Emails from outside the University
30 Oct 2020
IT Services are taking steps to help warn you against potential phishing emails
All emails sent to your University email account from outside of the University will soon come with a message warning you to take care. The message will appear at the top of the email.
The change will be applied to all University email accounts on Microsoft 365 (formerly known as Office 365), which is the majority of staff, and all students.
Emails originating from the following domains will be classed as internal to the University and therefore not show the warning message:
- manchester.ac.uk
- ds.man.ac.uk
- uom-affiliate.org.uk
- uom-associate.org.uk
- uom-partner.org.uk
- tarn.ac.uk
- royce.ac.uk
- royce-institute.ac.uk
- mba.mbs.ac.uk
- cppe.ac.uk
- access-summit.ac.uk
Why is this happening?
Email addresses can be ‘spoofed’ by cyber criminals attempting to obtain your personal information by pretending to be a legitimate business, colleague, department or other innocent party – and they appear to originate from someone other than the actual source. This technique is often used in phishing campaigns designed to obtain usernames and passwords, or ask people to transfer money.
The introduction of the warning message will ensure that everyone is aware and cautious of emails coming from outside the University, making it easier to spot malicious emails claiming to be official University communication.
Phishing emails vs junk emails
Can you tell a phishing email from a junk email? And do you know what to do when you receive one?
Phishing emails
Phishing emails try to trick you in to giving out personal information, or visiting fake websites. If you receive a suspicious email, do not click on any links and do not reply, but let IT Services know by sending the phishing email as an attachment to phishing@manchester.ac.uk.
Junk emails
Junk emails can be a nuisance and sometimes harmful. You can report them to IT Services by sending the nuisance email as an attachment to junk.email@manchester.ac.uk which will help us block them automatically in the future.
Note: IT Services are aware of issues with large amounts of junk mail/spam making it through to staff email accounts following transfers to Office 365. We’re working on resolving this but it is taking some time – please bear with us.
Read more
For more information, tips and advice, visit the IT Services website: