How to Verify an Email Address

The only real way to validate an email is to send an email to that address with a confirmation link. Other methods just make sure that the email address format is correct.

Thanks Nirmal for this. In the past, I used to get pointless mails from lots of rediffmail users. Also recently I have started getting it from verizon. But, I dont think it shall be 100 percent true.

In PHP, you have this mail() function using which I can send mail to anybody using any email address. That way, I can always use an existing email address in teh FROM attribute and send spams..

@Binny and Anand,
This method is not 100% true, it returns success values on most occasions, but I tried random email and got success.

for how many spam mails will you check the mail address we get a lot of spam these days..

and 99% of the spam is distuiguished so delete them straight away…

and what if you got spam from a valid mail address

@Shashank,
You are right, we can’t check all the mail IDs. But sometimes some IDs looks like genuine even though they are spam, you can check those using this.

I agree with Anand it is easy to send spam with someone else’s address and when you validate that email ID, it will look genuine. Nevertheless it looks to be a good tool, i will check out.

I simply check the headers that come with the mail. Looking at the headers it tells us from which mailservers the mail originated and what was the IP that sent them.

Querying the mail server as this service does simply finds out if an address exists. This can be done with DNS Stuff as well.

But this tool is useful for the less tech savvy and it is simple as well.

and what with spamming with disposable email ids

Well, spam is a big problem. Using Gmail keeps me out of most of the spam emails.
I hardly get any spam coming through and very less false positives.

If at all, I have any doubt on any email then I simply prefer to check the header.

Also, we can’t judge if the email is spam or not by just checking the email address. Lets say that someone is using the From field of Outlook express then he can display that email has come from a particular email address…let’s say mayank@live.com

Now this is a legitimate email address and so, if you’ll check it, then it will work but it doesn’t mean that the spam didn’t come from this email address.

I know that I’ve not explained my point in best manner..maybe I’m feeling too sleepy (3:41 am here)

I tried this service out and seems they only verify domain names and not the actual email address.

for e.g type in hfjkdsf@yahoo.com and it will validate it but if you type in hfjkdsf@yahdssdfdsfsdfoo.com
it will fail.

Not reliable in the real sense.

Keith

I agree with all your thoughts, this is not a effective mechanism, its just for people who are not techie.

Keith,
You are right, it fails with yahoo, but its valid with Gmail.

I think by a careful inspection of the email header will be sufficient to see whether an email is valid or invalid

I would say this is a must application for all. We get a lot of spam emails everyday. Ill have to bookmark the site and use it. Thanks.

There really is no good way to verify a valid e-mail address, but this is a great idea none the less.

a nice one, much required for everyone.

Are people still having a problem with spam?

I use GMail and its insanely rare that I get any spam.

@Kyle, I believe there is no 100% pure solution for SPAM yet. Let is be gmail or yahoo

@Nirmal, did you notice the test results are taking longer time.

This is really coool

This tool is useful. I got average of 20 spams each day! Grrr! Damn Spammer! I always wonder what kind of benefit will they enjoy by spamming!

@Benedict,
I didnt get you, which results are taking time?

@Ken Xu,
I too wonder why people spam, what do they get by that, anyway we delete them straight away. I get around 30-40 spam comments daily.

Nirmal, I was talking about the email verification test done by the online tool. I took long time for me to verify a email address using that tool

@Benedict,
For me it was not taking much time.

how do i verify my email address

Great post. I will try that for my emails.

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i also try to follow the steps on this site,
the result says “OK”
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is my account already verified??

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