Is there any possible way to find out if an email address exists in c#?
e.g. I have an email address like [email protected] or [email protected] How can I do the validation?
5 Answers
Once upon a time the Internet and the SMTP mail transfer protocol was invented. It was back in the good old days when everyone were nice and friendly, so a command was included in the SMTP protocol to verify email addresses - the VRFY command.
However, darkness came upon the Internet and brought spammers, worms and other evil, so the sysadmins of the Internet mail servers defended what was good by disabling the VRFY command.
So the short answer is: No.
Comments
The most obvious way is to send an email to the mail address and ask the recipient to reply or click a link.
answered May 1, 2010 at 13:57
Lasse V. Karlsen
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1 Comment
pearcewg
not only is it the most obvious way...it is the only way to prove that a user who registers is even close to the owner...and that assumes the email account isn't hacked, etc.
Basicly: you can't. There are servers that support finger (to verify that a particular user exists), but for Hotmail/Gmail it's just not possible. The mail will bounce though.
Comments
In general that's not possible. Which is why many websites have that to sign up you have to give your email address and they'll send a link where you have to go to that link to confirm that it's your email.
Comments
No way at all
If it's for a reason, such as signing up with verification, then someone will reply when you send.
Why do you want to do this?
2 Comments
smartali89
Well, I am creating a emailing software and it has options to import emails as well, so I was wondering if it is possible to verify emails some how.
AmigoJack
@smartali89 Why verifying whole emails? They can be old and any address in it may have ceased to exist - yet the email on its own wouldn't become invalid. I'd be very frustrated if importing emails to the client would be impossible just because an address (sender/recipient) doesn't exist anymore - I still want to consider all of those emails when searching for text and such.