unverified

The mailbox could not be confirmed

The handshake ran and did not settle the mailbox — greylisting, a timeout, an unreachable server, a partner outage — so smtp_checked is false and the verdict is risky.

risk weight: +10
dataset: mailbox-smtp
reads from: smtp_checked
verdict reason: unverified

What it means

The answer degrades honestly rather than reading a non-answer as a yes; mailbox_confidence estimates the mailbox from the domain's posture and the username's shape. An unverified answer whose smtp_reason is provider_unavailable is free; one whose handshake reached the server bills like any risky answer.

It reads from smtp_checked and comes with the unverified verdict reason, the last in precedence.

What to do

Pass callback_url to have the address re-checked after 5 and 20 minutes and the settled verdict pushed to you; repeats inside seven days are free.

Example response

{
    "email": "[email protected]",
    "deliverable": "risky",
    "reason": "unverified",
    "smtp_checked": false,
    "smtp_reason": "greylisted",
    "mailbox_confidence": 65,
    "risk_signals": [
        {
            "signal": "unverified",
            "weight": 10,
            "dataset": "mailbox-smtp"
        }
    ]
}

Abbreviated: a real answer carries all 46 fields, listed in the verify-email reference. The risk_signals entry shown is the one this signal adds; the weights of every entry in the list sum to risk_score.

markdown version: /docs/signals/unverified.md

unverified

What it means

What to do

Example response

Related