Category5 Technology TV - Protecting Your Script from Disposable Email Addresses

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This episode is sponsored in part by: netTALK DUO, Netflix, Eco Alkalines and Cordery Electric.

Topics Covered:

Robbie Ferguson and Eric Kidd present from the Category5 studios in Barrie, Ontario. Gerold Setz, developer of the Block Disposable Email Addresses API, joins us via Skype Video.
Category5 Technology TV now broadcasts live on YouTube.
{play 5:44}Interview: Gerold Setz speaks with Robbie and Eric about his API which detects whether an email address is a disposable email account.
- A few examples of why it's important users enter legitimate email addresses when subscribing to services or downloading trial versions of software.
- While Disposable Email Addresses do indeed have their place, in some instances, disposable email accounts are a red flag to companies that you could be trying to do something fraudulent.
- The challenge in trying to determine whether an email address is disposable or legitimate.
- The Block Disposable Email Accounts API (BDEA) does all the work with JSON, Serialized PHP or Text responses.
- How the Block Disposable Email Account API accumulates information about new disposable email domains.
- Block Disposable Email Accounts does not see email addresses; you only send the email's domain to the API.
- If a domain has never been tested (your submission is the first time a domain has been seen by the API), the API will respond as if it is ok, avoiding accidental false positives, and will ping the developers to test that domain.
- cat5.tv/badmail will take you directly to the Block Disposable Email Accounts API.
- The pricing model for BDEA is very fair: if you're a normal "small" site (eg., a personal blog or small business web site), the service is free. As you grow (and theoretically are making more money), the fees are priced based on a fair tiered pricing model.
- Blocking disposable email addresses on Wordpress, phpBB and more using pre-built plugins / modules.
- Viewer Question: Is the BDEA API using SPF or DKIM?
{play 31:11}Top Stories from the Category5.TV Newsroom
{play 34:37}Prize Giveaway: Announcing this week's giveaway of a year supply of telephone service with unlimitted long distance to Canada or the USA (from anywhere in the world), from netTALK DUO WiFi.
- Note: Robbie said "$30 / month, around $3 per month" which makes no sense. He meant, just more than $30 per year, roughly $3.35 per month.
- Cast your ballot at cat5.tv/phone.
{play 37:28}A look at CES 2013 with Mark from LEI Electronics Inc.
- The Eco Alkalines booth at CES 2013
- HzO waterproof iPad / iPhone / smartphone skin
- Ink for Dummies recycled ink cartridges for inkjet printers
- AEE MagiCam with drone-style remote control cameras, point and shoot, and more
- ETON, partnered with the American Red Cross
- Avantree smartphone accessories
- A look at the Intel booth at CES 2013
- LG SmartTV with an enormous (~140' wide) 3D TV
- LG OLED TVs and UltraHD TV's in the LG booth at CES 2013
- Smart appliances from LG can be operated with your smartphone
- The Panasonic booth at CES 2013
- The TCL (The Creative Life) booth at CES 2013
- The Samsung booth at CES 2013
- The Intel laptop tree
Send your postcards to Category5 Technology TV, PO Box 29009, Barrie, Ontario, Canada, L4N 7W7.
Category5 can be found on mobile devices at m.cat5.tv
{play 47:39}Programming Feature: Using the Block Disposable Email Accounts EasyAPI in your PHP script with JSON.
- Download the completed script sample here: BDEA-master.zip or subscribe to the Git Repository here: github.com/RobbieF/BDEA
- The standard PHP email validation methods may tell you if an email address is malformed or not, but won't tell you if the email address comes from a disposable email address provider.
- Registering your web server for a Block Disposable Email Addresses API key.
- Quickly obtaining the IP address of your web server for API key generation.
- Creating a function to connect your script to the Block Disposable Email Accounts API.
- Using PHP's explode() and array_pop() functions to determine the domain of an email address.
- How to log back in to the BDEA web site to get your API key.
- Processing your API query using PHP, and json_decode().
- Running a quick print_r() test to make sure the API is responding.
- Building your if statements and returning true or false according to the response from the BDEA API.
- Testing our script... success!