What does selecting ‘Report phishing’ do?

Question

What does selecting ‘Report phishing’ do?

Gary F. Jones 25

Emails that initially look valid, I check the sender’s address to determine validity. For addresses not recognized, I selected “Report phishing." This causes the sender’s address to be placed in a blocked address junk file and the email message is completely removed.. Does anything else happen to eliminate the sender from sending other phishing emails using a different domain?

I’m getting 20 -30 emails a day that I can selected as junk. However, I’m unable to block the emails since the sender is constantly changing the domain and using the same email over and over again. A BLOCK option is needed along with the MOVE option to eliminate the daily unwanted emails.

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nikster53 P 0 Reputation points

2026-09-01T01:04:29.42+00:00

Total (Profanity removed) - does absolutely NOTHING!!! I report 3 & next time I log in I have six - in last week now have 92+!!! NOTHING gets removed from my in box!!!!!
Hornblower409 14,425 Reputation points

2026-09-01T19:41:43.47+00:00

@nikster53 P said

NOTHING gets removed from my in box

Your Inbox or your Junk folder?

If the Spam is being delivered to your Junk folder (not your Inbox) - You do not have any real control over mail delivered directly to your Junk folder. This is a long standing complaint from numerous users, myself included.

All I can suggest is that you look at the Answer by "Hornblower409 Apr 23, 2026" in
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5867493/how-to-solve-receiving-a-huge-number-of-spam-email

That Answer has instructions for how to vote for some Feature Request that would give users more control over their Junk folder and some suggestions for MANUAL processes you can use to pick out and Delete any "known" Spam from the Junk folder so you don't have so much to sift thru looking for legitimate emails.

If the Spam really is hitting your Inbox,

You will not get any help for your issue by adding to an old post. You must start a new thread using the "Ask a question" button at the top of this page to create a new Question and include the details for your specific problem.

2 answers

nikster53 P 0 Reputation points

2026-09-01T01:04:29.42+00:00

Total (Profanity removed) - does absolutely NOTHING!!! I report 3 & next time I log in I have six - in last week now have 92+!!! NOTHING gets removed from my in box!!!!!
Hornblower409 14,425 Reputation points

2026-09-01T19:41:43.47+00:00

@nikster53 P said

NOTHING gets removed from my in box

Your Inbox or your Junk folder?

If the Spam is being delivered to your Junk folder (not your Inbox) - You do not have any real control over mail delivered directly to your Junk folder. This is a long standing complaint from numerous users, myself included.

All I can suggest is that you look at the Answer by "Hornblower409 Apr 23, 2026" in
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5867493/how-to-solve-receiving-a-huge-number-of-spam-email

That Answer has instructions for how to vote for some Feature Request that would give users more control over their Junk folder and some suggestions for MANUAL processes you can use to pick out and Delete any "known" Spam from the Junk folder so you don't have so much to sift thru looking for legitimate emails.

If the Spam really is hitting your Inbox,

You will not get any help for your issue by adding to an old post. You must start a new thread using the "Ask a question" button at the top of this page to create a new Question and include the details for your specific problem.

Answer 1

Hi Gary,

When you select Report phishing in Outlook:

The email is removed from your inbox.

The sender’s address is added to your blocked senders list.

The message is submitted to Microsoft for analysis to improve spam and phishing detection.

However, here’s the challenge:

Attackers often rotate domains and addresses to bypass filters.

Blocking one address doesn’t stop new variations from reaching you.

This is why you’re still seeing similar emails even after reporting them.

What You Can Do is:

Use Advanced Filters

Instead of blocking individual addresses, create rules based on keywords, subject lines, or patterns in the phishing emails.

Example: Move emails containing certain phrases or suspicious links directly to Junk.

Enable Focused Inbox and Junk Filtering

Make sure Outlook’s junk filter is set to High under Settings → Mail → Junk email.

Consider Safe Senders and Domains

Add trusted contacts to your Safe Senders list so legitimate emails aren’t affected.

Report via Microsoft’s Portal

Use the Microsoft Report Message add-in for Outlook to send samples to Microsoft for better filtering.

Let me know how it goes, happy to help!

Answer 2

Selecting ‘Report phishing’ in Outlook removes the reported email message entirely and blocks the sender's address by adding it to the user's Blocked Senders list. However, this action primarily affects the specific sender's address that was reported. If the sender uses different domains or addresses, those will not be automatically blocked unless reported individually.

To help mitigate the issue of constantly changing sender addresses, it is advisable to utilize additional features in Microsoft Defender for Office 365, such as configuring anti-phishing policies. These policies can help identify and block phishing attempts more effectively across various domains. You can also consider adjusting the settings to increase the aggressiveness of the phishing email filtering to better manage unwanted emails.

While the built-in reporting feature is useful, it may not completely eliminate the problem of receiving phishing emails from different domains unless those domains are also reported and blocked individually.

References: