Maybe you are one of the people who are currently receiving spam emails with hate speech, false information about Covid-19 and vaccines, and other unpleasant content in your inbox.

If this is the case, AU IT encourages you to report the spam emails in Outlook. AU’s spam filter gets better with every report, and it takes less than 30 seconds to report spam emails.

Spam emails with inappropriate content can be extra annoying. Therefore, AU IT is particularly focused on stopping them. However, AU IT requests everyone to report all types of spam including phishing mails. By reporting spam, you help reduce the amount of spam in your and your colleagues’ inboxes.

How to report spam

You can report a spam email by using the function ‘Report Message’ in Outlook or by sending an email with the spam email attached to abuse@messaging.microsoft.com.
Find guides for both methods.

Block the sender

It can be quite overwhelming to receive spam emails with unpleasant content. Therefore, you can choose to block specific sender addresses, so future emails from the specific sender will go directly to the folder with unwanted emails. You block an email address by right-clicking on the email in the inbox and then clicking on ‘Junk Mail’ and ‘Block Sender’.

Spam email senders are becoming more and more creative and cunning, so there will always be some spam that will find its way through the spam filter. However, by reporting spam in Outlook, spam can be kept at a minimum.

Please contact your local IT support team if you have any questions. 

What is the difference between spam emails and phishing emails?

Spam emails are emails that the recipient has not asked to receive. The sender will often try to sell questionable items or pass on false information. Phishing emails are an attempt to obtain private information. In both cases, the senders intercept email addresses from unsuspecting internet users, and the senders attempt to hide their true identity.