# Risky Emails

Learn more about what contributes to returning an email as Risky

Risky emails are addresses that may be deliverable but should be used with caution because they raise quality concerns or are uncertain to deliver.

They are not the same as Undeliverable emails. A Risky email may still receive mail, but it carries more uncertainty than a Deliverable email and may not perform as well in real sending scenarios.

## **What a Risky result means**

When Emailable marks an email as Risky, it means the address cannot be classified as confidently safe, unlike a Deliverable address.

A Risky result is used when the email shows signs of lower quality or when the mail environment makes deliverability less certain.

There are two reasons why emails can be Risky.

### **Low Quality**

Low Quality means the email address has characteristics that reduce its overall value or reliability.

These characteristics may not prove the email is invalid, but they can make it less suitable for outreach, list building, or long-term engagement.

### **Low Deliverability**

Low Deliverability means the email appears capable of receiving mail, but deliverability cannot be guaranteed with the same confidence as a Deliverable address.

This usually reflects a verification environment in which the mailbox may exist, but the available evidence is not strong enough to warrant a full Deliverable classification.

## Risky Attributes

### **Accept-All addresses**

![Emailable email verification result showing an accept-all domain with a score of 60 marked as risky, including attributes like accept-all enabled and low deliverability warning.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/6ukvxgr7/production/96b5495c4ee26028c6ca94f44f6f94bd442ea7a9-1200x1974.png)

Accept-All domains are configured to accept mail broadly, making mailbox-level certainty harder to verify.

Depending on the domain’s behavior, an Accept-All email may sometimes be verified as Deliverable or Undeliverable with certainty. In other cases, it may be returned as Risky with an Accept-All attribute because the final mailbox status cannot be fully confirmed.

### **Disposable addresses**

![Disposable email address marked as disposable by Emailable verifier](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/6ukvxgr7/production/098857c0b4d936905fe9ccef7358589baf4ead3a-1200x1974.png)

Disposable email addresses are temporary mailboxes created for short-term use.

Even when they accept mail, they are generally considered lower quality because they are often abandoned quickly and unreliable for ongoing communication.

### **Role-based addresses**

![Emailable verification result showing a risky email with a score around 70, identified as a role-based address with potential deliverability concerns.](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/6ukvxgr7/production/2e7fc79ff71926a2e08fd446d2222136a3d1b6b7-1202x1978.png)

Role emails represent a job function or group rather than a single person.

Examples include:

- support@
- billing@
- sales@
- help@
- admin@

These addresses can be valid, but they may also lead to different engagement patterns, a higher likelihood of unsubscribe, or lower relevance for person-based campaigns.

## **Adding Risky emails to your send list**

**Should you send emails to Risky addresses?**

That depends on your risk tolerance, list source, and campaign goals.

Risky does not always mean “do not send.” It means you should be careful.

Some businesses choose to keep certain Risky emails, especially when the addresses come from trusted sources, recent signups, customer replies, or important business contacts.

Others choose to suppress all Risky emails to maintain a stricter list hygiene policy.

## **How to evaluate whether to keep Risky emails**

A good decision usually depends on factors such as:

- How the email was collected
- How recent the address is
- Whether the contact has engaged before
- Whether the address is critical to a sales or support workflow
- How conservative do you want to be with deliverability

For example, a recently collected role-based address from a real business may be worth keeping in a B2B workflow, while an old disposable address from an unknown source is often better removed.

## **Best practices for handling Risky emails**

If your sending strategy is highly sensitive to bounce risk, complaint risk, or engagement quality, you may want to exclude Risky emails from your main campaign audience.

Some Risky emails, especially role-based business addresses, may still be useful in sales, partnerships, or support contexts.

Instead of deleting all Risky emails immediately, many teams place them in a separate segment and decide how to handle them based on campaign type and list source.

Past engagement, signup history, customer value, and source quality should all help guide your final decision.