Spam and Phishing

Mohawk College uses Microsoft Exchange Online Protection (EOP) an email filtering service that helps protect our organization against spam, phishing and malware. Exchange Online Protection includes features to safeguard Mohawk College's network, computers and users from potential threats sent by email.

What is Spam

Email spam, also known as junk email, is unsolicited messages sent in bulk by email. Most email spam messages are commercial in nature. Whether commercial or not, many contain disguised links that appear to be for familiar websites but in fact lead to phishing websites or sites that are hosting malware. Spam email may also include malware as scripts or other executable file attachments (trojans).

What is Phishing

Phishing is an identity-theft scam that uses "spoofed" or fake emails and websites to trick people into giving out personal information, such as credit card numbers, usernames and passwords, or social security numbers. Phishing is usually done by hijacking the brand identity of a bank or an online store in a spoofed email that is sent to large numbers of people. The email will usually contain a link to a web page designed to look just like a legitimate company's site. A phishing scam will use this page to capture any information that you provide, then sell or use the information for malicious purposes.

 

Quarantine - Did some of my emails get blocked?

Check your quarantine

If you suspect an email may have been blocked you can check your Quarantine by going to Quarantined Email. From your Quarantine you can review emails that have been blocked as Spam or Bulk. See instructions below on how to release messages to your Inbox.

Release a blocked message

To release a suspected blocked message visit your Quarantined Email

 

Searching for a blocked message

Use the Search icon Search box and a corresponding value to find specific messages. Wildcards aren't supported. You can search by the following values:

  • Sender email address
  • Subject. Use the entire subject of the message. The search isn't case-sensitive.

 

After you've entered the search criteria, press the enter ENTER key to filter the results.

Release an email to your inbox

This action isn't available for email messages that have already been released (the Release status value is Released).

If you don't release or remove a message, it's automatically deleted from quarantine after the date shown in the Expires column.

After you select the message, use either of the following methods to release it (deliver it to your mailbox):

  • On the Email tab: Select Release.
  • In the details flyout of the selected message: Select Release email.

In the Release message to your Inbox flyout that opens, select Report message as having no threats as appropriate, and then select Release message.

When you're finished on the Release message to your Inbox flyout, select Release message.

In the Messages released to your Inbox flyout that opens, select Done.

Back on the Email tab, the Release status value of the message is Released.

The message is delivered to your Inbox (or some other folder, depending on any Inbox rules in your mailbox).

How many days are email kept in the Quarantine?

Quarantine emails are stored for 30 days. 30 days after the email was originally sent it will be permanently deleted.

Report Spam or Phishing

Report your Spam\Phishing to IT and Microsoft EOP for better filtering

Please submit your spam and phishing emails to Microsoft to help improve SPAM and Phishing filtering.  Using the built-in reporting tools sends copies of the suspicious emails to Mohawk IT as well as Microsoft.

Office 365\Webmail:

  1. Select email and click on the Report button on the Home tab and select Report phishing or Report junk.

Outlook 2016/2019 (Windows):

  1. Right-Click on the SPAM email and select Junk -> Report as Junk or Report as Phishing

Adding a Sender to the Blocked Senders List

Office 365:

  1. Click on the gear icon in the top right corner.
  2. On the left hand side, select Mail -> Junk Email.
  3. Under Senders select Blocked Senders and Domains.
  4. Click Add blocked sender and enter the sender's email address.
  5. Click OK.

Outlook 2016, 2019 (Windows):

  1. On the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Junk, and then click Junk E-mail Options.
  2. On the Blocked Senders tab, click Add.
  3. In the Enter an e-mail address or Internet domain name to be added to the list box, enter the name or address that you want to add.
  4. Click OK and repeat for each entry that you want to add.

Adding a Sender to the Safe Senders List

Office 365:

  1. Click on the gear icon in the top right corner.
  2. On the left hand side, select Mail -> Junk Email.
  3. Under Senders select Safe Senders and Domains, click Add safe sender and enter the sender's email address. ​
  4. Click OK.

Outlook 2016, 2019 (Windows):

  1. Select the message that was incorrectly identified as junk
  2. On the Home tab, in the Delete group, click Junk, and then click Junk E-mail Options.
  3. Safe Senders tab, click Add.
  4. In the Enter an e-mail address to the list box, enter the name or address that you want to add.
  5. Click the + plus sign to the right of the dialog box and repeat for each entry that you want to add.