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By following safe email practices, you can ensure that emails you send are not caught by the Junk Mail filter or dismissed as potential spam or phishing attempts by recipients.
Protect Personal Data
Use email encryption when sending sensitive information, including Social Security numbers, university ID numbers, and other personally identifiable information (PII). Learn more about what is considered PII in the Data Classification policy.
Never send or request personal information over unencrypted email.
Send from UARK Email
Email sent from a non-UARK account is more likely to be identified as junk mail.
- Always use your UARK email account to conduct university business.
- Do not forward, send or or reply to your UARK email from an external account such as Gmail.
- Using a non-UARK account for university business could expose the contents of that email account to FOIA disclosure requests.
Use Official Outlook Apps
There are security risks involved when setting up your UARK account in third-party email applications like iOS Mail or the Android Gmail app.
Outlook provides increased security, convenience and a consistent experience. It has also been configured at the university to minimize phishing attempts.
Safely Send Mass Email
These tips will help keep your departmental or class emails from being blocked or filtered:
- Do not CC or BCC large groups of people. Use mailing lists or email groups instead.
- Use a professional tone and make sure the grammar and spelling are correct. Follow the University Relations Style Guide standards to give your email a greater degree of credibility; for example, always use "University of Arkansas," instead of "UA."
- Avoid using too many suspicious keywords and phrases such as:
- alternative/alternate email
- gift cards
- “$” or “free” in subject line
- Order now
- Check or money order
- 100% satisfied
- Use free online spam checker websites to ensure emails do not contain commonly blocked words or phrases.
Provide Verifiable Contact Information
- Include contact information with a phone number and email address in the signature block and/or as a separate paragraph in the body of the email to allow the reader to verify that the email is legitimate.
- Contact information should include a university phone number, a UARK email address, a physical location, such as a campus address, and other ways to verify the legitimacy of the email, such as departmental or individual contact information.
- Where possible, refer readers to departmental web pages or other trusted sites containing a version of the same or related information.