Outlook Blocking my financial institution as untrusted sender/phishing

Question

My financial institution is being tagged as phishing. I am not being able to get done what needs to be done because I keep getting blocked due to Outlook telling me that it doesn't trust the sender.

Answer 1

Hi susan holmes,

I understand that Outlook.com is identifying messages from your financial institution as suspicious and preventing you from completing the required action.

Please note that this is a user-to-user forum, so contributors cannot access your mailbox or change Outlook.com’s filtering decisions.

The Q&A Assist recommendation to add a verified sender to Safe Senders is generally appropriate, although some menu paths shown apply to classic Outlook rather than Outlook.com. Have you had a chance to try the applicable Outlook.com steps?

I would also like to add that a Safe Senders entry may not remove a phishing warning when Outlook.com cannot authenticate the message or detects a difference between the displayed sender and the actual sending address. Do not bypass the warning or use links in the message. Instead, open the financial institution’s official website or app directly, or call the number shown on your card or statement to confirm the message.

If the institution confirms that the message is genuine but Outlook.com continues to restrict it, contact Outlook.com support:

1. Go to Outlook.com and sign in.  
2. Select the Help icon, the question mark, in the upper-right corner. 
3. In the Help pane that opens, search for "email management", then press Enter.   
4. Scroll down the page until you see "Still need help?", click Yes.   
5. Choose "Chat with a support agent in your web browser."  
6. Review the issue description and confirm an email address you can access. 
7. Click Confirm to create the service request. The screen will indicate that your request has been submitted and the system is connecting you to Outlook.com live chat support, which may take a moment to load.  

 I hope Outlook.com support can review the affected message and clarify why it is being classified as suspicious.

Answer 2

If the messages are legitimate, add the sender or domain to the Safe Senders list.

In Outlook:

1. Select a message from the financial institution.
2. Go to Home > Block > Never Block Sender.

To add it manually:

1. Go to Home > Delete group > Block > Junk E-mail Options.
2. Open the Safe Senders tab.
3. Select Add.
4. Enter the sender address or domain.
5. Select OK.

If the message is being sent to Junk, mark it as not junk and add the sender to contacts.

Important: if the mailbox is hosted on Exchange or Exchange Online, Safe Senders changes might not be recognized by Exchange or Exchange Online, and the message can still end up in Junk Email. In that case, contact the administrator.

Before trusting the sender, verify that the message is really from the financial institution:

• A ? in the sender image means Outlook could not verify the sender identity.
• A via tag means the actual sending address is different from the From address.
• Hover over the sender name or address in Outlook on the web or new Outlook to see the real email address without opening the message.

If Outlook.com is still treating mail from a blocked sender as inbox mail or the sender keeps changing addresses, check whether the real address differs from the displayed one and block or allow the actual address as needed.

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