How to tell if an email is fake: Complete guide 2020

More than 100 billion emails are sent every day, many of them from fake mailboxes. Amazingly, about 95% of employees in various enterprises are unable to distinguish real accounts from phishing ones. With such a disappointing statistics, a natural question arises: how to tell if an email is fake? It is important to understand that there are two varieties of “fake”:

1. inactive or invalid mailing addresses, where letters cannot be delivered;
2. mailers created for spamming, spoofing, phishing, or any other type of scam.

When solving a problem called “how to know if an email is fake”, you must understand that you will have to choose between paid and free service, between accurate and inaccurate tools, between fast and slow ways. An ideal method that is free, accurate and fast at the same time almost doesn’t exist. In any case, you will have to agreement by sacrificing one of the points.

In this guide, we are offering you to consider the basic ways of how to tell if an email is fake, which will save you from emails with spoofed addresses once and for all.

Option 1: Ping an email address to verify it

This method will tell you how to verify if an email address is real or fake, with that it is without payment, precise, but quite slow. If you are willing to sacrifice time, then this option is not a bad one.

Most of the services work in the online mode and you do not need to download software to your PC. However, there are types of software that require you to do this. We still recommend keeping up with the times and using cloud platforms.

Style: Free, Accurate, Slow

For example, you have to check this address: testing@gmail.com. In the command line, you have to write: nslookup-type = mх gmaіl.cоm. This operation will offer a list of MX records for the example.com domain. If the domain name belongs to another mail service, you can do the same, and write the appropriate domain on the command line. When wondering how can you tell if an email is fake, you will notice that as a result of validation, the same domain can have more than one MX record. This is ok. After choosing one of the servers, send a test greeting letter to it, then to another. If the server status is “valid”, you will receive “Ok” in response, if not, you will receive an error notification in the following format:

• “Account does not exist”
• “Account is disabled”

Despite the fact that this way requires a lot of time, it is an effective method of how to check if an email is spam, and you can find out if this or that contact is legitimate quickly and for free.

Option 2: Email From a Free Address

This method, like the previous one, is free, but it lacks accuracy. At that, the speed of obtaining the result can vary from several minutes to 24 hours. Using this method in the context of how to tell if an email is fake, create a temporary email address on Google, Yahoo, or any other free system. Next, send an email from your fake mailer to the address you’re interested in. If there is no bounced message during the day, then everything is ok. Otherwise, you are dealing with a fake email address.

Style: Free, Inaccurate, Varying Speeds

You might have a natural question: why does the waiting time for an answer vary so much? It all depends on the speed of the server.

The popularity of this tactic is undeniable. Firstly, it does not require money, secondly, you don’t need deep technical knowledge, and thirdly, everything happens simply and most often quickly. However, the accuracy of this method is inferior to the next strategy, which we will discuss below.

Option 3: Use Email Verification service

If you are asking how do you know if an email is fake accurately and quickly? Use a special email verification service. Many users distinguish Proofy among all online platforms. With this software you can:

• quickly and effortlessly identify the list of addresses for authenticity by simply dragging and dropping the file with contacts into the required window;
• receive a report with a deliverability result of 98.5% as soon as possible in a real-time mode;
• have access to a variety of verification tools, from syntax checking to domain validation;
• integrate API validation into your own web application or system for the most efficient use;
• check absolutely any email addresses quickly, accurately and on the most favorable terms;
• Proofy.io is a cloud-based service that allows you to complete workflows quickly and easily. Processing is carried out in a real-time mode, so you receive up-to-date information;
• If you use Proofy service you will not disturb your subscribers. Establishing the validity of a postal address is done by connecting to SMTP servers and simulating the sending of an email message.

Style: Paid, Accurate, Fast

The advantage of our platform lies not only in high-quality verification and getting a list with active, valid, and targeted contacts. The price aspect also plays an important role in the question of how to know if an email is fake. Proofy offers 100 free checks for new users; when making a paid subscription, the cost of checking 1 email account is only $ 0.006.

It is important to note that the processing time depends on the type of mail providers and domains that the system is accessing. On average, the service processes a list of 100,000 emails in 45 minutes.

As a result, you avoid hard and soft bounces, there will be no more refusals, you will catch all dead accounts, increase not only the deliverability but also the open rate of your emails, maintain an impeccable reputation of the sender and your mail domain. Try the free version now!

Get Free Help Finding Fake Email Addresses Today

Surely, you have repeatedly wondered how can I tell if an email is fake for free and quickly? You can use the basic guidelines:

1. Spam folder – if you see that the email you have received got into spam, this may mean that the sender is a spammer.
2. Suspicious address entry – if the email address, the so-called prefix, has too many digits, and the domain name is a free provider, the account may be fictitious.
3. Errors in the body of the letter – if you see that the text is composed illiterately, there are many syntaxes and lexical errors in it, this may also indicate the sender’s unreliability.
4. Request for personal data – if you see a request or requirement to provide confidential information in a letter, be sure that the person who requests it is most likely related to illegal activities.
5. Vague letter with “Hello” – you are being addressed with a general phrase like “Sir”, “Mister”, and not by name in the header of the letter, this may also indicate the fictitious account from which the message came.

Naturally, if you are serious about the question of how I know if an email is fake, these methods still cannot guarantee a 100% result.

Get help now by contacting the customer support of Proofy’s online validator. You can call the number indicated at the company’s website. There is also a corporate email address, as well as links to popular social networks. If you need competent advice on how to know if the email is fake, experienced experts will explain what are the best ways to do it and offer you to try premium software. In addition, you will be promptly brought up to date to make using the platform easy, enjoyable and efficient. Please, contact us!