Glossary

Catch-all domain

A mail domain that accepts every address, making individual mailboxes impossible to verify remotely.

Catch-all configurations are common at smaller companies and at organisations using certain hosted mail setups. A verification check returns accepted for any address, valid or not.

Treating catch-alls as verified inflates list quality on paper and produces bounces in reality. Treating them as invalid throws away real people.

The sensible middle is to flag them, require a second corroborating signal such as a matching professional profile, and keep them as a minority of any batch.

How we handle it

Catch-all results are treated as unproven rather than valid, and those contacts need corroborating evidence before release.

Related terms

Keep reading