Result Types Explained
You've verified your email list. Now you're staring at a spreadsheet full of statuses like "Safe," "Catch-All," and "Disposable."
What do they actually mean? And more importantly—what should you do with each one?
Let's break it down.
The Quick Reference
Here's every result type at a glance:
| Status | Score | Safe to Send? | What It Means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safe | 98 | ✅ Yes | Valid email, go ahead and send |
| Role | 93 | ✅ Yes (with caution) | Valid but belongs to a team, not a person |
| Catch-All | 71 | ⚠️ Maybe | Server accepts everything—can't confirm mailbox |
| Disposable | 30 | ❌ No | Temporary throwaway address |
| Inbox Full | 20 | ⚠️ Temporarily No | Mailbox exists but can't receive mail right now |
| Disabled | 4 | ❌ No | Account was valid but got deactivated |
| Invalid | 3 | ❌ No | Email doesn't exist—will bounce |
| Spam Trap | ~3 | 🚫 Never | Honeypot designed to catch spammers |
| Unknown | 0 | ⚠️ Uncertain | Couldn't verify—credits refunded |
Higher score = Safer to send. Think of it as a confidence rating out of 100.
Now let's dive deeper into each one.
✅ Safe (Score: 98)
What it means:
This is the green light. The email address exists, the mailbox is active, and it's ready to receive your message.
When we mark an email as "Safe," we've confirmed:
- The syntax is correct
- The domain exists and accepts email
- The specific mailbox exists
- It's not a disposable, role, or problematic address
What to do:
Send with confidence! These are your golden contacts. Our 3% bounce rate guarantee applies to emails marked as Safe.
Example:
john.smith@gmail.com → Safe (98)
sarah.jones@company.com → Safe (98)
✅ Role (Score: 93)
What it means:
The email is valid and will receive your message—but it belongs to a team or department, not an individual person.
Think of addresses like:
info@company.comsupport@company.comsales@company.comadmin@company.combilling@company.comhr@company.com
These aren't personal inboxes. They're often monitored by multiple people, forwarded to a ticketing system, or sometimes... barely checked at all.
What to do:
You can send to role addresses—they're valid. But keep in mind:
- Lower engagement — Multiple people (or no one specific) may see your email
- Less personal — Hard to build a relationship with "info@"
- Higher spam risk — Role addresses are more likely to mark marketing emails as spam
Our recommendation: Segment role addresses separately. They're fine for transactional emails or initial outreach, but don't expect the same engagement as personal addresses.
Example:
support@techstartup.com → Role (93)
careers@bigcompany.com → Role (93)
⚠️ Catch-All (Score: 71)
What it means:
The domain is configured to accept emails sent to any address—even ones that don't exist.
Here's what happens with a catch-all domain:
You: "I'd like to send an email to random-gibberish-12345@catch-all-company.com"
Server: "Sure, I'll accept that!"
The server says yes to everything. So when we ask "does john@catch-all-company.com exist?"—the server says yes, even if John doesn't work there and never has.
Why companies use catch-all:
- To catch emails with typos (like
johnn@instead ofjohn@) - To ensure no messages get lost
- Some companies just leave default settings on
What to do:
Catch-all emails won't hard bounce (the server accepts them), but they might:
- Land in a general inbox no one checks
- Trigger soft bounces (auto-replies)
- Simply disappear into the void
Our recommendation:
- Don't delete them outright—many are legitimate
- Test a small batch first (maybe 10-20%)
- Monitor bounce rates and engagement
- If they perform well, send to the rest
Example:
mike@small-business.com → Catch-All (71)
→ Learn more about Catch-All Emails
❌ Disposable (Score: 30)
What it means:
This is a temporary, throwaway email address that will self-destruct soon (or already has).
Services like Guerrilla Mail, 10 Minute Mail, Temp Mail, and dozens of others let anyone create an instant email address that expires after a few minutes to a few hours.
Why people use them:
- To sign up for something without giving their real email
- To grab a freebie or discount code
- To avoid marketing emails (ouch, but fair)
What to do:
Remove them. These addresses are essentially worthless because:
- The person doesn't want to hear from you (that's the whole point)
- The address will stop working soon
- They'll never engage, convert, or buy
- Sending to expired addresses increases your bounce rate
Our recommendation: Delete disposable emails from your list. If someone used a throwaway address, they've already told you they're not interested.
Example:
cereha9150@emaxasp.com → Disposable (30)
lakekej468@gavrom.com → Disposable (30)
⚠️ Inbox Full (Score: 20)
What it means:
The email address exists and was valid—but the mailbox is stuffed. There's no room for new messages right now.
This happens when someone:
- Hit their storage limit
- Hasn't cleaned their inbox in ages
- Abandoned the account (but didn't delete it)
What to do:
This is a temporary issue. The mailbox could start accepting emails again if the owner clears some space. But realistically? Most people with full inboxes aren't actively using that address.
Our recommendation:
- Remove from your primary send list
- Keep in a separate "retry later" segment
- Try again in 30-60 days (if the contact is valuable)
- If it's still full after multiple checks, remove permanently
Example:
old.contact@yahoo.com → Inbox Full (20)
❌ Disabled (Score: 4)
What it means:
This email account used to be valid, but the provider has deactivated it.
This happens when:
- The user violated terms of service
- The account was abandoned for too long
- The provider shut it down for security reasons
- It's a work email and the person left the company
What to do:
Remove it. A disabled account can't receive emails—your message will bounce.
The difference between "Disabled" and "Invalid":
- Invalid = The mailbox never existed
- Disabled = The mailbox existed but was turned off
Either way, the result is the same: your email isn't getting through.
Example:
former.employee@company.com → Disabled (4)
❌ Invalid (Score: 3)
What it means:
The email address does not exist. Period.
This could be because:
- It was never created
- It was deleted
- There's a typo (
gmial.cominstead ofgmail.com) - The domain doesn't accept email
If you send to an invalid address, you'll get a hard bounce.
What to do:
Remove immediately. Invalid emails are list poison:
- They guarantee bounces
- They hurt your sender reputation
- They can get you flagged by ISPs
- They're literally impossible to reach
Before deleting, check for obvious typos you can fix:
john@gmial.com→john@gmail.comsarah@yhoo.com→sarah@yahoo.commike@company.con→mike@company.com
Example:
fake.person@nonexistent-domain.com → Invalid (3)
typo.email@gmial.com → Invalid (3)
🚫 Spam Trap (Score: ~3)
What it means:
This is a honeypot email address designed specifically to catch spammers. It looks like a normal email, but it's actually a trap.
Two types of spam traps:
Pristine Spam Traps These were never real email addresses. They were created solely to catch people who scrape websites or buy sketchy email lists. If you're hitting these, you have a list quality problem.
Recycled Spam Traps These were once real addresses that got abandoned. After sitting inactive for a long time, ISPs repurpose them as traps. That old contact from 2018 who left the company? Their email might now be a spam trap.
What to do:
Never, ever send to spam traps.
Hitting spam traps can:
- Get your domain blacklisted
- Destroy your sender reputation
- Cause all your emails to land in spam
- Get your email service account suspended
We identify known spam traps, but no service can catch 100% of them. That's why list hygiene matters.
Our recommendation: Remove immediately. And if you're hitting multiple spam traps, audit where your email list came from. Did you buy a list? Scrape websites? Use old data you haven't cleaned in years?
Example:
hidden.trap@somedomain.com → Spam Trap (~3)
⚠️ Unknown (Score: 0)
What it means:
We couldn't determine whether this email address is valid or not.
This happens when:
- The mail server didn't respond
- The server timed out
- The domain has unusual security configurations
- Rate limiting blocked our verification
"Unknown" doesn't mean invalid—it means uncertain.
What to do:
You have a few options:
- Wait and retry — Server issues are often temporary. Try verifying again later.
- Send cautiously — If the contact is valuable, send to a small batch and monitor bounces.
- Skip — If you have plenty of Safe emails, just focus on those.
Here's something most verification services don't do: we automatically refund your credits for Unknown results.
You shouldn't pay to not get an answer. If we can't verify an email, you get your credit back. Simple.
Example:
contact@unusual-server-config.com → Unknown (0)
Understanding the Score
Every verified email gets a confidence score from 0-100.
Think of it as a "how safe is this email?" rating:
| Score Range | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 90-100 | Very safe—send confidently |
| 70-89 | Probably safe—send with some caution |
| 30-69 | Risky—proceed carefully |
| 1-29 | Unsafe—probably shouldn't send |
| 0 | Unknown—couldn't verify |
The score combines:
- Verification result type
- Domain reputation
- Additional risk factors
A "Safe" email typically scores 98. A "Role" email scores 93 (still safe, just slightly higher risk due to being a group address). "Catch-All" sits around 71 because we can't confirm the specific mailbox.
What About the Extra Columns?
When you download your results, you'll see more than just status and score. Here's what the additional columns mean:
| Column | What It Tells You |
|---|---|
| Safe to Send | Yes/No quick recommendation |
| Deliverable | Whether the email can receive messages |
| Free Email | Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, etc. (not bad, just info) |
| Disposable | Is it a throwaway address? |
| Catch-All | Does the server accept all emails? |
| Role Account | Is it a team email (info@, support@)? |
| Spam Trap | Is this a known honeypot? |
| Inbox Full | Is the mailbox at capacity? |
| Disabled | Was the account deactivated? |
| MX Found | Does the domain have mail servers configured? |
These flags give you granular control. Want to exclude all role accounts? Filter by that column. Want to see only free email providers? Easy.
→ Learn more about downloading and using results
What Should I Send To?
Here's a simple decision framework:
| Status | Action |
|---|---|
| Safe | ✅ Send confidently |
| Role | ✅ Send (but expect lower engagement) |
| Catch-All | ⚠️ Test small batch first |
| Inbox Full | ⚠️ Retry later or remove |
| Unknown | ⚠️ Retry or send cautiously |
| Disposable | ❌ Remove |
| Disabled | ❌ Remove |
| Invalid | ❌ Remove |
| Spam Trap | 🚫 Remove immediately |
The safest approach:
- Always send to Safe
- Segment Role addresses separately
- Test Catch-All in small batches
- Remove everything else
Emails Can Still Bounce (Even Valid Ones)
Here's an important reality check: even "Safe" emails can occasionally bounce.
Why?
Email verification confirms the address exists at the moment we check it. But things can change:
- Someone deletes their account after you verify
- A server goes down temporarily
- Your email content triggers spam filters
- The recipient manually blocks you
- Your sending IP has reputation issues
What causes bounces unrelated to the email address:
- Incorrect SPF, DKIM, or DMARC configuration
- Your sending IP is blacklisted
- Email content flagged as spam
- Too many emails sent too fast
- Links in your email have poor reputation
- You haven't warmed up your email/IP properly
To minimize bounces beyond verification:
- Authenticate your domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
- Warm up new email addresses gradually
- Keep your content clean and avoid spam triggers
- Don't include too many links or tracking pixels
- Monitor your sender reputation
The Bottom Line
| Result | Score | Safe to Send | Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Safe | 98 | ✅ Yes | Send |
| Role | 93 | ✅ Yes | Send (segment separately) |
| Catch-All | 71 | ⚠️ Maybe | Test first |
| Disposable | 30 | ❌ No | Remove |
| Inbox Full | 20 | ⚠️ Temporarily No | Retry later |
| Disabled | 4 | ❌ No | Remove |
| Invalid | 3 | ❌ No | Remove |
| Spam Trap | ~3 | 🚫 Never | Remove |
| Unknown | 0 | ⚠️ Uncertain | Retry (credits refunded) |
Remember:
- Higher score = safer to send
- Safe and Role are your best contacts
- Always remove Invalid, Disabled, Disposable, and Spam Trap
- Test Catch-All before sending to all of them
- Unknown results get your credits refunded automatically
Next Steps
Now that you understand the results, put them to use: