An email validation API is a hidden tool that acts as a filter at point of entry to stop unwanted email data entering your network.
Data hygiene causes headaches. Every data-entry point is a weak link, exposing your system to typos, duplicates and worse still - deliberate attacks and fraud attempts. You need to protect your systems, but you don't want to slow processes down, especially if you sell online.
Welcome to email validation at point of entry
Online forms are especially vulnerable to bad email entry. They are a high-risk, high impact window into your system. You can't send order confirmations or quotes to email addresses that don't exist. To add insult to injury, if people place an order but don't hear from you, they may think your service is poor and may give bad reviews before you've even had a chance to get in touch.
Imagine the pain - you lose the next customer because the last one spelled their email address wrong!
It's not just online sales systems that suffer from bad email address entry
Mistakes in CRMs result in lost connections and increased administration time. Every lead or sales enquiry is important, yet something as simple as a typo in an email address can prevent contact and lose a sale. A simple email validation check of every manual email entry will act as a safety-net for time-pressed people and reduce the need for manual reviews throughout the business.
'Manual Review' is most often associated as a process that helps tackle online fraud.
Traditional, relatively expensive anti-fraud systems wait until after a transaction to flag possible fraud. Sometimes it takes weeks to be notified of a problem.
Email validation is an easy to integrate, cost effective and powerfully simple solution that is accessible for all online businesses, regardless of product value or the number of transactions. That's because email addresses are like fingerprints - they provide information about the person behind them. People who commit fraud online usually try to hide their real identities and location. They use false email addresses, stolen credit cards and create a smokescreen to fool your systems.
Relax. Integrating an email validation (verification) API into sign-up and sales forms is simple. It will open up new choices for automation of your business processes.
For example, businesses that offer free content downloads and trial periods will get better results if they filter email addresses. That's because email validation at point of sign-up helps businesses engage effectively with people who have genuine interest.
How does integrated email checking work?
Email validation improves data quality, supports compliance and increases business effectiveness.
Once the API has been integrated every email address is checked as soon as it is typed. It just takes milliseconds to check and return a result. The API looks for basic syntax errors like missing '@' signs and more detailed information, such as whether it's a disposable email address, if it's role based or a catch-all mail server. It will even tell you if the inbox is full.
Solving the problem of disposable email addresses on sign-up forms
Disposable emails are giving more businesses a headache. They are email addresses that last for a very short period of time before disappearing for ever. Fraudsters use disposables to make transactions and then cover their tracks. Like using a mobile phone and throwing the SIM card away.
Tech-savvy transient shoppers use them to make purchases and then let all emails hard bounce once the order has been confirmed. We've started describing this tech-savvy group as 'ghost customers' they appear, disappear, don't hang around for long and it's hard to prove they were there!
Disposable email addresses are a risk to your business, and they devalue your data. The Email Hippo disposable email checking system sets the benchmark for the industry. It seeks and detects new disposable email addresses all over the internet, 24/7.
The benefits of email verification at sign-up:
Identify bad & bad-intent email addresses
Stop hard bounces
Improve your sender reputation by cleaning your data as it builds
Prevent data-entry errors
Recognise returning visitors and treat them personally
Improve customer service
Spot duplicates
Improve data storage efficiencies
Email verification will detect:
Disposable emails or ‘burners’
Dark web connections
Profanity and gibberish
Malicious spam traps
Catch-all servers
Untrustworthy domains
Server and domain locations
We love to talk about disposable email addresses and online fraud. For more reading about disposable email addresses, online fraud and email validation choose from these blog articles.
Online fraud - including ways to protect your forms
System developers recommend our API. It enables businesses to respond automatically to all email address entries. To find out more about MORE, Email Hippo's email validation API, read here.
ASSESS is our fraud prevention solution. It uses email address intelligence as one of the sources for identifying risks at first point of contact.
