Understanding Results

Every verified email receives a status and a trust score (0-100). Results appear automatically in Step 3 (Results) of the verifier wizard when verification completes. Here's what each status means and how to act on the results.

Status categories

Safe (score 90-100)

The email passed all checks with high confidence. The domain has MX records, SPF, and DMARC configured properly. No risk signals detected.

Action: Safe to send.

Valid (score 60-89)

The email is technically valid but has one or more soft risk signals. Common reasons:

• Missing SPF or DMARC records
• Role-based address (info@, support@) on a domain with otherwise good records

Action: Generally safe to send, but monitor bounce rates for these addresses.

Risky (score 20-59)

Multiple risk signals detected. The email might work, but there's a meaningful chance of a bounce or spam trap.

Action: Consider excluding from cold outreach. OK for transactional email to known contacts.

Invalid (score 0-19)

Failed one or more hard checks (score set to 0) or accumulated enough soft risk signals to drop below 20:

• Invalid syntax (not a valid email format)
• No MX records (domain can't receive email)
• Known disposable/temporary domain
• Listed in bounce suppression records
• Domain on admin blocklist

Action: Do not send. Remove from your list.

Unknown

We couldn't determine the status. This usually means:

• DNS timeout during verification
• Temporary network issue

Action: Re-verify later or treat as risky.

Trust score details

The trust score starts at 100 and is reduced by risk signals:

Additional checks in both modes

The following checks also run in Quick and Deep modes:

Deep-mode-only checks

The following checks run only in Deep mode (2 credits per email):

SMTP verification explained

In Deep mode, we connect to the recipient's mail server and attempt to verify whether the specific mailbox exists. Possible outcomes:

• Accepted — the server confirmed the address. Score receives +5 bonus.
• Rejected — the server explicitly rejected the address. Score is set to 0 (Invalid).
• Inconclusive — the server did not give a definitive answer. This is typical for catch-all domains (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) that accept all addresses at the SMTP level. The score relies on other checks.

SMTP verification adds the most value for custom/corporate domains where the mail server will definitively accept or reject individual addresses.

If any hard-fail check triggers (invalid syntax, no MX, disposable domain, etc.), the score is set to 0 and the status is Invalid regardless of soft signals.

Result details

Each result includes:

• Email — the verified address
• Status — Safe, Valid, Risky, Invalid, or Unknown
• Score — numeric trust score (0-100)
• Reason — human-readable explanation
• MX Host — the mail server handling the domain (when available)
• SMTP Status — accepted, rejected, inconclusive, or skipped (Deep mode only)

Best practices

1. Remove all Invalid — these will bounce and hurt your reputation
2. Review Risky carefully — check if you have prior engagement history with these contacts
3. Re-verify periodically — email validity changes over time as people change jobs and abandon accounts
4. Keep bounce rate under 2% — most ESPs will flag or suspend accounts above this threshold