How To: Report Spam / Malicious Email to Authorities

Are you receiving spam emails on a frequent basis? Did you get signed up for an email newsletter you know you never signed up for? If you are noticing a trend in spam or malicious emails to your inbox or junk email folders, it is probably time to report emails instead of marking them as “junk” each time. When you mark email as junk, your mail server uses Bayesian Filtering to combat the same type of email messages from being received to other email addresses on your mail server. While reporting junk mail is still important, it will only attempt to reduce the amount of spam messages you receive. If you believe you are being targeted by a scam, individual, or phishing attack, we highly recommend reporting the email you receive to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the United States. The entire processes for reporting emails is straightforward and takes less than a few seconds.

Report a Suspicious Email in one of the Following Ways

1. Send the suspicious email to the FTC to their email address: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
   

            *Create a new email and attach the spam email to it before you send. This keeps the original integrity of the original email intact (email addresses included in email, hyperlinks,                   text, and formatting.)

            *Be sure to include the email headers of the spam email. For instructions on getting headers from an email, follow this guide for Mac Mail. You will have to copy/paste the header               information into the email you send the FTC.

Note: You can also file an official report with the FTC by going to the FTC complaint website here.

2. In addition (as recommended by the FTC om their site), send the suspicious email to the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. the same way you did in step 1.

APWG is the international coalition unifying the global response to cybercrime across industry, government and law-enforcement sectors and NGO communities. Learn more about APWG by going here.

You will likely not receive an auto-reply when you send to the email addresses above.

For more information on reporting malicious emails, visit the FTC site here.

If you have successfully reported emails to the organizations listed above, please share your experiencing and success rate buy using the comment form below.