There's no clean way to verify an email address. Here's what works anyway.

Email verification is crucial for ensuring successful email delivery and maintaining good sender reputation. However, verifying emails correctly involves more than just checking syntax and MX records; it requires understanding various nuances of SMTP protocol behavior and server responses.

Key challenges include:

• Catch-all Domains: Servers that accept any RCPT TO address without confirming mailbox existence.
• Role-Based Addresses: Common addresses like info@, support@, etc., which are often deliverable but not ideal for targeted outreach.
• Disposable Email Addresses (DEAs): Temporary email services used by spammers and bots.

A robust verification process should:

1. Perform syntax checks to ensure the address format is correct.
2. Look up MX records and A records as fallbacks.
3. Check against lists of disposable email domains.
4. Identify the receiving server provider (e.g., Gmail, Outlook) to understand how it handles RCPT TO requests.
5. Implement catch-all detection by probing a fake address first.
6. Respect rate limits and retry intervals for greylisting.

For example, PeopleDB offers an API endpoint /api/v1/email_verifications that encapsulates these complexities:

shell
 
1curl "https://peopledb.co/api
2
3[Read the full article at DEV Community](https://dev.to/apa512/theres-no-clean-way-to-verify-an-email-address-heres-what-works-anyway-36bn)
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