Cybersecurity: Outlook Phish Alert Button

Phishing emails are a type of online scam that attempt impersonate organizations via email to attempt to collect personal information.  Over time, these emails have become increasingly more difficult to identify.  Below are a few tips on how to flag an email as a phishing email. 
 

• Email begins with “Dear member” “Dear account holder / user”   
  These attempts begin with a generic greeting.  Most legitimate emails will greet you with your first name, or title. 

• Email is sent from a non-legitimate domain.  The domain is the part after the @ symbol in the sender’s email address.  For example, Chatham’s domain is Chatham.edu.  An easy way to flag phishing email is to check this domain.  If it’s from gmail, a domain that is misspelled, or a domain that has a mix of letters and numbers it is most likely a phishing email. 

• The email has suspicious links or attachments.  Many times, these emails will have links or buttons that will send you to a website that may contain viruses, or request that you fill out a form for personal information.  Never click on these if you suspect that it may be a scam.  A good way to check these links is to hover over them, without clicking!  This will show the full url path.  If this path directs anywhere else than the email’s organization, please take caution before clicking. 
   

Using the Phish Alert Button in Outlook 
Anytime you feel that may have received a phishing email please use the Phish Alert Report button found in Outlook.  With this feature: 

• You will no longer need to call or place a ticket in with Help Desk. 

• Clicking this button automatically deletes the email and notifies our Risk Management Team. 

Steps to use: 

1. Identify email from tips listed above. 

2. Click the Phish Alert Button found in the top right of the menu bar in Outlook. 

3. Confirm alert by clicking Phish Alert 

Using the Phish Alert in Outlook Web App 

Same process can also be done in Outlook Web app by locating the email and clicking on the three dots near the top right of the email. 
 
Then selecting Security Options -> Mark as Phishing.