Be extra cautious of emails in your spam folder
What to do
Always be extra cautious of emails in your spam folder. While some legitimate emails can end up in spam, if you’re not expecting the email, avoid opening it.
How to do it
You do not need to report emails that are already in your spam folder as spam or phishing. The system has already identified these and moved them to the spam folder.
If you’re expecting an email that hasn’t arrived and need to check the spam folder, only click on the email you’re expecting.
If you believe an email isn’t spam, before opening the email:
- Double check that the email address is legitimate – you can view the address by hovering over the email with your mouse. Does it match their official email?
- Check the email subject – does it seem suspicious?
- Reach out to the sender directly to confirm that they are the one who sent the email.
If an email has been falsely marked as spam, you can click ‘Not spam’ in the menu bar at the top. Gmail will not mark similar emails as spam in the future.
Why it matters
If an email has been placed in the spam folder, it means our systems have already identified it. It could contain malware, malicious links, or be the first step of a scam.