Question : Can you validate email addresses without SENDING it to the address? We want to confirm before sending bulk marketing emails. Some will be old and outdated.

We have 45,000 emails addresses accumulated over the past 12 years. Many will be outdated. I'd like to know if there is a way to bulk-process hundreds of addresses at  a time to weed out those that are no longer valid addresses. Operating system: PC, Windows XP, and we're going to use Contant Contact or Campaigner to do the sending, reporting, etc.

Answer : Can you validate email addresses without SENDING it to the address? We want to confirm before sending bulk marketing emails. Some will be old and outdated.

It is possible - there are a few stages to validation

1. Check the address is properly formed - that is, could it be an email address?
2. Check the domain (part after the '@') exists
3. Talk to the domain's mailserver and ask it whether the user (part before '@') exists

There is an SMTP 'VRFY' command which is designed for part 3, but many servers have it disabled as it has been used in the past to harvest addresses by spammers. It is possible to achieve something similar by starting to send an email and checking the server's response. Additionally, some servers (eg AOL) are reputed to accept emails to all usernames whether they exist or not.

http://www.glocksoft.com/amlv/ is a software package that will do it for you automatically

However, have you considered whether these people actually /want/ to receive your marketing and have consented to do so?