Findymail finds and scores emails. Confidence scores measure pattern accuracy, not current deliverability.
Findymail is an email finder designed for outbound teams that need fast, targeted email discovery. It finds professional email addresses using domain patterns and public data sources, and assigns a confidence score to each result based on how well the address matches the expected format for that domain.
Findymail's confidence score reflects the reliability of the pattern match β how consistently that email format appears for contacts at that company. A high score means the pattern is well-established and commonly used at that domain. It does not mean the specific mailbox at that address is currently active, provisioned, or accepting email. Mailboxes get deprovisioned when employees leave, when companies reorganize, or when domains change their mail server configuration. Those changes do not update confidence scores.
BillionVerify adds what confidence scoring cannot provide: a real-time SMTP check that confirms whether the actual mailbox will accept a message right now. The two tools answer different questions. Findymail answers "is this the right email pattern for this person?" β BillionVerify answers "will this email address deliver today?"
What Findymail's confidence score actually means.
| Findymail confidence level | What it means | What it does not mean |
|---|---|---|
| High (90%+) | Pattern matches the most common format for this domain | Mailbox is currently active and will accept email |
| Medium (70β89%) | Pattern likely matches, some uncertainty remains | Address has not changed since Findymail last checked |
| Low (below 70%) | Pattern match is less reliable | Mailbox exists at all |
| Catch-all detected | Domain accepts all incoming email | Individual mailbox is active or monitored |
The confidence score is a data quality signal for the pattern, not a deliverability signal for the inbox. This distinction matters because teams often treat high confidence as send-ready, which skips the SMTP check that confirms current deliverability. Even a 98% confidence score can include addresses where the mailbox no longer exists.
The specific risks in a Findymail export.
| Risk | Source | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| High-confidence stale addresses | Employee left after Findymail's last data update | Hard bounce despite high score |
| Catch-all false positives | Domain accepts everything, individual inbox is empty or unmonitored |