Outlook - Spam / Phishing / Junk emails

Identifying a Spam email

1- Check the Sender’s Email Address: Spam emails often come from email addresses that look suspicious or unfamiliar.

2- Examine the Subject Line: Spam emails often have misleading or sensational subject lines, such as promises of free items, urgent warnings, or requests for immediate action.

3- Look for Generic Greetings: Spam emails often start with generic greetings, such as “Dear Customer” or “Dear User”. Legitimate companies usually personalize their emails with your name.

4- Inspect the Email’s Content: Spelling mistakes, poor grammar, and awkward language are common in spam emails. Also, if the email is asking for personal information like passwords or credit card numbers, it’s likely a spam email.

5- Be Wary of Attachments or Links: Spam emails often include attachments or links that can lead to phishing sites or contain malware. Unless you trust the sender, it’s best not to open any attachments or click on any links.

6- Check if the Email is Unsolicited: If you receive an email you didn’t expect or from a company you don’t do business with, it could be spam.

What Not to Do

1- DO NOT reply to the email.

2- DO NOT forward it to anyone (even to our IT team).

3- DO NOT click on links.
4- DO NOT open attachments.

Tagging an Email as Junk / Blocking a Sender

The easiest way is to use the Report Message button in Outlook.

1- Click on the suspicious email: Avoid clicking any links, opening any attachments, forwarding, or replying to the message.

2- Click the Report Message button: You’ll find this on the Home tab in Outlook.

3- Choose the type of message you’re reporting: Options include Junk, Phishing.

4- Confirm your report: A pop-up window will appear asking you to confirm that you want to send the report to Microsoft. Click "OK" to confirm.

Alternatively, you can manually do it like so:

1 - Right-click the spam email

2 - Go to Junk

3 - Click Block Sender

4 - Click OK on the pop-up window (you can also tick "Don't show this again")

After tagging the email, it will automatically be moved to the Junk Email folder

Untagging an Email as Junk

1 - Open the Junk Email folder

2 - Right-click the email

3 - Go to Junk

4 - Click on Not Junk

BE CAREFUL! A pop-up window will ask you if you want to Always trust email from this sender. 

Only tick this option if you know the sender and trust it to be safe, otherwise, you'll always allow spam from this sender to reach your mailbox.

A Closer Look at Junk E-mail Options…

1 - Right-click ANY email in your mailbox

2 - Go to Junk

3 - Click on Junk Email Options...

4 - Options Tab – defines the level of basic protection

   a) Set it to Low if you're not an executive

   b) Set it to High if you're an executive - remember to frequently check your Junk folder

   c) Tick Warn me about suspicious domain names in email addresses (recommended)

5 - Safe Senders Tab - senders in this list will never be blocked nor marked as Junk by Outlook

To add a trusted sender to the list:

    a) Click on Add

    b) Type the email address > OK

    c) Tick Also trust email from my Contacts

6 - Safe Recipients Tab - to permanently allow your emails to be sent to these people, that means our end will never block the email from being sent

To add a trusted recipient to the list:

    a) Click on Add

    b) Type the email address > OK

7 - Blocked Senders Tab – to permanently block people from sending you emails

To add a mailbox to the list:

    a) Click on Add

    b) Type the email address > OK

(OR follow the instructions for Tagging an Email as Junk / Blocking a Sender above)

8 - International Tab – to permanently block a specific language

PLEASE DO NOT USE. Our IT Department have already setup the basic language restrictions for SCCU for everyone.