Reporting Spam

In the event that you receive a message that was not properly tagged as spam by the Brightmail system, you can report the message so that ITS and Brightmail can attempt to find out why the message was not properly tagged. If possible, ITS will make adjustments to the system so that future messages of similar content do not pass unidentified through the system.

To report a missed spam message, you can simply forward the message to missedspam@usc.edu as long as it meets the following criteria:

• The spam is being reported within 24 hours of when it was received in your email account.
• The spam is sent to ITS as an RFC-822 MIME encoded attachment. See below for more information.
• The message is not a message sent by a legitimate USC organization.

Note: Missed spam messages sent to any ITS email address other than missedspam@usc.edu or messages sent that do not meet the above requirements will be immediately discarded without being examined. After you have sent the message there is nothing more you need to do. ITS does not send confirmation of receipt but will examine the message with Brightmail and make changes if needed.

Reporting Missed Spam with the USC Web Mail Client

ITS recommends that users who wish to report spam do so through the USC Web Mail interface located at https://email.usc.edu, as this is the easiest way to make sure we receive the message in the properly formatted way.

• Log into USC Web Mail (https://email.usc.edu).
• Open the spam message you wish to report.
• Click the Forward button at the top of the window.
• Enter the address missedspam@usc.edu into the To field and click the Send button at the bottom.

Reporting Missed Spam with Microsoft Outlook

In order to set up Microsoft Outlook to send forwarded messages in the correct format, you must make changes to your program preferences.

• Under the Tools menu, select Options. Under the Preferences tab, click the Email Options button.
• In the bottom half of the window, under When forwarding a message, select attach original message from the dropdown menu.

Reporting Missed Spam with Microsfot Outlook Express

Outlook Express will send a properly formatted message if you forward the message as an attachment.

• Right-click on the message you want to report, and select Forward as attachment from the menu that appears.
• Enter the address missedspam@usc.edu in the To field.
• Click the Send button to send the message.

Reporting Missed Spam with Netscape Messenger

Netscape Messenger will send a properly formatted message if you forward the message as an attachment.

• Right-click the message you want to report, and select Forward as attachment from the menu that appears.
• Enter the address missedspam@usc.edu in the To field.
• Click the Send button to send the message.

Getting Help

If you have questions about reporting missed spam, please send a message to consult@usc.edu or call the ITS Customer Support Center at 213-740-5555.