Forwarding an Email as an Attachment

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You can help us protect others at the Institute: If you receive a phishing email please report it (using the Phish Alert Button or forward it as an attachment to phishing@mit.edu). If you receive an email you aren't sure about, please don't hesitate to ask. If you report using the Phish Alert Button, please leave a comment with your question. If not, please forward the email as an attachment to security@mit.edu and include your question.

Context

• When reporting a spam or phishing email to  security@mit.edu, or phishing@mit.edu the IS&T Information Security Team will ask for the original email "forwarded as an attachment."
• Every mail client is different, and we've tried to give instructions for common clients below, but basically it should create a .eml file that contains the body and full headers of the original email.
• When you are reading an email, your email client will typically only show you a shortened version of the headers (to, from, subject, date, etc). Forwarding as an attachment will include the full headers, which will show the path that the email took from the originating computer, through several mail servers, to the recipient. This gives us the information we need to investigate the email, without this information we are often unable to do much to respond to a report of phishing or spam.
• If you forward the email to phishing@mit.edu as you would a normal email, the headers will be from you as the sender to phishing@mit.edu as the recipient, at which point the relevant information is lost. The information is also almost always lost when forwarding from a mobile device.
• A screenshot is not very helpful. An attachment of a PDF version of the email is also not helpful.

Answer

Outlook.com / Office 365 https://outlook.office365.com/mail/

1. Open your mail in two browser windows.
2. Create a new email message in one of the browser windows.
3. In the other browser window, drag the email you want to attach from your email list, and drop it in the new message.
4. Fill out the To: field to the recipient, such as phishing@mit.edu, and fill out the subject and body with any additional information you would like to provide.
5. Click Send.

Windows 10 Mail

1. Open the message you want to forward.
2. Click on the three horizontal dots in the upper-right.
3. Click Save As, and save the email as a file to your local machine.
4. Start a new message.
5. Click the Insert tab from the top menu.
6. Select Attach File from the drop-down menu.
7. Navigate to where you saved the message you want to forward in step 3.
8. Select the saved message you want to forward and click the Open button.
9. Fill out the To: field to the recipient, such as phishing@mit.edu, and fill out the subject and body with any additional information you would like to provide.
10. Click Send.

Outlook 2011 and newer for Mac

Current versions:

1. In the messages list, right-click the message you want to forward.
2. Click Forward As Attachment
3. Fill out the To: field to the recipient, such as phishing@mit.edu, and fill out the subject and body with any additional information you would like to provide.
4. Click Send.

Gmail

Many users have their email automatically forwarded to gmail.

Gmail does not let you directly forward an email as an attachment, however it does allow you to download a full message to your computer, which you can then attach to a new email message.

1. Open the message
2. In the upper-right, Click on the three vertical dots.
3. Click Show Original.
4. Click Download Original and save the file (.eml format).
5. Click Compose to start a new message
6. Click on the paperclip icon to attach files.
7. Navigate to where you saved the .eml file (message to be forwarded).
8. Select that file and click Open
9. Fill out the To: field to the recipient, such as phishing@mit.edu, and fill out the subject and body with any additional information you would like to provide.
10. Click Send.
    It is preferable to log into https://outlook.office.com or use the desktop version of Outlook to send the attachment directly from an MIT account. Attachments sent directly from gmail have been known to become corrupted in transit.

Apple Mail

Current versions of macOS:

1. In the list of messages, right-click on your chosen message.
2. Click Forward as Attachment.
3. Fill out the To: field to the recipient, such as phishing@mit.edu, and fill out the subject and body with any additional information you would like to provide.
4. Click Send.

Thunderbird (including Netscape, SeaMonkey)

1. In the messages list, right-click on the message you want to forward (or select multiple messages and then right-click).
2. Select Forward as attachment.
   Result: The message should appear in the attachment box in a new message.
3. Fill out the To: field to the recipient, such as phishing@mit.edu, and fill out the
4. Click Send.

See also

https://www.greennet.org.uk/support/how-forward-email-attachment