staff to review). It will also be moved to your "Deleted Items" folder.
At the top right corner of the page, click the gear icon to open the Settings option.
Click on View all Outlook settings.
In the Mail section, click on the Customize actions option.
Scroll down the settings page and look for the Message surface section.
Check the box next to the UW-Madison - Report Spam/Phish add-in, if it is not checked.
Click Save, if the add-in was not already selected.
Done.
Note: If the Report Spam/Phish add-in is not working, make sure you are using the latest version. To see if you are using the latest version, follow the steps below in the Outlook on the web client:
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- Outlook for Windows/Mac
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- Start Outlook.
- Double click on the specific message to open it in a new window.
- Within the "Message" tab, you should see the "Report Spam" or "Report Phish" action buttons.
- Click on the action you want to perform.
After a few seconds, the message will be processed and submitted to our system for analysis (copied to our abuse@wisc.edu account for Cybersecurity staff to review). It will also be moved to your "Deleted Items" folder. You may need to close the message window.
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- Outlook for Android/iOS
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- Start Outlook.
- Open the message and on the ribbon under the "Home" tab you should see a report icon. Once pressed it will give you the option to "Report Spam" or "Report Phish".
- Click on the action you want to perform.
After a few seconds, the message will be processed and submitted to our system for analysis (copied to our abuse@wisc.edu account for Cybersecurity staff to review). It will also be moved to your "Deleted Items" folder. You may need to close the message window.
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To report a message that has been misclassified as spam/phishing manually
- Outlook on the web (do not use Outlook desktop client)
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- Go to Outlook on the web
- Find the message in question and use the Outlook on the web instructions to forward the message as an attachment to report-not-spam@doit.wisc.edu address.
- Delete the message.
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What if I submitted a message as spam/phish by mistake
If you mistakenly submit a message as spam/phish by mistake, do not be concerned - just move the message back to your desired folder from your "Deleted Items" folder.
When a message is submitted as spam/phish using the instructions outlined above, there are processes in place where the message will still be reviewed by our spam scanning vendor to validate if the message is truly spam/phishing. One false submission will not cause the message to be flagged as spam in the future.
If you used Microsoft's spam submission action (and not the steps above), the same results exist, except one additional action should be reviewed/reset - you should review your block list to remove the block filter that was created.