Troubleshooting > Increased Spam Email Activity

Unfortunately, increased spam email activity is often associated with sending email in bulk. If email is sent to hundreds of members, chances are that one or more of those members are using a compromised device. They have transmitted your email address to one or more likely many bad actors.

Rules:

1. Never open junk email

2. Never click on a link contained in junk email

3. Never download junk email images or click on them

4. Never forward junk email to friends or technicians

Breaking these rules simply informs the bad actor the email address is real.

Spam email arrives in your Inbox

Best to delete it as that will save you from occidentally opening it in future.

Spam email arrives in your Junk Mail folder

Most spam and other malicious email is caught by your email server such as Office 365. Spam will appear in your Junk Email folder when these systems determine an email is suspected junk but without a high degree of certainty.

Its your choice. You can simply leave it there and your software will eventually delete it. Or, you can delete it yourself.

Can anything else be done

Yes, if the U3A group is using Office 365, the spam tolerance levels can be adjusted. This is an advanced topic and should only be performed if the volume of spam has become intolerable. The issue with making such adjustments is that you increase the likelihood of false-positives. That is, email identified by the server as spam but in fact is not.

You can report spam the the Australian Consumer & Competition Commission's Scamwatch program here.

You can report spam to the Australian Media & Communications Authority here

You can report spam directly to Microsoft by dragging and dropping the offending email into a new email to abuse@microsoftonline.com.

Finally, learn about best practise using the Internet and email. The Australian Cyber Security Centre is a good place to start.