What Is an Email Risk Score?

An email risk score condenses everything known about an address, deliverability, domain reputation, disposable status, alias tricks, history, into a single value you can act on. Instead of eyeballing a dozen fields, you get one number and a level, so your signup logic stays simple.

What goes into the score

A good risk score weighs many features, not one. The big contributors:

• Deliverability, an undeliverable mailbox at signup is a strong negative.
• Disposable / catch-all, throwaway and unconfirmable domains raise risk.
• Domain age & reputation, young or low-reputation domains score worse.
• Alias & gibberish signals, plus/dot tricks and random prefixes suggest abuse.
• History, addresses seen before with good behavior score lower.

How to read it

Most APIs return a numeric or leveled score plus the named signals behind it. RiskUnified returns a risk.level of low, medium or high along with the exact signals that drove it, so you can log a clear reason for every decision instead of trusting a black box.

{
  "email": "signup@tempmail-vault.io",
  "risk": {
    "level": "high",
    "signals": ["disposable_domain", "email_not_deliverable"]
  }
}

Using it at signup

Map the level to graduated friction so real users pass and only risky ones get stopped:

• Low, allow normally.
• Medium, allow but add verification or hold rewards until later.
• High, block or route to review on high-value actions.