Computing & Information Services

How to report spam and phishing scams

As spammers and scammers continue to use new techniques to circumvent spam filters, it's a constant battle to catch and filter these messages accordingly.  If you receive spam or a phishing attempt not caught by our filters (or receive legitimate email incorrectly marked as spam), please follow the directions below on how to report it. The messages you report will be used to help train our filters and make them more effective.  For detailed instructions on reporting spam and phishing scams, please select your email client:

Thunderbird:

  1. In Thunderbird, click on the message you want to report
  2. From the View menu, select Headers and then select All
  3. From the Message menu, select Forward As and then select Attachment
  4. To report a spam message NOT marked as spam, send the email to report-spam@reed.edu. To report a legitimate message incorrectly marked as spam, send the email to report-ham@reed.edu. To report a phishing attempt, send the email to report-phish@reed.edu.
To turn off full headers, go the View menu, select Headers and then select Normal

Apple Mail:

These instructions are specific to Apple Mail in OS 10.4.x. There may be slight differences in older versions.
  1. In Apple Mail, click on the spam message you want to report
  2. From the File menu, select Save As
  3. In the Format: drop-down box, select Raw Message Source and save the file to your desktop
  4. Compose a new message and attach the file you just saved to the desktop
  5. To report a spam message NOT marked as spam, send the email to report-spam@reed.edu. To report a legitimate message incorrectly marked as spam, send the email to report-ham@reed.edu. To report a phishing attempt, send the email to report-phish@reed.edu.
To turn off full headers, go the View menu, select Message and then select Default Headers

Webmail: 

  1. In Webmail, click on the spam message you want to report
  2. Click on the Save As link (just above the message window) and save the file to your desktop
  3. Compose a new message and attach the file you just saved to the desktop
  4. To report a spam message NOT marked as spam, send the email to report-spam@reed.edu. To report a legitimate message incorrectly marked as spam, send the email to report-ham@reed.edu. To report a phishing attempt, send the email to report-phish@reed.edu.