Results and statuses guide

SendSure results are designed to support operational decisions, not just technical curiosity. The status matters because it tells you what to send, suppress, or review.

Core statuses

Valid

valid means the address cleared the verification path strongly enough to be treated as safe for normal use.

Typical action:

• keep the address active
• send as planned
• continue monitoring normal campaign outcomes

Invalid

invalid means the address should be suppressed. This is the cleanest operational decision in the system.

Typical action:

• remove from sends
• suppress from future imports
• audit the acquisition source if invalids are unexpectedly high

Risky

risky means the address may exist, but sending carries enough uncertainty that the decision should be policy-driven.

Typical action:

• do not treat as automatically valid
• route to review or a more conservative segment
• avoid high-value or high-risk campaigns without additional logic

Unknown

unknown means the system could not establish enough certainty at the time of verification.

Typical action:

• retry later if timing matters
• do not collapse unknown into valid
• treat provider-specific uncertainty as operationally meaningful

Catch-all is not a free pass

Catch-all domains are configured to accept mail for any local part. That makes them difficult to classify with certainty.

Your policy should depend on:

• list source quality
• campaign sensitivity
• tolerance for bounce or engagement risk

If you do not have a clear policy, treat catch-all as a review state instead of a green light.

Why results differ across providers

Mailbox providers do not all expose the same signals. Some providers are explicit. Others greylist, throttle, or obscure acceptance behavior.

That is why SendSure separates:

• what is technically observable
• what is operationally recommended

The goal is honest classification, not false certainty.

A practical policy template

Many teams start here:

1. Send to valid.
2. Suppress invalid.
3. Review risky.
4. Retry or isolate unknown.
5. Apply a separate policy for catch-all.

This is usually better than forcing every ambiguous result into a binary decision.

When to escalate

Escalate when:

• a large share of results suddenly moves into unknown
• one provider behaves differently from your normal baseline
• a completed job looks inconsistent with the input file

If you need help building a send policy, open the support widget and include the list source, campaign type, and the status mix you are seeing.