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I want to verify e-mail addresses
missilemike
Member
Hello fellow cheapskates!
So I have about 150k e-mail addresses that are all user-supplied within our app. The problem is, when I tried to send a newsletter using Amazon SES, about 20% bounced, and my account got suspended. Zero complaints/spam of course, but too many bounces.
Now, there are plenty of php scripts/apps that can connect to a mail server to verify the existence of an e-mail address, but I need a host that won't ban me for running that check.
Any suggestions? Thanks so much!
EDIT: I know there are a lot of services that do this, but it would violate the privacy of our users to allow a third party access to our user list.
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Take the hint and stop spamming.
Check whether you can ping the domain and that the domain has an open SMTP port.
unfortunately that's not enough, because I looked over the bounces and plenty were gmail etc...
The IP(s) you do this from is likely to end up on SpamHaus's list so you'll have to find a provider with IPs to burn.
But it sounds like you have members signing up with fake email addresses (or the list is just really old), so you might want to also get a handle on the source of the problem too and do some email verification up front when the user supplies the address.
The hint is not hard to get gmail doesn't want your spam, oops i meant your legit emails.
So a newsletter that actually relevant to events in our app, that users specifically sign up for, and ask us to send... is spam. Just to try to end that path, no this is not spam. I am not some lowlife hawking viagra or whatever spam is these days. I simply want to send out a newsletter.
fwiw, I have switched to double opt-in, but it'd be a shame to lose out on 120k contributing users
When someone claims it's not spam on LET, it is spam.
This. Your intent can be perfectly legitimate, but this will still happen. Pay someone to do this for you, if you want to be polite. If you want to be a dick, burn through some IPs with a cheap provider before they know what happened and then give them the finger on the way out of the door. I hate to even mention that, but it's a choice, and I'm mentioning it specifically in hopes that you're better than that.
Rebuild your system to send a verification/validation email where they need to put in a code to validate the address and receive whatever your shitty product is, even if it is an ebook that just gives you their email address to sell.
It's not very difficult to do, and "Double opt-in" is highly suspect bullshit. I've had to clean up both code, and IPs before that this was greatly abused.
Why would you even suggest this? Why!?
Thanks. I guess a service is my only real choice. Better find a reputable one.
Merely to explain that it is my opinion that these two extremes are the most viable choices. Hopefully that drives someone to the better of the two. It sucks that it's so expensive though, but at least there are some competing services around, someone must be reasonably priced.
If only there was a service that offered decent delivery at a decent price..
You can do this automatically through www.neverbounce.com
Only if he's ready to pay $600
All the alternatives seem a little sketchy, so I guess I will just fork over the 600$ (540 with coupon code)
You are good to go then.
Wait for the SolusVM 2 release..
We have been using https://www.xverify.com. Our issue is customers (try to) signup with bad e-mail addresses causing bounces. Our consumer service is the worst because you get less tech-savy people. Has nothing to do with spam as all of our e-mail are transactional (initial signup e-mail, password reset e-mails, billing e-mails). One of our businesses got suspended on SES as well, we were not spamming. Hardest e-mails to check is yahoo. xverify has been decent enough for that. We haven't tried neverbounce.com though.
You can use --redacted-- they have cheap rates for list cleaning.