Members of the campus community using Google Mail report an increased number of legitimate emails miscategorized as spam. UMass Amherst Information Technology (IT) is working to address this issue with urgency.

Actions UMass Amherst IT Has Taken

1. Identified inconsistencies in Google Mail's proprietary spam filtering system and opened a high-priority ticket with Google. 
2. Adjusted spam filtering options. We are currently reviewing aggregate statistics on spam detections to identify improvements.
3. Plan communications alerting the campus community to this issue. 
    

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Steps You Can Take Today

With the personalization of spam filters, members of the campus community can use a new set of instructions to manage email filters and avoid missing messages. UMass Amherst IT recommends that you:

• Check your junk email folder regularly.
• Mark important or miscategorized emails as not junk. This alerts spam filtering algorithms and ensures that similar messages and senders will be sorted correctly.
• Add the junk email folder to your favorites to more easily see new messages that have been categorized as junk.

Our goal is to optimize email deliverability on campus: (a) reduce information security risks raised by evolving spam strategies and (b) mitigate the issue of legitimate emails erroneously placed in spam folders. Finding a sustainable resolution to this issue remains a priority for the university. Please contact the IT Service Desk at it@umass.edu or 413-545-TECH (8324) with questions.