Avoid and report phishing emails (2024)

FAQs

What is the best way to report phishing emails? ›

Forward phishing emails to [email protected] (an address used by the Anti-Phishing Working Group, which includes ISPs, security vendors, financial institutions, and law enforcement agencies). Let the company or person that was impersonated know about the phishing scheme.

By reporting phishing attempts, you can: reduce the amount of scam communications you receive. make yourself a harder target for scammers. protect others from cyber crime online.

Delete phishing emails immediately. We encourage you to report phishing phone calls and emails: [email protected].

While filtering addresses some spam emails, you should outright block spam email addresses that are persistent, dangerous, or fake. And remember to report any internet scams you come across, such as Apple ID phishing scams and other threats.

Never click any links or attachments in suspicious emails or Teams messages. If you receive a suspicious message from an organization and worry the message could be legitimate, go to your web browser and open a new tab. Then go to the organization's website from your own saved favorite, or via a web search.

Your report of a phishing email will help us to act quickly, protecting many more people from being affected. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will analyse the suspect email and any websites it links to. They'll use any additional information you've provided to look for and monitor suspicious activity.

Just opening the phishing message without taking any further action will not compromise your data. However, hackers can still gather some data about you, even if all you did was open the email.

When we identify that an email may be phishing or suspicious, we might show a warning or move the email to Spam. If an email wasn't marked correctly, follow the steps below to mark or unmark it as phishing.

When your mail client attempts to open that file to render it for you, the spammer knows you opened their message. The spammer will not know whether you deleted their message, but if it embeds a pixel, then they may find out that you opened the message.

What is the strongest indicator of a phishing email? ›

If you receive any unwanted email, the best approach in almost every case is to delete it immediately. It is often clear from the Subject line that a message is junk, so you may not even need to open the message to read it. Some such messages invite you to reply if you want to be removed from their list.

Your email address has been shared publicly, leaked, or sold: When you sign up for a service or make a purchase online, you are often required to provide an email address. This email address may be collected and sold to third-party marketers who use it to send out spam emails.

Will spam emails eventually stop? Spam emails will likely always be an issue we all deal with. However, if you block spam senders and take other recommended steps to secure your inbox, you can cut down the amount of spam emails you receive.

For Outlook over the web users (Windows and OS X), the Report Phishing button is called “Phish Alert” button will appear under the (ellipse) icon to the right of the message (see below).

Never provide personal financial information, including your Social Security number, account numbers or passwords, over the phone or the Internet if you did not initiate the contact. Never click on the link provided in an email you believe is fraudulent. It may contain a virus that can contaminate your computer.

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.