Use Outlook junk mail actions to train hosted spam filters
Junkmail filtering has been a constant pain point for me with O365 business and Outlook. The spam filters have an awfully high number of false positives, and only rarely capture real spam (I don't get much on these accounts). Most of the mail that gets filtered is from the same set of senders even though I constantly tell Outlook that these messages are not Junk. O365 needs to leverage this data to improve filtering reliability.

The Junk Email Reporting Add-in is our current solution for Outlook users. You can get the download for it, and learn more here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/library/jj723127(v=exchg.150).aspx
We do absolutely triage these submissions and use them to improve EOP.
If you aren’t using Outlook, simply create a new mail to junk [AT] office365.microsoft.com and attach the entire message, including headers (see https://technet.microsoft.com/library/jj723151(v=exchg.150).aspx). We are looking at better reporting options for Mac and mobile users. What might be helpful here is commenting with which applications you use most.
Administrators can also now go to http://aka.ms/FixSpam and troubleshoot their users’ most persistent spam issues.
If you continue having difficulties, we recommend a support ticket to investigate current samples. It is frequently the case that a simple configuration issue is to blame — and support can help you figure this out.
10 comments
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Kevin commented
Since this response was a whiiiile back now, The Message Reporting Add-In (Links to article in MS Response) not support basically all current versions of Outlook, and Outlook Web Access, and Outlook Mobile.
You can use Centralized Deployment in O365 to push it out to all of your mailboxes quite easily, and use the advice in "get a copy" area on that page to have the builtin button notify your security or administration team as needed (Say for Phishing Reports, though ZAP (Zero-Hour Auto Purge) will often purge those shortly after reporting anyway.
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Kevin commented
Why are people complaining about spam detection in here? this is a forum for suggestions, not a place to whine about poor quality. Take that to your forums or reddit or wherever.
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Charlie commented
Things have gotten very bad with this since November 2017. It appears that the junk mail filters simply mark every email as Junk if they come from an IP address that sends a lot of emails, even if those emails are 100% legitimate.
Reporting false positives to not_junk@office365.microsoft.com does nothing.
Office 365 is the only email provider to have this problem. e.g. there are no problems with providers like Gmail, Yahoo, etc. -
Mike Reilly commented
Rash of Legit emails which we have been receiving just fine since joining to O365 1.5 years ago now the emails going to Quarantine, SCL value is 5. I have called MS support twice for the same exact problem and got 2 completely different reasons. I like others here receive some real loser fake emails that make it through the spam filter just fine but the legit emails get reported as spam. Have sent to not_junk@office365.microsoft.com or from the Outlook client plug-in and nothing changes?
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Sean VanderMolen commented
I just had a similar issue with FreshDesk. O365 tags mail coming from FreshDesk customers as Bulk Mail and tags it with a 9. Which means even if you add the sender and domains as safe senders they'll still end up in the junk folder. The solution was to go into exchange and add the domain and sender to the default spam filter settings. However this is not acceptable, since users should be able to manage their settings from outlook. What is the point of having Safe Senders Lists that can be overridden by exchanges policies, or require the intervention of an administrator.
More to the point the logic behind bulk e-mail is flawed and should be looked at. If junk mail senders share the same SMTP servers as a company like FreshDesk it makes sense for the system to tag those servers as bulk. But what doesn't make sense is to stop there. It should look at the sending domains and realize FreshDesk isn't junk mail its a support desk service and shouldn't get thrown in junk. The system assuming that email coming from a bulk mail service provider is junk is false. MS dances around the subject by saying its all bulk... but misses the point that its not all junk but that's where its going.
One last issue is that calling the MS helpdesk for these mundane issues and having to create rules for each problem is annoying. How about not having the issue in the first place...
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Caleb commented
I fully agree. I have not seen evidence that reporting junk mail improves the filter at all. In theory I understand that it should, but in practice, I haven't noticed any difference. Case and point, just yesterday our CEO complained they he's been getting the same junk email message for the past two years. I recommend he report it as junk. He said that he's been doing that for the past 2 years. He has a point. Why should I report anything if I don't see it making a difference?
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Anonymous commented
Majority of our users are on Outlook for Mac as well. The suggested plugin is windows only and so is not a solution.
As I read it the OP was wanting the same option as already exists in OWA - every time I flag something as junk it should ask "Do you want to report this email to Microsoft to help improve the accuracy of the junk mail filter". And I will say yes.
It is a frustration to users that no matter how much rubbish they move into junk in Outlook it seems to make no difference. -
Scott Gustlin commented
I have not installed but from the page referenced (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/jj723127(v=exchg.150).aspx) it indicates that the Add-in "lets Exchange Online and Exchange Online Protection users easily report junk (spam) email to Microsoft for analysis"
This thread / suggestion is about submitting false positives (i.e. email identified as JUNK by Exchange/EOP but that is not, in fact, junk).
Is there an Add-in or way to easily submit these for analysis and receive any kind of feedback?
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Clinton Campbell commented
Thanks for the response. This doesn't help too much for me as a Mac user. It seems the tool is Windows only. I'm also not too keen on having to log into the web interface just for Spam management.
It'd be great to see this capability integrated with Outlook Junk Reporting for Exchange hosts. I work with a lot of users and most would assume that it already works this way.
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Matthias Van Woensel commented
The default answer from Microsoft is: send mails to not_junk@office365.microsoft.com
Been there, done that. I've sent over 2000 mails. No change whatsoever.