Is there a standard domain for testing "throwaway" email?

Question

I've noticed that the domain

contoso.com

is often used in documentation when a sample is needed. I always figured this was a dummy domain, used like the telephone prefix "555" to route spam into some kind of telecommunicative void (although contoso.com appears to be a real site).

Is there a domain I can safely use when I have to, say, test a registration form 20 times with a unique email address and I don't care what happens to the message, yet I don't want it going to a real person?

This was mentioned in one of the answers and has the best details on the subject: http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2606.html — slm, Jun 06 '18 at 15:39

score 159 · Accepted Answer · edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

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You can use example.com. According to the Wikipedia article:

example.com, example.net, and example.org are second-level domain names reserved by the Internet Engineering Task Force through RFC 2606, Section 3,1 for use in documentation and examples. They are not available for registration.

By implementing the reservation, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) made available domains to use in manuals and sample software configurations. Thus, documentation writers can be sure to select a domain name without creating naming conflicts if end-users try to use the sample configurations or examples verbatim.

When an address such as "yourusername@example.com" is used to demonstrate the sign-up process on a website, it indicates to the user they should fill in an actual e-mail address at which they receive mail. "example.com" is used in a generic and vendor-neutral manner.

These domain names resolve to a server managed by ICANN.

edited Jun 20 '20 at 09:12

Community

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answered Sep 02 '09 at 14:51

Alex Papadimoulis

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Unfortuantely, sending email to foo@example.com does bounce. It sends failure notices 3 times, as it continues to try to deliver. – Edward Anderson Feb 11 '11 at 18:14
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Sending e-mail to test@example.com indeed bounces, at least currently, using Google SMTP. According to [this answer](http://serverfault.com/a/333552), that behavior might be server-dependent. I wonder whether Google (or other SMTP server owners) could rather throw away e-mails sent to example.com: that would seem more reasonable to me. But I don’t know whether the standard allows this. – Olivier Cailloux Jul 19 '15 at 11:31
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Part of my server-side email validation performs a DNS & MX record check. If even a valid looking domain name is used, non-routeable email addresses that don't have properly configured MX servers are rejected. As a result, I wouldn't use a email address you don't own. Use Gmail "+" rule for testing... send your test messages to "youremail+random@gmail.com". – James Moberg Feb 17 '17 at 17:25
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I don't recommend using a email address that you can't access when submitting an email address via a web form. Some web forms have server-side filters & anti-spamming features. By using an invalid, unregistered, non-routeable, abusive or bogus domain or invalid username (like "noreply"), you could find your IP address automatically blocked and/or reported to anti-abuse services. – James Moberg Jun 06 '18 at 23:32

Curtis Gibby · Answer 2 · 2019-11-13T23:34:02.993

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I started using whatever@example.com for this purpose, but then I began getting responses back from my outgoing email server saying delivery to that address had been delayed. I don't know about the OP, but I want something that I can send to and completely forget about it.

Now I'm changing over to whatever@mailinator.com -- I know that it gets delivered to their catchall (so I'm not getting any junk back about delivery errors), and if I like, I can even go check at http://mailinator.com/ to see if the email went through as planned. (But it's not clogging up my inbox if I don't care about it.)

edited Nov 13 '19 at 23:34

answered Apr 23 '10 at 15:16

Curtis Gibby

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Mailinator is a great solution, but on that vein, why not create a real test mailbox on your own mail server, assuming you are an organisation or business? Mailinator might abuse or sell your email address ... – Roland Sep 02 '20 at 13:52
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@Roland -- setting up a mailbox on your own server seems like a lot of work for a "throwaway" email, doesn't it? – Curtis Gibby Nov 27 '20 at 16:36
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Lot of work? Sure, that depends if it isn't worth it for you, and you don't worry about abuse of your email address. If you may need to repeat the test later, e.g. when people complain about missing mails. If it is for hobby, or for a professional project – Roland Nov 29 '20 at 22:42

score 17 · Answer 3 · answered Sep 02 '09 at 15:11

http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc2606.html has all the standard reserved names. Notably, example.com and the like started resolving a few years ago. Before that they were truly reserved names, not even found in DNS. But they are still useful "fake" domains.

score 7 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 17 '17 at 17:29

A simple way of testing email delivery is to use Gmail with the "plus" rule. We use this when registering our shared email account with some services that use unique email addresses as the username. This enables us to use a single inbox for all of the incoming registrations and filter the messages to all go to the same folder.

http://fieldguide.gizmodo.com/how-to-use-the-infinite-number-of-email-addresses-gmail-1609458192

One trick you may or may not have picked up about Gmail is that you can add in periods anywhere in the front part of your address and it makes no difference whatsoever: john.smith@gmail.com works just the same as johnsmith@gmail.com. What's more, you can add a plus sign and any word before the @ sign (e.g. johnsmith+hello@gmail.com) and messages will still reach you. If these tweaks make no difference, then why use them? One major reason: filters.

score 5 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 05 '19 at 09:45

We are using .local domains for that.

For testing purposes I like to have e-mail addresses that really do not exist and cannot be registered. Even access by IANA like for example.com is a no-go for security reasons. Accidently sent e-mails to max.mustermann@example.com maybe be delivered to servers controlled by IANA. This maybe an privacy issue for Max Mustermann and so on ...

Do not treat me wrong: This is just for additional security minimizing the risks whereever possible.

score 4 · Answer 6 · answered Sep 02 '09 at 14:51

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how about example.com?

It is a valid domain, but reserved by RFC to be used for documentation.

answered Sep 02 '09 at 14:51

Eric Petroelje

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score 3 · Answer 7 · answered Sep 02 '09 at 14:53

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Frankly, I utilize an email address from my own testing email server for this because part of the testing is to ensure that the form information actually gets to the email address, and since checking it is outside of my normal work-flow, that means I have to actively do so.

answered Sep 02 '09 at 14:53

Stephen Wrighton

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Right, I generally start with my own personal email addresses (assuming I can delete the records afterwards). But I also end up having to run through registration a few times after I've already used my own "real" accounts. – harpo Sep 02 '09 at 15:13
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i have a domain that basically has a pass-through on the email server to any domains. With that as basically a catch-all, no matter what I send to it, I'm able to check it. – Stephen Wrighton Sep 18 '09 at 01:53

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Sep 02 '09 at 14:52

Contoso.com is a dummy domain that can be used for testing.

It's used by Microsoft as an example whenever they need an example company or domain. They're the ones who registered it, and they use it frequently in their examples, so I doubt they care if you use it for testing. They likely ignore anything that goes it seeing as how its posted all over the web and a likely target for spam.

score 1 · Answer 9 · edited Jul 05 '22 at 21:30

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guerillamail.com for example is blocked by several blacklists (like http://www.block-disposable-email.com). So maybe it's better to use contoso.com.

edited Jul 05 '22 at 21:30

zcoop98

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answered Apr 01 '11 at 19:34

Gerold

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score 0 · Answer 10 · edited Nov 21 '17 at 18:05

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If it's email you want to test, why not use a disposable email address, such as GuerrilaMail? You can send an email to anyone@guerrillamail.com, or set your own user name, for a limited amount of time.
BTW, Contoso is a Microsoft dummy site they've been using to demo .Net technologies for a couple of years now.

edited Nov 21 '17 at 18:05

Caius Jard

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answered Sep 02 '09 at 14:55

Traveling Tech Guy

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 30 '14 at 16:57

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you could configure your in house MTA to discard all example.com/net/org emails. you can be sure that no one would expect them to be delivered. and that would save your server from using resources and wasting bandwidth.

answered Oct 30 '14 at 16:57

Paul Van Bommel

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Is there a standard domain for testing "throwaway" email?

11 Answers11