While the U of T ITS will be sending out legitimate notices to community members regarding their email accounts, it is important to remember that malicious actors often disguise fraudulent emails as email upgrade notices. Please know that U of T will never ask you to divulge your passwords to gain access to any accounts or systems. 

For this reason, legitimate ineligible email shut down notices will always meet the following criteria:   

• Notices will be sent from a U of T departmental utoronto.ca email address, a U of T listserv or your local IT staff (if applicable).   
• Notices will indicate which unit or department of the University you can contact for more information.   
• Notices will NOT ask you to upgrade an eligible email account by:   
  • Responding to an unsolicited email with personal information.   
  • Opening an email attachment.   
  • Clicking on a button embedded in an email, or a link in an email that conceals its destination (such as links that say “click here “).
  • Sending a text/SMS message.  

Please refer to our Knowledge base article for the text of legitimate messages.

If you receive a notice that does not meet these criteria, do not respond to it or click on any links it contains. Forward it on to the Information Security team at report.phishing@utoronto.ca and then delete the email. 

Reminder: The University of Toronto will never ask you to divulge your passwords to its staff to access systems. 

For more information on phishing and protecting yourself online, please see Information Security’s Security Matters website. 

To avoid missed correspondence, reach out to your contacts to inform them that your U of T email address will be going out of service. Remember to supply an alternative means for them to contact you.

Don’t forget to update your contact information with:

• People or organizations you correspond with.
• Subscriptions to newsletters, mailing lists or listservs.
• Services that provide alerts and notifications (e.g. news, banking or taxes, health and safety alerts).
• Online logins and accounts (e.g. social media, online shopping, clubs and memberships).

If you wish to open a new email account, there are numerous free and paid email providers to choose from. Examples of free email services include Gmail (from Google), Outlook.com (from Microsoft), or Yahoo! Mail. Home internet providers such as Rogers or Bell may also include email accounts as part of their service packages.

Check out our Account Closure Preparation – Support Page for detailed instructions and assistance. 

If you are a staff, librarian or faculty please submit U of T Status Verification Form. If you are alumni, please submit the U of T Email Alumni-Opt-in Form. 

Please note that once we receive your form, we will work with you to determine your eligibility. 

The University of Toronto provides email service to active faculty, librarians, staff, students and alumni.  More details can be found in the Guideline: Email Accounts for University of Toronto Staff, Faculty and Librarians. 

There are four categories of accounts impacted by this project:  

Unknown Account Status

These accounts do not meet the eligibility criteria for a U of T email account based on the Division of People Strategy, Equity and Culture (PSEC) Guideline Email Accounts for University of Toronto Staff, Faculty and Librarians. 

 Alumni  Accounts 

These accounts belong to recent graduates who are U of T alumni. They will be offered the opportunity to opt into the new alumni email service.  

 Legacy Forwarded Accounts

These addresses were  part of the UTORmail email system but are now fully decommissioned. The address itself is still active, however, as it is used to automatically forward emails to another account. Users will receive notifications about the end of @utoronto.ca forwarding service – after the 90-day period, messages will be returned to the sender.  

Shared Mailbox Accounts

These accounts will be assessed by departments for ongoing service or account closure. 

If your question is about status verification, please visit U of T Status Verification Form. if your question is about alumni opt-in, visit U of T Alumni Email Opt-in Form. For anything else, please submit a ticket General Inquiry Form.