Sometimes you might write an email to someone who you’ve never emailed before (perhaps you scrawled down their email while on the phone or at an event), and questioned the authenticity of your recipient’s email address. Those who use email frequently know all too well what this feels like. It makes the most sense to first make sure that you have the right email address before sending a message.

One reason that a business person might understand this trouble is if they are trying to decipher a handwritten email address, like from a sales convention signup sheet. If you’re having too much trouble figuring out what that chicken scratch says, instead of going all-in on a forensics team, you can use free online tools.

Email Verification Tools
There are several email address verification websites available online, but they all do, more or less, the same thing. Take, for example, Verify-Email.org. All you need to do is enter the email address into the form, and select Verify. After a few moments, the process will complete, making sure that the address is valid. Once that’s clarified, you can then proceed to continue writing your message knowing that it will find its way to the receiver.

Search the Internet and Social Media
Here’s the thing about the above email verification tool: while it might work if you have an idea of what the potential email address might be, it won’t help if you can barely read the scribbled address. However, if you have a person’s name, you might have all of the tools you need to verify the address without knowing exactly what the email address is.

Social media can be a powerful tool for finding information about an individual, so long as you have their name (or something close to it). If you can’t even read the name in the email address, you can take a shot at searching through your favorite social media platforms, like Facebook. If you and the person you’re looking for have some mutual contacts, or are somehow connected, the person has a decent chance of popping up in the search results.

Any additional information you might have about the person is also welcome, and can help you narrow down your search. Information like what town they’re from or what business they represent can go a long way in a Google search. Sometimes, trying a few different spellings of a name can yield results, or you’ll stumble upon a website with the name’s correct spelling. If you’re really lucky, you’ll find the email address in all of its unsullied glory, making your life infinitely easier. All you need to do is put on your detective hat and plug this information into the email verification tool, and you can make sure that it’s the real deal.

You’d be surprised by how many opportunities you can miss out on just by sending an email to an address that doesn’t exist. With a little investigative work, you can ensure that your message will make it to the right person.

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