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Misdirected emails are messages that are accidentally sent to the wrong recipients, which can lead to data leaks and compliance issues. To help prevent this, you can configure Cloud Email and Collaboration Protection to detect possible misdirected emails and notify users before the messages are delivered. This feature applies to Exchange Online only, and the detection setting applies to all users in your organization for whom the add-in for Outlook is deployed, regardless of whether they are included in an enabled policy.
To identify misdirected emails, Cloud Email and Collaboration Protection analyzes each user's sent mail history and learns their normal communication patterns. When a user sends an email, the message is scanned before delivery. If the recipient does not fit the user's usual pattern, the message is identified as a possible misdirected email. Detection accuracy depends on the amount of sent mail history available, so it improves over time. TrendAI recommends allowing at least 30 days of sent mail history before you rely on detection results.
Detection also relies on an add-in for Outlook that alerts users before a possible misdirected email is sent. You deploy this add-in for your users from the Microsoft 365 admin center.
Before you configure misdirected email detection, Exchange Online must be provisioned in Cloud Email and Collaboration Protection. The add-in for Outlook must also be deployed to your users and granted admin consent for the permissions it requires.

Procedure

  1. In Cloud Email and Collaboration Protection, go to Policy → Global Settings → Other Settings → Misdirected Email Detection.
  2. Deploy the add-in for Outlook to your users in the Microsoft 365 admin center.
    During the deployment, use the manifest file link shown on the settings page to upload the add-in.
  3. Click Grant Admin Consent and grant consent for the permissions that the add-in requires.
    The add-in cannot detect misdirected emails until admin consent is granted.
  4. Enable the Misdirected email detection option.
  5. Select the action to take when a misdirected email is detected:
    • Warn user: Displays a warning to the user and lets them decide whether to send the email anyway, change the recipient, or cancel sending.
    • Pass: Allows the email to be sent. The detection result is recorded in the detection log.
  6. Click Save.
When misdirected email detection is enabled and a user sends a message that does not match their established communication patterns, Cloud Email and Collaboration Protection performs the configured action and records the detection in the detection log.