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  3. Forwarding Full Mail Headers

Forwarding Full Mail Headers

In most situations, people are interested in seeing only the first few headers on a message (From, To, Cc, Subject, and Date), so most email clients display only those headers when the recipient reads the message or forwards it. The rest of the headers are masked.

Unfortunately, the above headers are easy to forge, and this commonly occurs in cases of phishing and spam email. Fortunately, the Received: headers are extremely difficult to forge and can be used to identify the source of the offensive email.

If you need to report a Proofpoint email filter error, abuse, phishing or other potentially harmful communication, you will need to send a copy of the email as an attachment.

  • abuse@uvm.edu – for targeted phishing, or email scams.
  • not-spam@uvm.edu – for False Positives (email that was sent to Junk that should have been delivered to your INBOX).
  • is-spam@uvm.edu – for False Negatives (email that was delivered to your INBOX but should have gone to Junk)

Full headers allow our Help Desk and Information Security team to track a message back to the IP address from which it was sent; a message without full headers cannot be tracked.

Use the appropriate guide below to forward the message in question as an attachment, which will keep all email header info intact.

Not sure if you're on Exchange Online or on-premises Exchange?

All users can sign in to Outlook on the Web at mail.uvm.edu, but Exchange Online users will be redirected to Microsoft’s outlook.office.com service after signing in.

Outlook on the Web (Exchange Online)

  1. Log in to Outlook on the Web at mail.uvm.edu
  2. Select the message you wish to forward as an attachment
  3. Open the drop-down menu to the right of the Forward arrow, and then select Forward as attachment
  4. Enter the email address you wish to forward the message to, and then click Send

Outlook on the Web (On-Premises Exchange)

  1. Log in to Outlook on the Web at mail.uvm.edu
  2. Click the “New” button to begin composing a new email message.
  3. Click the “Edit in separate window” icon.
  4. Click-and-drag the message that you would like to submit to the body of the compose window. This will add the message as an attachment.
  5.  You can now enter the email address you wish to forward the message to.

Outlook for Microsoft 365 on Windows

  1. Select the message you wish to forward as an attachment
  2. Open the More Respond Actions drop-down to the right of Forward, and then select Forward as Attachment
  3. Enter the email address you wish to forward the message to, and then click Send

Outlook for Microsoft 365 on macOS

  1. Select the message you wish to forward as an attachment
  2. Click Attachment to the right of Forward
  3. Enter the email address you wish to forward the message to, and then click Send

Outlook 2019 for PC

Outlook 2019 PC

  1. Select the message you wish to forward as an attachment
  2. Click the “Forward as attachment” button as shown in the screenshot below
  3. Enter the email address you wish to forward the message to, and then click Send

Outlook 2019 for Mac

Outlook 2019 (Mac)

  1. Select the message you wish to forward as an attachment
  2. Click on the “Attachment” button as shown in the screenshot below
  3. Enter the email address you wish to forward the message to, and then click Send

Outlook 2016 for PC

Outlook 2016 PC

  1. Select the message you wish to forward as an attachment
  2. Click the “Forward as attachment” button as shown in the screenshot below
  3. Enter the email address you wish to forward the message to, and then click Send

Outlook 2016 for Mac

Outlook 2016 (Mac)

  1. Select the message you wish to forward
  2. Click on the “Attachment” button as shown in the screenshot below
    outlook_2016_mac_attachment_button
  3. Enter the email address you wish to forward the message to, and then click Send

Mozilla Thunderbird

Mozilla Thunderbird

  1. In Thunderbird, right-click on the message you wish to forward as an attachment
  2. Click Forward As > Attachment as shown in the screenshot below
  3. You can now enter the email address you wish to forward the message to

Apple Mail

Apple Mail

  1. In Apple Mail, right-click on the message you wish to forward as an attachment
  2. Click Forward as Attachment as shown in the screenshot below
  3. You can now enter the email address you wish to forward the message to

Updated on April 25, 2023

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