Bulk Email & Phone Validator – MX Check, Dedupe, Lead Score

Clean and validate a contact or lead list in one run. Upload a CSV, paste JSON or point at an Apify dataset, and this Actor removes duplicates, checks every email's syntax and domain MX records, flags role (info@), free-mail and disposable addresses, formats and validates phone numbers to E.164, checks each website is reachable, and gives every row a 0–100 quality score with a plain-English issues list.

It is a validator, not an SMTP mailbox verifier: it tells you which emails can never work (bad syntax, disposable, domain with no mail server) without probing inboxes, which is unreliable from cloud IPs and harms sender reputation.

Store page: apify.com/chris_elder/dataset-dedupe-enrich

✅ Pay per result: $0.60 per 1,000 cleaned rows · 🆓 Merged duplicates, dropped rows and input errors are never charged · 🔑 No API key

Formerly listed as Dataset Dedupe & Enrich. This is the generalist sibling of Google Maps Lead Cleaner: same hygiene pipeline, but Store-positioned for any CSV / JSON / Apify dataset (CRM exports, form dumps, contact extractors, job boards), not only Maps scrapes.

What it does

• 🧹 Dedupes by placeId (if present), else website domain+path, else phone, else name+address; merges contact fields from duplicates
• 📞 E.164 phones with national format, type and invalid list
• 📧 Email hygiene: split lists, fix name @domain.com, strip mailto:, syntax check
• 🌐 Domain MX check (cached per domain): no SMTP mailbox probing
• 🏷️ Role / free-mail / disposable flags; website alive check
• ⭐ 0–100 quality score + issues list for sorting

What it does not do: SMTP / mailbox verification (unreliable from cloud IPs and bad for sender reputation).

How to use it

Works with any columns: it auto-detects common names such as email/emails, phone/phoneNumber/mobile, website/domain/homepage, name/company/title and address (Apify CSV exports with emails/0, emails/1 columns work too). Use fieldMapping if your headers are unusual.

1. Click Try for free: prefill has 8 public hotel contact rows (one duplicate, mistyped email, no-MX domain). A few seconds, about $0.004.
2. Or set datasetId / csvUrl / paste items.
3. Set defaultCountry (e.g. US) when phones lack country codes.
4. Download CSV/Excel/JSON from Storage. RUN_SUMMARY is in the key-value store.

{
  "datasetId": "YOUR_DATASET_ID",
  "defaultCountry": "GB",
  "dedupeMode": "auto",
  "checkMx": true,
  "checkWebsites": true
}

Real example output

Public run on 20 Oct 2026 (run cQIQIxtnCC8uVeccQ, defaultCountry: "GB"): 5 rows in, 4 rows out (one duplicate merged, not charged). Fields trimmed for space.

Input rows:

[
  { "title": "Apify", "email": "hello@apify.com", "website": "https://apify.com" },
  { "title": "Apify", "email": "HELLO@apify.com ", "website": "https://apify.com/" },
  { "title": "Throwaway Ltd", "email": "test123@mailinator.com", "phone": "07700 900123" },
  { "title": "No Mail Co", "email": "info@no-mx-domain-xyz123.com", "website": "https://no-mx-domain-xyz123.com" },
  { "title": "GOV.UK", "emails": "mailto:info@gov.uk; sales @gov.uk", "phone": "020 7946 0000", "website": "https://www.gov.uk" }
]

What came back:

Row	Email result	Phone result	Website	Score	Issues
Apify (2 rows merged)	hello@apify.com → valid-mx, role address	none	alive (200)	65 medium	email-role-address-only, missing-phone, missing-address
Throwaway Ltd	test123@mailinator.com → disposable	07700 900123 → invalid (Ofcom drama range)	none	5 low	no-usable-email, email-disposable, phone-invalid, no-contact-method
No Mail Co	info@no-mx-domain-xyz123.com → no-mx	none	dns-not-found	5 low	email-domain-no-mx, website-unreachable, no-contact-method
GOV.UK	mailto: stripped and sales @gov.uk repaired; both → no-mx-a-record	020 7946 0000 → +442079460000 (fixed line)	alive (200)	55 medium	email-domain-a-record-only, email-repaired, missing-address

One output row in full shape (Apify):

{
  "name": "Apify",
  "website": "https://apify.com/",
  "primaryEmail": "hello@apify.com",
  "primaryEmailStatus": "valid-mx",
  "primaryEmailIsRole": true,
  "phone": null,
  "invalidPhones": [],
  "websiteAlive": true,
  "websiteStatus": 200,
  "leadQuality": 65,
  "leadQualityLabel": "medium",
  "issues": ["email-role-address-only", "missing-phone", "missing-address"],
  "duplicatesMerged": 1,
  "mergedRowNumbers": [2],
  "emailDetails": [
    { "email": "hello@apify.com", "status": "valid-mx", "role": true, "freeMail": false, "disposable": false, "matchesWebsite": true,
      "mxHosts": ["aspmx.l.google.com", "alt1.aspmx.l.google.com", "alt2.aspmx.l.google.com"] }
  ]
}

Email statuses

Status	Meaning
valid-mx	Syntax OK and the domain publishes MX records
no-mx-a-record	No MX record; the domain only has an A record (mail may still be accepted, treat with care)
no-mx	Domain has no mail server: the address cannot receive email
disposable	Known throwaway-inbox domain
invalid-syntax	Not a valid email address
placeholder	Obvious placeholder or junk address
unknown	DNS lookup failed, so the domain could not be checked
not-checked	MX checking was switched off (checkMx: false)

Pricing

Plan	Per cleaned row	Per 1,000
Free / Bronze	$0.0006	$0.60
Silver	$0.0005	$0.50
Gold+	$0.0004	$0.40

Actor start is a tiny one-time fee. Duplicates merged into another row and rows you drop are free.

Related Actors

• Google Maps Lead Cleaner: same pipeline, Maps-shaped docs and examples
• Dataset Transformer: filter / flatten / rename / CSV (no MX or phone enrichment)
• Website Contact Extractor: pull emails/phones from sites, then clean here

Support

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