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What To Do If You Receive a Suspicious Email

If you receive an email that appears "phishy" and are unsure if it's legitimate:

  1. DO NOT respond! Do not click any links in the email, and do not "unsubscribe" or acknowledge the email in any way.
  2. UVA identifies popular phishing scams: check our Information Security Alerts & Warnings page to see if the suspicious email message is listed.
  3. If it is not listed on the above webpage, please forward the email to our email abuse team by forwarding the email to "abuse@virginia.edu"  Forwarding the message as an attachment will allow us to receive the original message in its entirety, including the email header information. (Just because it's not listed on our InfoSec Security Alerts webpage does NOT mean it's not phishing. You may be the first to report this phishing email!) 
  4. If you are using Outlook, report it as phishing.  Otherwise, DELETE the email!

For further information about phishing emails and how to recognize them, please see our web pages about phishing and about preventing other ways that bad actors are trying to steal your information and gain access to your computer and accounts.  

Report an Information
Security Incident

Please report any level of incident, no matter how small. The Information
Security office will evaluate the report and provide a full investigation if appropriate.

Complete Report Form