SafeToSend Results Guide – AtData’s Email Verification

Help Center  ❯  AtData Services  ❯  Email Validation

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Explanation of AtData’s SafeToSend email verification and hygiene results and how to use them.

SafeToSend is the industry’s leading Email Verification and Hygiene solution, trusted by twenty-five percent of the Fortune 500. With unparalleled speed and accuracy, SafeToSend protects you from spam traps, bounces, and high risk emails that can threaten your inbox delivery.

SafeToSend can check emails in real-time via our API or process lists of emails. The SafeToSend batch verification process will add up to six fields to your email list: Verification Status, Verification Code, Domain Type, Role Account, Duplicate and Valid Email. If you uploaded a list from your computer, the original fields will be preserved and our results will be appended to the end of each record. If you export your results to your email service provider (“ESP”), these field names will be prefixed with “TD”, e.g. “TD Verification Status”. The Verification fields are described below and together they provide the data you need to assess and clean your list.

Verification Status

This field describes the overall verification result with the following values:

• safetosend – The email address passed all checks of the SafeToSend process, is safe to mail, and is backed by our deliverability guarantee.
• valid – The email address passed the majority of SafeToSend checks; however, it could not be confirmed as deliverable and may still bounce.
• invalid – Do not mail. The email is invalid. It may lack the proper syntax, the domain may be dead, the mailbox does not exist, etc.. (please see the list of codes below for more granular list of reasons an email is invalid)
• trap – The email address is a spam trap, honeypot, disposable, or high risk. Don’t send email to these risky addresses that can impact your email delivery.
• corrected – The email address is invalid because it had a syntax or spelling error, we fixed it and we validated the correction. If you exported results to your ESP, the original email address will have a status of “invalid” and we’ll create a new contact with a “corrected” status that has the corrected form of the address. If you download results, the corrected version of the email will be in the “Valid Email” field.

To get the best delivery results and avoid any emails that may bounce or cause delivery issues, only send messages to emails with a status of “safetosend” or “corrected”, which are backed by AtData’s 100% deliverable guarantee. Emails with a “valid” or “catchall” status have passed all syntax and trap checks and can be mailed with little risk, but we could not verify the mailbox and they may bounce. Note that emails you have defined as an exception and should always be allowed will be given a status of “valid” with verification code 55.

For “unknown” status emails, we had no information at the time of processing, but, if they are a small enough percentage of the results, mailing them is unlikely to impact your sender reputation.

Verification Code

AtData’s Verification Codes provide the specific reason why we applied the corresponding Verification Status. Most users will just check the Verification Status, but the Verification Code provides more granular detail.

Get our list of 33 unique verification codes, and below is additional information on how to interpret them.

Status	Code	Description
unknown	5	Timeout. Did not get a response in time.
valid	10	Syntax OK.
valid	20	Syntax OK and the domain is valid.
valid	45	Domain is a catch all and does not support validation.
safetosend	50	Valid and guaranteed SafeToSend email address.
valid	55	Address is allowed by client-configured exception.
invalid	100	General syntax error.
invalid	110	Invalid character in address.
invalid	115	Invalid domain syntax.
invalid	120	Invalid username syntax.
invalid	125	Invalid username syntax for that domain.
invalid	130	Address is too long.
invalid	140	Address doesn’t have a username.
invalid	145	Address doesn’t have a domain.
invalid	150	Address doesn’t have an @ sign.
invalid	155	Address has more than one @ sign.
invalid	200	Invalid top-level domain (TLD) in address.
invalid	210	Address contains an extra space or character.
invalid	215	Unquoted spaces not allowed in email addresses.
invalid	255	Address is not allowed by client-configured suppression.
invalid	310	Domain doesn’t exist.
invalid	325	Domain can’t receive email.
invalid	400	Mailbox doesn’t exist.
invalid	410	The mailbox is full and can’t receive email.
invalid	420	Mail isn’t accepted for this domain.
invalid	500	Emails with that username aren’t accepted.
invalid	505	Emails with that domain aren’t accepted.
invalid	510	That address isn’t accepted.
invalid	520	Address matched to known bouncers (optional feature).
trap	525	Address is a spamtrap, a known complainer or is suppressed.
trap	530	Address has opted out from commercial email.
unknown	999	System error.

See below for more information on how to interpret specific types of invalid responses:

Invalid – Codes 400 to 420 – Mailbox errors
Within the mailbox errors, there are three possible reasons. Invalid – 400, the mailbox doesn’t exist, is the most common invalid result. Invalid – 410, representing a full mailbox, can be considered a temporary or “soft” bounce, and these addresses may be able to receive messages at a later date.

Codes 55 and 255 — User defined exceptions and suppressions
Within the InstantData interface, you can define usernames, domains and email addresses that should always be allowed or always suppressed by the SafeToSend process. Status “valid” and code 55 indicates we allowed the email due to an exception you defined, and status “invalid” and code 255 indicates we rejected the address due to one of your suppressions.

Invalid – 500 to 520 – Email not accepted
Emails that fall under these codes have usernames, domains or emails that are best to avoid. These include mailboxes such as “abuse@” or domains such as “@spamcop.net” which belong to blacklists.

Trap- 525 – Address is a spam trap, a known complainer or is suppressed
This result represents emails that are confirmed spam traps, suspected spam traps, disposable emails, or otherwise considered high risk. This is toxic data, and, typically, these records should be quarantined or discarded. However, some users might want to compare response data by record before eliminating the email address entirely. You can also provide us your own custom suppression list to be used in marking emails with this code.

Trap – 530 – Address has opted out from commercial email
This represents records that match to a database of over 15 million email addresses that have opted out of receiving third-party email, including the Direct Marketing Association’s Email Preference Service. These records have typically responded to a permission request email in support of email append or to email list rental, and then asked to be excluded from future mailings in that category. You are under no legal obligation to remove them, but may consider doing so to minimize risk and complaint rates.

Domain Type
This field should be used as a reference point. The domain of each email is categorized, by top-level domain or AtData’s analysis, to provide you with insights into where your subscribers reside digitally.

• biz – The domain of a company.
• disposable – The domain is used temporary or anonymous email addresses.
• edu – An educational institution.
• freeisp – An Internet Service Provider that does not charge to create an email account.
• gov – A government institution.
• org – A non-profit organization.
• paidisp – An Internet Service Provider that charges fees for its services.
• parked – The website is not setup or not in use.
• privacy – The domain is used to protect the privacy of the user.
• wireless -Wireless domain. Do not send unsolicited emails.

Role Account
These addresses are group mailboxes. For example, “info@” or “sales@”. You might decide that a transactional message to a role-based mailbox is okay, but a marketing message could lead to complaints. Include or remove these records as you see fit.

Duplicate Flag
The value “true” is applied to each additional instance of an email address after the first. The first instance will be blank. For example, if [email protected] appears 3 times on your file, the duplicate flag will only appear next to the second and third listings of this email address.

Valid Email
This field includes only the emails that are guaranteed to be deliverable with verification statuses “safetosend” or “corrected.” This field only appears in files that are downloaded to your computer.