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Check If Email Exists

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Re: Check If Email Exists

#201

Post by DeusExMachina »

ericmay wrote: post #199
relix wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I receive a lot of fake user signups on the web tool I publish for free. These users (bots?) sign up using fake email addresses, but putting a captcha does not help much. I send a confirmation email to these users to make sure they exist, but if the email address does not exist, sending that confirmation email hits my account's deliverability (spam) score as it generates a bounce which my email sender provider does n…

I think what this is telling you is that users don’t value giving you their email address for your free tools. They know why you want their email address, and they don’t want that, but they do want your tools. Maybe it’s time to charge money for those tools or change models? Maybe not give access until the email address is confirmed? Worth considering I guess. Idk the details. I do this all the time. Ads and malpract…

Is it that risky? Talking, at least, as a somewhat knowledgeable person, which is the target of such web tools.

I usually have no problem using my email address to sign up for things. And yes, I do know that emails will come.

Sometimes they are actually useful and I keep them. Often, I don't care and I just unsubscribe. I some not-so-common cases, it is spam, in which case I mark it as such and I am never bothered by it again.

Sure, it's a bit of extra work. But I would not classify it as risky business.

Re: Check If Email Exists

#202

Post by rvba »

relix wrote: post #196
Cyberdog wrote: post #8

Could someone spell out a use case for this? One that comes to mind would be validating that a mailing list doesn't have any outdated email addresses in it, but couldn't that be determined by just checking for a bounce when a message is sent to it? I tried to sign up for SiriusXM the other day, and though I could create an account with my .pro email address, I couldn't actually sign up for service with that same addr…

I receive a lot of fake user signups on the web tool I publish for free. These users (bots?) sign up using fake email addresses, but putting a captcha does not help much. I send a confirmation email to these users to make sure they exist, but if the email address does not exist, sending that confirmation email hits my account's deliverability (spam) score as it generates a bounce which my email sender provider does n…

If you dont state clearly why you even need the emails, fake one is the way to go.

Re: Check If Email Exists

#203

Post by toomanybeersies »

profmonocle wrote: post #105
Cyberdog wrote: post #8

Could someone spell out a use case for this? One that comes to mind would be validating that a mailing list doesn't have any outdated email addresses in it, but couldn't that be determined by just checking for a bounce when a message is sent to it? I tried to sign up for SiriusXM the other day, and though I could create an account with my .pro email address, I couldn't actually sign up for service with that same addr…

A non-marketing example: We were onboarding a large new client to our SAAS product. This process involved creating accounts for all of their employees (tens of thousands) and sending emails with an activation link. (Where they'd be able to set up their password.) Our system sends these emails in batches, and as soon as the first batch went out we got an alert from our monitoring system that our bounce rate was surgin…

Wouldn't the better solution have been to support SSO?

Re: Check If Email Exists

#204

Post by cj »

r1ch wrote: post #197
relix wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I receive a lot of fake user signups on the web tool I publish for free. These users (bots?) sign up using fake email addresses, but putting a captcha does not help much. I send a confirmation email to these users to make sure they exist, but if the email address does not exist, sending that confirmation email hits my account's deliverability (spam) score as it generates a bounce which my email sender provider does n…

If a tool like this works for you, what stops you from sending validation emails yourself?

I'm not the OP, but the answer is typically

1) Time, and..

2) Deliverability

Home grown email systems require monitoring (e.g. deliverability rates, IP reputation monitoring) and maintenance of the system itself which can be a time sink.

The reality is without using SES, Sendgrid, or a similar 3rd party provider, avoiding people's spam folder is very tricky.

Re: Check If Email Exists

#205

Post by toomanybeersies »

donmcronald wrote: post #108
profmonocle wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A non-marketing example: We were onboarding a large new client to our SAAS product. This process involved creating accounts for all of their employees (tens of thousands) and sending emails with an activation link. (Where they'd be able to set up their password.) Our system sends these emails in batches, and as soon as the first batch went out we got an alert from our monitoring system that our bounce rate was surgin…

It seems like the most practical solution to that should be calling AWS, explaining it for 5 min, and getting an exception. Is that kind of reasonable solution no longer possible with the cloud providers being so huge?

It's possible, you just need to pay the extra 10% for premium support.

Re: Check If Email Exists

#206

Post by toomanybeersies »

EnderWT wrote: post #151
killingtime74 wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve never worked with emails, could you not send these first emails yourself and not use SES

Have you looked into what SES or other email services provide? Sending emails is easy, while actually getting them delivered is harder. You have to make sure you're not getting flagged as spam, can handle bouncebacks, etc. Here's one discussion: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/371/how-do-you-make-sure...

In GP's case, they probably could'e arranged with the client's sysadmins to whitelist the IP they were sending emails from.

Re: Check If Email Exists

#207

Post by toomanybeersies »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #123
benlivengood wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some people want to receive marketing emails. The exact same emails are spam to the rest of us. If you default opt-in users and don't make blanket unsubscription from all marketing emails easy (and make the clear distinction [both internally and externally] between emails regarding the existing functionality of products/services that we've already paid for and emails to ask for more revenue from us, which includes co…

> If you default opt-in users and ... then you're a spammer, simple as that. There is no "and". If you default opt-in users, you're a spammer. > Spammers aren't necessarily evil What?

Every few months, or when there's a big disaster, I get spam from Unicef, trying to get me to donate more money.

The emails are undoubtably spam, but (in my opinion) Unicef itself isn't an evil organisation.

Re: Check If Email Exists

#208

Post by ericmay »

DeusExMachina wrote: post #201
ericmay wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think what this is telling you is that users don’t value giving you their email address for your free tools. They know why you want their email address, and they don’t want that, but they do want your tools. Maybe it’s time to charge money for those tools or change models? Maybe not give access until the email address is confirmed? Worth considering I guess. Idk the details. I do this all the time. Ads and malpract…

Is it that risky? Talking, at least, as a somewhat knowledgeable person, which is the target of such web tools. I usually have no problem using my email address to sign up for things. And yes, I do know that emails will come. Sometimes they are actually useful and I keep them. Often, I don't care and I just unsubscribe. I some not-so-common cases, it is spam, in which case I mark it as such and I am never bothered by…

I was thinking risky in terms of cost/benefit.

The cost for me to give a fake email is very close to 0, and the risk of getting spam emails or who knows what is much higher in comparison so why bother giving anyone my real email address? I mean I do give it out from time to time (you can easily find it if you want) I’m just speaking generally.

Re: Check If Email Exists

#209

Post by Narishma »

Wronnay wrote: post #181

It makes me uneasy that the SaaS Website has no Imprint even while it writes "Made in a small independent studio in Berlin 🇩🇪." In Germany an Imprint for a paid service is mandatory and after the ToS it seems like this is a product from a company in France? (I believe there are similar laws in France?)

What's an imprint?

Re: Check If Email Exists

#210

Post by tryauuum »

iudqnolq wrote: post #129
smileysteve wrote: post #4

The SMTP way of checking if an email exists is on the wrong side of CANSPAM, beginning the sending process to check an address is specifically addressed. And this assumes you didn't systematically "guess" the address.

CAN-SPAM regulates "sending electronic mail messages". Connecting to an SMTP server to ask it if an address exists doesn't sound like that to me, but IANAL.

majority of mail servers do not support VRFY command, that is why the generic method of checking mail box is trying to send message (via MAIL FROM + RCPT TO) and breaking the sending halfway through
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