Email list cleaner free is going to be a challenge. Validation is cheaper than verification so if you want it done for free, the only choice is to find a validation company. Not one verification company is going to scrub your list for free because verification requires either highly sensitive data from data sources or an actual SMPT handshake and offering this service for free does not make any business sense since the typical charge for verification is .001 per record. With that being said, you will need to look for some signs for a validation company and what they are offering. Free, doesn’t mean free. So if you upload your database into a free program, you better watch out for these signs.

There are two types of list cleaners. Just google it. Online or App. Online validation companies require that you upload your database via CSV. Many will offer multiple supported columns and they actually insist you upload more data than just the email. Why? Because they are going to keep a copy and resell or email to your data. That is why the service is free. They make their money by you ignorantly uploading your data into a free online solution. An email list cleaner free is not what is seems. More than likely, you’ll pay by giving them a copy of your hard earned data.

The second type of email validation service is desktop application. Most use windows and only a few are mac driven. You download and execute the program on your desktop and start your data manipulation. Is it possible for the company to steal your data by using their app? Yes, if you are hooked up to the internet. They could have a trojan horse designed to upload all of your data without you even knowing it. In fact, it would be stupid for a company to offer a free validation desktop service if they didn’t take your data. Because remember, free is never free.

Now that you know that there are two types of free email cleaning services (online or desktop), it is important to understand what kind of cleaning you are going to get for free. Which, by the way, we do not endorse this type of practice one bit. Data is sacred and you should never give it to anyone for any reason unless you have a signed agreement where you can plant a seed and monitor if they resell or use your data. Be very cautious! Here are a few key things to look for when looking or using a free validation services:

1.)Make sure they remove traps, seeds, bots and fix the emails

2.)Make sure they give you the suppressions separately

3.)Make sure they have an agreement somewhere in the privacy policy where they will not touch your data

4.)Plant a seed (an email that no one has – create an email specifically for this campaign and list so you can monitor it

5.)Google validation and not verification. If someone says they do verification and it’s free, odds are that it is really validation

6.)Make sure it also checks mx records. This process is cheap and requires little bandwidth. Checking if the mx record is good or bad removes a lot of bounces.