Last Updated on August 16, 2022 by
Reverse email lookup protects against the devastating damage caused by a hacked address, phishing scam, or spam delivery.
To protect your business accounts, you need reverse email lookup tools to filter and deter suspicious or fraudulent emails. Luckily, reverse email lookup techniques can help reveal known verification and identity data attached to an address. With access to that additional information, you can evaluate each incoming email and discard ill-intended messages.
Let’s look into the value of reverse email lookup.
What Is Reverse Email Lookup?
Reverse email lookup is a technique to supply public information associated with a specific email address. The tool allows you to discover extra data related to the email address owner, such as:
- Social media handles
- Physical addresses
- Telephone numbers
- Family connections and marital status
- Aliases or false names
- Verified images of the address owner
- Employment, criminal, and court histories
In technical terms, reverse email lookup is a form of data enrichment, a service that provides supplemental information about a specific data point. The more information you have, the easier it is to make informed choices about incoming emails.
What Are the Benefits of Reverse Email Lookup?
There are three key benefits that a reverse email lookup tool provides:
- Increased fraud protection: A reverse email lookup tool can protect you from phishing attacks, contribute to new account fraud prevention, and other scam emails. If you engage with a suspicious email from an unknown sender, you might degrade your email security and become a victim of identity fraud. But an email service that can source additional data points is able to confirm or deny the authenticity of a mysterious sender. Considering that business employees receive an average of 14 malicious emails per year, a prevention method that can evaluate and block fraudulent emails is a helpful advantage.
- Better marketing efficiency: Sales teams rely on email addresses to locate and convert cold leads into long-term priority clients. The more information you collect regarding address validity and consumer interest, the more efficient your marketing strategy will operate.
- Risk analysis and security: You can use the information provided by a reverse email lookup tool to assess risk and shore up internal cybersecurity. For example, human resources can use the collected data from an email lookup to complete background checks on potential hires. The more data you have about a customer or client’s digital behavior, the better you can protect your domain.
How To Choose the Right Reverse Email Lookup Tool
There are several reverse email lookup tools available on the market. The service that best suits you will depend on the following selection criteria:
- Pricing: Different services offer varied pricing structures based on the number of supplied features. Buy according to how often you need the tool, the quality of service, and how much risk you are willing to assume.
- Compliance: Data collection must adhere to strict regulations and consumer protections. Ensure that your desired service follows any required compliance within your jurisdiction.
- Speed: Some tools can take days to deliver data results. Select the service that matches your timeline and business needs.
- Data coverage: High-level tools offer far more comprehensive data for a singular reverse email lookup. If you want extended volumes of secondary information, opt for a more advanced reverse email service.
If you want a detailed list of the most recommended reverse email lookup tools, check out our ranking of the top services currently on the market.
What Data Does a Reverse Email Lookup Tool Provide?
While each tool offers different levels of collected data, here are some of the common services provided with most reverse email lookup tools:
- Email validity: Authentic email transmits over a Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). A reverse email lookup tool will send a request to the SMTP server, ensuring that the searched email is real and valid.
- Domain verification: A host company or organization facilitates the function of your email address. They hold account data and are labeled by a domain (the name listed after the @ symbol in an address). Primary domains include high-quality cybersecurity, while custom domains might include more risk. A reverse email lookup service will evaluate the domain of a searched email address, ensure its authenticity, and give a risk assessment for unsecured domain registrations.
- Associated social media: Not only does social media have its own verification and security measures, but you can use any social media handles to confirm the legitimacy of an email account user. Reverse email lookup tools will list any related social media platforms connected to an address lookup.
- Data breach scans: Data breaches occur through compromised accounts. A reverse email lookup tool will list any breach history and give insights into any illicit use related to an email address.
- Blacklist scans: Compromised addresses list on public spam blacklists. Your reverse email lookup tool with scan and check any known blacklists for your searched email address.
- Email risk assessments: Your reverse email lookup tool will often track several data points to give a risk assessment of the email address itself. If there is a high likelihood that an email message is a bot, you will receive an alert.
Key Takeaway
Reverse email lookup is required to protect your business from fraud. If you want to protect against scams, phishing, and other fraudulent schemes, use a reverse email lookup to collect additional verification data. With the extra insights, you can better evaluate incoming emails and block potential email scams.
