collecting bounced mail() to a single account?

[sneakyimp]

I have a site that has a registration process. Occasionally users enter bogus or incorrect email addresses. I've got two questions:

1) What kind of mail header do you need to add in order to direct all bounced emails to a given account?
2) Are there ways to make sure the email address exists and is valid before storing to my database?

I've got a pretty good pattern match going for the email address but I don't know if a) the domain even exists or b) if the domain does actually exist is the email address valid at that domain.

thx.

[execute]

See you do a check. Thats what activation was invented for 😃

When they register, your script sends that email a link, and if that link is not pressed within a certain amount of time, the input will be deleted from the database, if they click it, it proves it was a real address.

I would suggest looking around for a script like that. Or making it yourself, just send them a unique ID and see if they click it.

[daarius]

use "Return-Path: [e-mail]" in the email headers, so all bounces will come to that.

you can use mx record check to see if domain/email exists before doing a db save. use getmxrr() also please read upon checkdnsrr()

[sneakyimp]

i do actually perform email activation. problem is that some folks mistype their email address and once that happens, a) their preferred screen name has been used up and b) the information the registered to obtain (like results from a career assessment test) are forever lost.

thanks daarius for tips. those look useful.