Best practices for managing spam and phishing emails

ITS continues to work on reducing the volume of unwanted email delivered to Yale inboxes. Every day, 600 thousand emails sent to Office 365 users are detected and filtered as spam. Protect yourself by staying informed and utilizing a recently released feature to report messages.

First, it is helpful to understand the differences between spam and phishing emails. Spam messages include commercial or advertisement content whereas phishing messages try to convince you to provide information or impersonate Yale email.

After determining the type of unwanted message, Office 365 users are encouraged to select the “Report Message” option in the Outlook Ribbon and select “Junk” or “Phish.” Doing so provides ITS with the information it needs to reduce unwanted messages and moves future emails from the sender to your Junk folder.  

Finally, review additional tips on managing unwanted emails:

• Periodically check your Junk mail folder for valid messages (including Yale email) that may have been incorrectly flagged. 
• Be aware that using third party message distribution software may lead to emails being flagged as Junk.
• Utilize YaleMessage when sending frequent emails to 500+ recipients, to prevent messages from being blocked.
• Review additional guidance on Distribution Lists, to ensure that your messages are received.
• Understand that EliApps users should follow a different process for blocking senders or messages.

Office 365 users are encouraged to utilize the Report Message feature, which provides valuable information to help ITS reduce spam and phish in Yale inboxes.

Need help?

To obtain further guidance, including support with the use of external email services, contact the ITS Help Desk or your local IT support provider.