[thelist] Checking to see that an email account exists

Arlen.P.Walker at jci.com Arlen.P.Walker at jci.com
Wed Jul 17 09:51:02 CDT 2002


>That makes a lot of sense.  But, do you know if there a way to check that
a
>*particular* email address exists?  I wouldn't think that checking if a
>particular address exists would have the same implications as retrieving
a
>list of *all* addresses.

Oh, but it does. If I can query for one address, I can write a
program/script which will query for a million likely addresses and give me
a list of the ones which checked out.

That's one of the prices we pay for tolerating spam; we've no way of
knowing, even after we send a message, if the address was a valid one.

There's yet another flaw in your approach. In these days of rampant spam,
people often give bogus addresses on web forms, just so they don't get the
spam (I know, because one of my test accounts happens to be an often-used
one). So even if you *could* verify the validity of the address, you have
no certainty that the address was given to you by the person who owns it.

The best way to handle this is to simply require an email confirmation.
IOW, the form gets filled out and placed in abeyance while an email is
sent to the address given, giving the reasons for sending the email and
requesting confirmation. After confirmation is received, the form is
processed.

The argument against this procedure is that a significant percentage of
people don't confirm. But ISTM that simply means they didn't want the
service in the first place, and you wouldn't have achieved anything by
having them on your list, anyway. If someone wants to be on your list,
they'll confirm. If they don't want to be on your list, why put them on
it?

Have fun,
Arlen
Chief Managing Director In Charge, Department of Redundancy Department
DNRC 224

Arlen.P.Walker at JCI.Com
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