All district users will report any suspicious emails through the PhishNotify system only. Please do not forward suspicious emails to anyone or submit help desk tickets for suspicious emails.
What is a suspicious email?
Phishing (pronounced: fishing) attempts are suspicious emails. These are attacks that attempt to steal your money, or your identity, by getting you to reveal personal information -- such as credit card numbers, bank information, or passwords -- on websites that pretend to be legitimate. These emails typically ask you to click a link, enter credentials, etc.
What is not a “suspicious” email, but just spam?
Spam is unwanted, annoying, “junk” email like you would get in your physical mailbox at your home. This includes solicitations from vendors, political ads,commercial offers, etc.
These should not be reported as suspicious.
How do I report suspicious emails?
When you want to report a suspicious email, you will use the PhishNotify button. PhishNotify for Gmail will show up in the Gmail side panel in the section below the default Google buttons.
If the side panel is not visible, you will need to click the arrow in the lower-right corner of the page to expand it.
- The email you wish to report must be open to use the Phish Notify button.
- Do not mark the email as spam before using Phish Notify. The email must be in your inbox and not in your spam folder.
- When using the Gmail app on a cell phone, the Phish Notify add-on is located all the way at the bottom of the email as shown below.
After clicking the PhishNotify button, you will need to click the “Report Email” button to confirm the submission.
Note: The first time you submit an email you will need to accept the PhishNotify permissions. This will only need to be done once.
Once the message is submitted, you will see the appropriate message for either a PhishSim (a district-driven phishing training) or Non-PhishSim (a potential threat from outside our district) email.