I was testing out email_veracity_checker from rails console and found that when I tested a google apps domain (w/ catchall), yahoo and another company domain, the smtp server always returned 250 recipient ok for invalid emails (wellformed, but bogus). It seems that these servers are always returning OK perhaps to prevent email harvesting. But it does seem to raise the question 'why even validate up-front', is this approach even valid in today's environment? Note: gmail did return 550 email account doesn't exist for invalid. related to How check if an email exist without send in Ruby? Use of email_veracity_checker send-in-ruby-use-of-email-veracity-checker I appreciate your thoughts.