Email verifierBeginner3 min read

Verification results explained

The five verification results (Valid, Risky, Invalid, Unknown, Not verified) and every reason the verifier can give.

On this page

Who this is for: anyone reading verification results on a list or a lead and deciding whom to email.

Every lead has one verification result. The Verification column of a list, the lead page and the Email verifier all use the same five words.

The five results

Result	What it means	Should a campaign email it?
Valid	The mailbox exists and accepts email.	Yes.
Risky	Delivery is not certain: the server accepts every address (catch-all), the inbox is full, the provider does not confirm mailboxes, or it is a shared inbox such as info@.	Usually yes, with care. See below.
Invalid	Written wrong, a throwaway address, or a domain that does not exist or cannot receive email.	No. These bounce.
Unknown	The check could not finish. Try again later.	Verify again first.
Not verified	The address has not been checked yet.	Only if you accept the risk.

Hover a result pill to see its reason. The lead page shows it as a sentence next to the result.

Reason	Meaning
The mailbox exists and accepts email	Confirmed by the receiving server, or by Microsoft for outlook.com and hotmail addresses.

Reason	Meaning
A shared inbox (such as info@ or sales@), not a person	A team address. It often works but rarely reaches a decision maker.
The domain accepts every address, so this mailbox cannot be confirmed	A catch-all server. The address may or may not be read.
The mailbox is full	It exists but cannot take new email right now.
The mail server did not confirm this mailbox	The server’s answer was neither yes nor no.
Yahoo and AOL do not confirm whether an address exists	Always Risky for Yahoo, AOL, ymail and rocketmail, whatever the address.

Reason	Meaning
No email address	The lead has no address.
Not a valid email address	The address is written wrong.
The domain looks like a typing mistake	For example `gmial.com`. A suggested address is shown: Did you mean …?
A temporary, throwaway address	A disposable inbox provider.
The domain does not exist	Nobody owns this domain.
The domain cannot receive email	The domain exists but has no mail server.
The mailbox does not exist	The receiving server (or Microsoft) says there is no such mailbox.

Reason	Meaning
The check took too long. Try again later	The domain lookup did not answer within 5 seconds.
The domain could not be checked. Try again later	The lookup failed for a reason that says nothing about the address.
The mailbox check could not be completed. Try again later	The receiving server was busy or unreachable, even after a second try.
The mailbox could not be checked because no check service is set up	The mailbox check is not available at the moment. Try again later.

Catch-all company addresses are often real people. Many senders keep them, especially when the list came from the company’s own website.
Shared inboxes (info@, office@) are fine for small businesses where the owner reads everything, less so for larger companies.
Yahoo / AOL cannot be confirmed by anyone. If the address came from a reliable source, keep it.
Full inboxes often mean an abandoned mailbox. Leave them out.

Tip: When in doubt, send to Valid first. Once those results look healthy, run a second campaign for Risky.

Check a whole list: Verify a lead list.

Still stuck? Open a ticket from Swift Support in the app, or contact us.