catch_all
The server accepts every address at the domain, so the mailbox cannot be confirmed
A catch-all (accept-all) server answers OK to any recipient, including ones that do not exist, so the handshake proves nothing about this particular mailbox.
- appears in
- reason
- verdict
- risky
- risk weight
- +30
- credits
- 1 credit, like every deliverable or risky answer. Repeats of the same address are free for 7 days.
What it means
Corporate domains behind Proofpoint or Mimecast, and many Microsoft 365 tenants, are configured to accept all recipients and sort them out later. Spaw remembers a catch-all answer per domain for seven days and does not spend further probes on that domain.
mailbox_exists stays null. mailbox_confidence gives a recomputable 0 to 100 estimate built from the domain's DMARC and SPF, its provider, registration age, the shape of the username, and your own delivery feedback for the domain.
What to do
Send in moderation and report outcomes through the feedback endpoint: your own delivered reports turn later lookups of that address into confirmed mailboxes, and bounces feed the confidence score for the whole domain.
Example response
{
"email": "[email protected]",
"deliverable": "risky",
"reason": "catch_all",
"catch_all": true,
"mailbox_exists": null,
"mailbox_confidence": 72
}Abbreviated: a real answer carries all 27 fields, listed in the verify-email reference.
Related
- likely_typo · the domain is a known misspelling of a real mail provider
- disposable · the domain belongs to a disposable, temporary email provider
- implicit_mx · the domain has no MX record and relies on the address-record fallback
- mailbox_full · the mailbox is over its storage quota
- role · a shared role inbox such as info@ or support@ rather than a person
- All verdict reasons
- Verdicts and the risk score
- API reference
markdown version: /docs/reasons/catch_all.md