How to forward an email as an attachment

When reporting problems with email (either delivery or spam/phishing), you will be asked to forward the email in question as an attachment. This allows IST staff to examine the email exactly as you received it, and if necessary, to send that exact email to other service providers (e.g. anti-spam/phishing vendors) in order to report false negatives or spam campaigns. The EML format is best and easiest for staff to work with, but some mail clients export to MSG format, which can also be dealt with.

Included in this article:

Step-by-Step

For all Outlook email clients, do not right-click on the email message and select "Forward as attachment". Please follow the steps outlined below. 

• spam email attachments should be forwarded to spam@uwaterloo.ca 

• Phishing email attachments should be forwarded to soc@uwaterloo.ca

Outlook 2016 and Microsoft 365 (desktop)

1. Double-click the message to open it in its own window.

2. Click on the Message menu, then look for the More drop-down icon (within the Respond group), and select Forward as Attachment.

Open

Microsoft 365 Outlook Web App (OWA)

1. Create a New email message in its own window: Click on New message. Click on the pop-out icon, located at the top right corner of the message window to open the message in its own window.
   
   

   Open

   

2. Next, organize your browser windows so that you can view both your mail folder listing and the new message window.

3. Select the message you would like to attach and drag the message from your inbox into the new email window. It will be included as an attachment. 
   Important: If you are currently in 'Conversation' view, all the messages within the conversation will be attached. If you only want a specific message to be attached, change your view to 'Messages' then attach. Control view settings.

4. Enter any other relative information and click Send button.

Apple Mail (most versions)

1. Right-click on the message in the preview pane and choose Forward As Attachment.

Thunderbird

1. Right-click the message in the preview pane, select Forward As and then choose Attachment from the pop-out menu.

Mobile Devices and webmail providers

Most mobile devices unfortunately make it impossible to forward an email as an attachment, you will probably need to use a desktop operating system. Some webmail providers also make it difficult or impossible to do this - please consult with the help section from your provider.

Email encryption

For more information about email encryption and Microsoft 365 message encryption, please see the article Email encryption.

Additional resources

Joe Jobs are a special case of the abuse of mail protocols to fake the source of spam. Please refer to this article for more information on Joe Jobs: Email security- Joe Jobs.

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