Deal with abuse, phishing, or spam in Outlook.com

This article guides you to deal with abuse, phishing, and scam in Outlook.com

How do you report infringement in Outlook?

• If you're being threatened, call your local law organizations.
• To report harassment, impersonation, child exploitation, child pornography, or other illegal activities received cross an Outlook account, you need to forward the offending emails to abuse@outlook.com. The email needs to provide all relevant info, such as the number of times you've received messages from the account and the relationship, if any, between you and the sender.
• To report abuse received from a non-Outlook account, go to https://abuse.net to identify the correct abuse reporting address.

How do you recover your account after it's been hacked?

If someone has accessed your Outlook account, or you got a confirmation email for a password change that you did not authorize, you can recover your account. You can read this article for a more comprehensive guide: Unblock and Recover a blocked or suspended Outlook or Microsoft account.

How do you protect yourself from phishing scams

The phishing scam is an email that seems legitimate, but it attempts to get your personal information or steal your money.

• Never reply to an email that asks you to send personal or account information.
• If you receive an email that looks suspicious or asks you for this type of information, never click links that supposedly take you to a company website.
• Never open any file attached with a suspicious-looking email.
• If the email appears to come from a company, contact the company's customer service via phone or web browser to see if the email is legitimate.
• Search the web for the email subject line, commenting scam on the web to see if anyone else has reported this scam yet.

If you believe you've received a phishing scam, report the email by selecting the down arrow next to Junk and choosing one of the following options.

• Junk: Use this option for routine unwanted email.
• Phishing scam: Use this option for an email that is trying to trick you into giving out your personal information such as your password, bank account information, or Social Security number.
• My friend's been hacked: Use this option if you start getting junk email or phishing scams from a sender you would normally trust.

Common types of scams

1. Verify your account now or we'll close it.

What is the situations scam like?

You get an email that looks like it's from your bank, or an e-commerce service like PayPal or eBay, or from your email provider, warning that your account will be suspended or closed unless you “verify” your account by replying with information your account.

What do scammers want?

As for scams disguising bank or e-commerce, they want to have your personal info so they can steal your identity, take money your bank accounts, and pay by your credit card. As for scams pretending as an email provider, they want to ask for your email account username and password to hack your account and send out junk email.

What are the additional signals for scams?

Have an email request an urgent reply (for example, “You must verify within twenty-four hours”). This means that you will have little time to research if it’s legitimate or no.

What can you do?

• The first and most important, do NOT reply with any personal or account information.
• If it's a bank or an e-commerce page, contact the company's customer service department via phone or the online to see if the email is legitimate.
• If it claims to be from Outlook.com, forward the email to report_spam@outlook.com.

2. A large sum of money can be yours, just send your personal info or some cash.

What is the situations scam like?

There’s money in some account that some people want to share with you. All you have to do is to send them your personal info or some money.

What do scammers want?

Sometimes they just want you to send them money. Other times they want your personal info so they can steal your identity, take money your bank accounts, and pay by your credit card.

What are the additional signals for scams?

• Any deal that involves an international bank or requests you have to send your info or send cash to abroad should be highly suspected.
• There’s often an element of larceny. Maybe the money isn’t really yours or theirs, but the rightful owner had died, or a corrupt official, or some faceless companies who will never miss it. Or the money is supposedly yours, but someone is trying to steal it.
• If there is any doubt about the transaction, or if you don't understand why a stranger offering you certain things, you can sure that you’re being conned.

What can you do?

• First and most important, do NOT reply with any personal or financial information.
• Go to some scam websites such as snopes.com and search for those emails.
• Report the email as a Phishing scam via network.

3. You're our big winner.

What is the situations scam like?

Congratulations! You had won the lottery! Or you were joined of Microsoft sweepstakes and you’ve won the jackpot!

What do scammers want?

Your personal info so they can steal your identity and take money your bank accounts.

What are the additional signals for scams?

• You were joined in the lottery or sweepstakes without being aware of or accepting to do so.
• They request for your bank info so they can directly transfer money into your account.
• The purpose of sweepstakes is to gather personal info via the form you fill out when you joined. Then, they can sell that info or use it to introduce their products and services.

What can you do?

• First and most important, do NOT reply with any personal or financial information.
• Go to some scam website such as snopes.com and search for those emails
• Report the email as a Phishing scam via network.

4. Help! I'm stranded!

What is the situations scam like?

A friend of yours is on vacation and got stranded. They need you to send them some urgent money

What do scammers want?

For you to send them some money.

What are the additional signals for scams?

This one can be more difficult to spot. Typically, the scammer has hacked your friend’s email account and sent this “emergency” email to your friend’s contact list. The sender email address will be legitimate. The salutation might even be personal (“Dear Joe”) but the email really did come from your friend?

What can you do?

Before making any decision, let’s check directly with your friend, such as making a phone call. If it is not possible, try to contact your mutual friends.

Ask yourself the following questions:

• The email probably says he/she is desperate and don’t know anywhere to rely on, but is your relationship close enough to have such a request?
• Has he/she ever mentioned with you about the trip? Has he/she ever been in such situation and ever written via email for their financial problems?
• Does it sound like your friend?

Unless you can contact your friend or a reliable mutual friend directly other than via email, you can think it's a scam. Report it as my friend's been hacked.

5. If you (don’t) forward this email, something (bad) good will happen!

What is the situations scam like?

Forward this email and Microsoft will send you $500! Forward this petition to keep Outlook.com a free service! Warn all your friends about this scary computer virus!

What do scammers want?

Send an email scam to more people and brag with other their spammer friends.

How can you do?

• If it’s about a computer virus or other security threat, go to the website for your antivirus software and look at the latest threat info.
• Go to a disclosed scam page such as snopes.com and search on the email’s subject.
• Report the email as Junk.

What should you do when you receive an email spoofing or receiving an email from yourself?

If you receive an email message from yourself and you know you didn't send the message, you can report this email and then delete it. Spammers can use a technique called "spoofing" make you believe that the email is trustworthy.