Whether you’re sending out employee W-2s or transferring funds, cybercriminals are always coming up with new ways to trick people into divulging their sensitive information. One of the best preventative measures that any business can take is validating email addresses. Fortunately, there are plenty of free and easy-to-use tools available that can help you make sure that an email is real.
How to make sure that email is real verification can be done in real-time as soon as someone signs up on your website or subscribes to your newsletter, so it’s an effective way to stop invalid emails before they can do damage. And by preventing spam and other types of fraudulent activity, email validation can improve your deliverability rates and overall profitability.
How to Make Sure That Email Is Real: Tips and Tools
The first clue that an email is fake is often the lack of a proper domain in the sender’s name. Generic domains like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail are widely used for personal email accounts because they offer free services and require minimum validation to create an account. However, it’s rare for a legitimate business to use a generic domain in their email address.
Another key tip is to carefully examine the email’s full headers. For example, the X-Originating-IP field indicates the servers that an email passed through. Many suspicious emails will have lots of hops and unfamiliar server names, which may suggest spoofing. In addition, you can check the message’s authentication methods by viewing SPF and DKIM headers. A missing DKIM or SPF can also reveal a fake email.