Is there any point to reporting phishing emails?

That's kind of what I suspected... Microsoft is not looking at this at all and just putting buttons on Outlook so you can feel better about doing something. Obviously, Microsoft doesn't give a **** about helping people protect themselves... doesn't care if people try to help them. Something I suspected all along and why I raised the question I did. Bottom line... Microsoft not doing a thing to help their users and protect their safety... to be expected these days I guess.

I never "open' them but I do see their content in the preview window... otherwise I wouldn't know if they are phishing or not since some appear come from companies I do business with. Clearly, I would never click a link and I don't need help determining what's phishing and what's not... have plenty of practice at that.

Typically, I click on the "select all" radio button at the left of the folder heading and that selects all items. I then click on the "Report Phishing" button at the top of the page and it moves everything to the deleted folder. I just select "Empty Folder" on that.

So, my question hasn't been answered. I (1) know how to identify phishing email, (2) not to open or click on it, (3) how to use the Phishing button, but what I don't know is why it never seems to make any difference. So, what I'm trying to find out is this (as Ron6576 has stated) a waste of time?

I'll repeat the original question so it doesn't get lost

Is there any filtering on Microsoft's side? If there is, why is it not working... if not working why report the phishing emails??

Asking you to trust me here... 95%+ are the same type of phishing... same sender (each day), same format, from different company, same sort of text. A complete moron could spot the similarities in 18 of 20 emails... let alone thousands. They are the exact same sort of thing. Open every one of them and without even reading the text, you know they're the same, they look the same, they want you to do the same thing. I get hundreds each week that only say, "Congratulations! You've won. Click here". I mean seriously... there's no rocket science needed here. CLEARLY nobody is looking at these and even attempting to apply a filter of ANY kind. If you like, I'd be happy to forward them to you rather than clicking the "Report Phishing" button so you can verify.

No... I'll only do that if you insist because it would piss you off as much as it does me. Let me try it another way... Microsoft has NO filter to protect its Outlook users. It couldn't possibly with the number of boilerplate phishing emails that arrive. People should know that and know that clicking the [Report Phishing] button is a waste of their time because Microsoft is not doing a single thing with them... the only way I can get so many of the same email every friggin' week after week is if they are ignoring my "Reports".

Opening them may trigger a confirmation on their end that you have received and read their spam. They'll send you more spam. I wouldn't even touch those spam/phishing/scam. Select (without opening them) and delete is all I do if they're in my Inbox. Spam in my Junk Mail folder will be auto deleted after a few weeks so I leave them alone. Anything more than that is a waste of my time. Last, many other users are experiencing an increase in spam volume.

Hello Steve

Hi, I'm Karl and will be happy to help you today.

To focus on your specific question

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Is there any filtering on Microsoft's side? If there is, why is it not working... if not working why report the phishing emails??

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There are a number of different facets to your question

#1 - When everything is working normally, the emails reported are reviewed which results in the Outlook Junk filter getting regularly updated. It is not something that is done based on one person marking an email as spam/phishing.

#2 - Would also like to point out that there is a world of difference between a "phishing" message and a "spam" message. The former is focused on a message trying to gain personal information. Far too many people incorrectly mark their messages. A "spam" message which is essentially one providing unwanted advertising is not a "phishing" message.

#3 - All of this is complicated bu the fact that it seems that the current Outlook.com filter appears to be broken just based on the number of people reporting Junk mail going into their <Inbox>. That unfortunately is something that only Microsoft can fix. Unfortunately, none of us work for Microsoft as this is a user-to-user support forum so have no idea when that will occur.