How to verify if a email address exists?

Question

Is there any possible way to find out if an email address exists in c#?

e.g. I have an email address like [email protected] or [email protected] How can I do the validation?

Answer 1

Once upon a time the Internet and the SMTP mail transfer protocol was invented. It was back in the good old days when everyone were nice and friendly, so a command was included in the SMTP protocol to verify email addresses - the VRFY command.

However, darkness came upon the Internet and brought spammers, worms and other evil, so the sysadmins of the Internet mail servers defended what was good by disabling the VRFY command.

So the short answer is: No.

Answer 2

The most obvious way is to send an email to the mail address and ask the recipient to reply or click a link.