Reporting Email Abuse at UF

The University of Florida utilizes advanced email filters to block messages of a spam or phishing nature.  As the threat landscape changes over time, these filters are continually adjusted to ensure ongoing protection.  The spam filters currently automatically reject over 90% of the total messages received by the UF email servers.

Occasionally, spam or phishing messages may not be correctly blocked by these filters.  In these cases, please forward these example messages to the pertinent address below, depending on the nature of the message – these reports are used to improve the detection and blocking capabilities of the filters over time.

• If you have received a spam message in your UF mailbox, please forward a full copy of the offending message to report-spam@ufl.edu.
• If you have received a phishing message in your UF mailbox (typically messages whereby the sender is attempting to appear to be someone or some group you are familiar with in order to have you divulge a password, account number, or other personal information – sometimes these will contain a link that they want you to click on and other times they will ask you to reply with this information in the email), please forward a full copy of the offending message to abuse@ufl.edu.
• If you are an external recipient of spam or phishing messages from a University of Florida sender, please contact abuse@ufl.edu.

All reports should include a forwarded full copy of the offending message. It is important to send not just the body of the message but the original full message headers as well. The message headers provide routing information that determine the source of the email and provide the information necessary, in the case of a phishing attack, to block any potential replies to the message.

Here is an example of what some of the message headers look like:

Return-Path: <aisl13@eirzzcom.net>

• Received: from smtp.ufl.edu (smtp04.osg.ufl.edu [128.227.74.71]) by edge03.osg.ufl.edu (Cyrus v2.2.12-Gentoo) with LMTPA; Thu, 19 Jun 2008 06:11:17 -0400
• Received: from mail26.svc.cra.dublin.eirzzcom.net (mail26.svc.cra.dublin.eirzzcom.net [159.134.118.55]) by smtp.ufl.edu (8.14.0/8.14.0/3.0.0) with SMTP id m5JABGHe009896 for <someuser@ufl.edu>; Thu, 19 Jun 2008

X-Originating-IP: 80.255.59.242
Reply-To: <supports@j-mail.info>
…

Finding Message Headers in your Mail Program

Here are instructions for finding the full message headers in some of the most common mail programs.

Gatorlink Webmail – webmail.ufl.edu

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. From the More Actions…menu select Show Source which should open a new web page showing the full message with headers.

Office 365

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. From the More Actions…button, click View Message Details.
3. The full headers will be displayed in a new window.

UF Exchange Outlook Web Access (OWA) – mail.ufl.edu/OWA

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. Open the email in a new window by double-clicking it.
3. Click the Message Details icon which looks like an open envelope and letter.
4. Find the full headers under Internet Headers.

Mozilla Thunderbird

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. Go to the View menu and select Message Source.
3. The full headers will be displayed in a new window.

Outlook 2011 (Mac OSX)

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. Right-click on the message and select View Source.
3. Find the full headers under Internet Mail Headers.

Outlook 2010

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. Open the email in a new window by double-clicking it.
3. From the File menu choose Info, then 
4. Find the full headers under Internet Headers.

Outlook 2007

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. Open the email in a new window by double-clicking it.
3. Click the expansion button in the lower right corner of the Options toolbar box. (The box by default holds the Follow Up and Mark as Unread buttons).
4. Find the full headers under Internet Headers.

Outlook 2000, 2002, 2003

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. Open the message in a new window by double-clicking it.
3. Go to the View menu and select 
4. Find the full headers under Internet Headers.

Outlook Express

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. Right-click the message, and select Properties.
3. Open the Details tab in the dialog box.
4. The full headers will appear in the dialog box.

Apple Mail

1. Select the message you want to see message headers for.
2. Go to the View menu and select Message and then Long Headers.
3. The full headers will appear in the dialog box.

Pine

– Simply press H to view full headers when viewing the message