Tomba Email Verifier Actor

A powerful Apify Actor that verifies the validity of any professional email address with the most complete email checker using the Tomba Email Verifier API. Perfect for email marketing, lead generation, and data quality assurance by ensuring your email lists contain only valid, deliverable addresses.

Key Features

• Complete Email Verification: Comprehensive validity checks for professional email addresses
• Deliverability Testing: Real-time SMTP validation and mailbox verification
• Risk Assessment: Identify disposable, webmail, and risky email addresses
• Bulk Processing: Verify hundreds of emails efficiently with rate limiting
• Rate Limited: Respects Tomba's 150 requests per minute limit
• Rich Verification Data: Detailed verification scores and technical checks
• Built-in Error Handling: Robust processing with comprehensive error reporting

How it works

The Actor leverages Tomba's powerful Email Verifier API to perform comprehensive email validation:

Process Flow

1. Authentication: Connects to Tomba API using your credentials
2. Input Processing: Accepts array of email addresses to verify
3. Email Verification: Uses Tomba's emailVerifier method for each email
4. Validation Checks: Performs regex, SMTP, MX record, and deliverability tests
5. Rate Limiting: Automatically handles 150 requests/minute limit
6. Data Storage: Saves detailed verification results to Apify dataset

What You Get

For each verified email, you'll receive:

• Verification Result: Valid, invalid, risky, or unknown status
• Confidence Score: 0-100 score indicating verification confidence
• Technical Checks: Regex validation, MX records, SMTP server status
• Risk Factors: Disposable email detection, webmail identification
• Deliverability: Accept-all domain detection, block status
• Quality Metrics: Gibberish detection and comprehensive analysis

Quick Start

Prerequisites

1. Tomba Account: Sign up at Tomba.io to get your API credentials

Getting Your API Keys

1. Visit Tomba API Dashboard
2. Copy your API Key (starts with ta_)
3. Copy your Secret Key (starts with ts_)

Input Configuration

Required Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
tombaApiKey	string	Your Tomba API key (ta_xxxx)
tombaApiSecret	string	Your Tomba secret key (ts_xxxx)
emails	array	Array of email addresses to verify

Optional Parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
maxResults	number	50	Maximum number of results to return

Example Input

{
    "tombaApiKey": "ta_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "tombaApiSecret": "ts_xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx",
    "emails": ["john.doe@company.com", "sales@example.org", "support@startup.io", "invalid@fakeemail.xyz"],
    "maxResults": 100
}

Best Practices

• Email Quality: Use properly formatted email addresses for best results
• Rate Limits: The Actor automatically handles Tomba's 150 requests/minute limit
• Batch Size: Process 50-100 emails at a time for optimal performance
• Data Cleaning: Pre-filter obvious invalid formats to save API credits

Output Data Structure

The Actor returns comprehensive verification information for each email:

{
    "email": {
        "email": "b.mohamed@tomba.io",
        "result": "deliverable",
        "status": "valid",
        "score": 99,
        "smtp_provider": "Google Workspace",
        "mx": {
            "records": [
                "aspmx.l.google.com",
                "alt2.aspmx.l.google.com",
                "alt1.aspmx.l.google.com",
                "alt4.aspmx.l.google.com",
                "alt3.aspmx.l.google.com"
            ]
        },
        "mx_check": true,
        "smtp_server": true,
        "smtp_check": true,
        "accept_all": false,
        "greylisted": false,
        "block": true,
        "gibberish": false,
        "disposable": false,
        "webmail": false,
        "regex": true,
        "whois": {
            "registrar_name": "namecheap, inc.",
            "referral_url": "https://www.namecheap.com/",
            "created_date": "2020-07-07T20:54:07+02:00"
        }
    },
    "sources": [
        {
            "uri": "https://github.com/tomba-io/generic-emails/blob/084fc1a63d3cdaf9a34f255bedc2baea49a8e8b9/src/lib/validation/hash.ts",
            "website_url": "github.com",
            "extracted_on": "2021-02-08T20:09:54+01:00",
            "last_seen_on": "2021-02-08T22:43:40+01:00",
            "still_on_page": true
        }
    ],
    "input": "b.mohamed@tomba.io"
}

Data Fields Explained

Email Verification Object

• email: The verified email address
• result: Deliverability status (deliverable, undeliverable, risky, unknown)
• status: Validation status (valid, invalid, risky, unknown)
• score: Confidence level from 0-100 (higher is better)
• smtp_provider: Email provider name (e.g., "Google Workspace", "Microsoft Exchange")

Technical Validation

• regex: Whether email passes basic format validation
• gibberish: Whether email appears to be random/meaningless
• disposable: Whether email is from a temporary email service
• webmail: Whether email is from Gmail, Yahoo, etc.
• mx_check: Whether MX records check passed
• smtp_server: Whether SMTP server is reachable
• smtp_check: Whether SMTP validation was successful
• accept_all: Whether domain accepts all email addresses
• greylisted: Whether the email is greylisted
• block: Whether email is on a blocklist

Additional Data

• mx: Object containing MX record servers array
• whois: Domain registration information (registrar, creation date, etc.)
• sources: Array of sources where the email was found online
• input: Original input email address for reference

Use Cases

Email Marketing

• List Cleaning: Remove invalid emails before campaigns
• Bounce Reduction: Prevent hard bounces and protect sender reputation
• Quality Assurance: Ensure high deliverability rates

Lead Generation

• Lead Qualification: Verify contact information quality
• Data Validation: Clean imported lead lists
• CRM Integration: Maintain clean contact databases

Data Quality

• Database Maintenance: Regular cleanup of email databases
• Import Validation: Verify emails during data import
• Compliance: Ensure GDPR/CAN-SPAM compliance with valid contacts

Risk Management

• Fraud Prevention: Identify disposable and risky email addresses
• User Registration: Validate emails during account creation
• Security: Block known problematic email domains

Verification Views

The Actor provides specialized data views:

Overview View

Quick summary showing email, result, score, and key flags

Valid Emails View

Filtered view showing only successfully verified emails

Invalid Emails View

Focus on failed verifications with error details

Verification Errors View

Troubleshoot processing issues and API errors

Resources & Documentation

API Documentation

• Tomba API Docs - Complete API reference
• Email Verifier Endpoint - Specific verification documentation
• Authentication Guide - Get your API keys
• Pricing & Limits - Understand rate limits and costs

Rate Limiting

• Tomba limits to 150 requests per minute
• Actor automatically handles rate limiting with delays
• Large email lists may take time to complete

Cost Considerations

• Each email verification = 1 Tomba API request
• Monitor your Tomba usage dashboard
• Consider Tomba's pricing tiers for volume usage

Best Practices

• Pre-filtering: Remove obvious invalid formats before verification
• Batch Processing: Group verifications for efficiency
• Result Interpretation: Use score and multiple flags for decision making
• Regular Cleaning: Periodically re-verify older email lists

FAQ

General Questions

Q: What does email verification do? A: Email verification checks if an email address is valid, deliverable, and safe to send to. It validates syntax, domain existence, mailbox availability, and identifies risky addresses.

Q: How accurate is email verification? A: Tomba's verification is highly accurate (95%+) for most standard email providers. Results include confidence scores and detailed status information to help you make informed decisions.

Q: What's the difference between syntax and deliverability checking? A: Syntax checking validates the email format (user@domain.com), while deliverability checking contacts the mail server to verify the mailbox actually exists and can receive mail.

Verification Results

Q: What do the different verification statuses mean? A:

• Valid: Email exists and can receive mail
• Invalid: Email doesn't exist or can't receive mail
• Risky: Email might bounce or be problematic
• Unknown: Verification couldn't be completed

Q: What is a verification score? A: Scores range 0-100 indicating confidence level. 90+ is high confidence, 70-89 is moderate, below 70 suggests caution. Use scores along with status for best results.

Q: What are catch-all domains? A: Catch-all domains accept emails to any address at that domain, even non-existent ones. They're marked as "risky" because you can't verify if the specific mailbox exists.

Q: How should I handle "risky" emails? A: Risky emails might include catch-all domains, role accounts, or temporary emails. Consider your use case - they might be fine for newsletters but problematic for transactional emails.

Technical Questions

Q: How many emails can I verify at once? A: You can submit up to 1000 emails per run. For optimal performance, process 50-200 emails per batch.

Q: What are the rate limits? A: The Actor automatically handles Tomba's rate limits. Large batches will be processed with appropriate delays to stay within limits.

Q: Can I verify emails in real-time? A: Yes, but for real-time use cases, consider the API response time (typically 1-3 seconds per email). Batch processing is more efficient for large lists.

Q: Do you store or cache verification results? A: Tomba may cache results temporarily for performance. The Actor doesn't store your email lists - data is processed and returned through Apify's secure infrastructure.

Email List Management

Q: How often should I re-verify emails? A: Re-verify emails every 3-6 months, as email validity changes over time. High-bounce lists may need more frequent verification.

Q: Should I remove all risky emails? A: Not necessarily. Review risky emails case-by-case. Some might be legitimate business emails that are just hard to verify due to server configurations.

Q: What about role-based emails (info@, sales@)? A: Role emails are flagged as "role-based" but may still be valid for business communications. Consider your specific use case.

Q: How do I handle large email lists? A: Break large lists into smaller batches (200-500 emails). Monitor your API quota and consider Tomba's higher-tier plans for volume processing.

Privacy & Compliance

Q: Is email verification GDPR compliant? A: Yes, verification only checks deliverability without accessing email content. However, ensure you have permission to verify the email addresses you're checking.

Q: Do you notify email owners during verification? A: No, verification is done through server-level checks that don't send actual emails or notify the email owners.

Q: Can I verify international email addresses? A: Yes, Tomba supports verification for email addresses worldwide, including international domains and various country-specific providers.

Keywords

email verification, email validation, email checker, deliverability, bounce detection, email quality, contact validation, email hygiene, email list cleaning, invalid emails, verification service, email testing

Support

If you need any help, have questions, or encounter any issues while using Tomba.io, please don't hesitate to reach out to our support team. You can contact us via:

• Email: support@tomba.io
• Live chat: Available on the Tomba.io website during business hours

Contributing

We welcome contributions to improve this actor. Please feel free to submit issues, feature requests, or pull requests to help make this tool even better for the community.

About Tomba

Founded in 2020, Tomba prides itself on being the most reliable, accurate, and in-depth source of email address data available anywhere. We process terabytes of data to produce our Email finder API.