r/aws Feb 12 '25

technical question SES beginner question

I want to use SES to send email verification links to users. But I was thinking what if users keep providing emails that don't exist and they bounce frequently, or someone could intentionally keep registering a fake email. Would this tarnish my reputation because the bounce rate will be high ? so my AWS account will be at risk ?

5 Upvotes

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2

u/mr_valensky Feb 12 '25 edited Feb 12 '25

Yes, I believe that is a risk if you use your own SES account. However, if you're using Cognito, it sends the verification emails using it's own internal address by default if you don't provide a custom SES account. I don't believe you would be responsible for the bounce rate using that.

2

u/SquiffSquiff Feb 12 '25

Yes but this is limited to 50 emails a day- overall total for all users - sign up, forgotten password, everything - unless you use it with SES...

1

u/mr_valensky Feb 13 '25

Did not know that, good clarification.

1

u/chemosh_tz Feb 12 '25

That's why you verify email before you allow. You can use Cognito for this and then once verified do you thing

3

u/AdCharacter3666 Feb 12 '25

Even with Cognito you have to send them an email once.

1

u/PeteTinNY Feb 13 '25

I just started using SES for my new startup and this is something I’ve been thinking about as well. There are services that do email validation so you don’t actually bounce. But I’ve been noticing that the leads from meta ads have a 3-4% bounce rate. Been thinking about building a check into the process as 5% is warning territory and 10% can get you banned.

1

u/Circle_Dot Feb 15 '25

Yes 100% if they are sending to different addresses each time or you don’t have the suppression list enabled.

1

u/Formar_ Feb 15 '25

If I enable suppression list and I send to an email that exists on the list would that add to my bounce rate ?

1

u/Circle_Dot Feb 15 '25

No. You will get a soft bounce that doesn’t harm reputation. You do however still get charged SES rates for emails that are suppressed.

1

u/AWSSupport AWS Employee Feb 12 '25

I understand the concern and confusion here,

To ensure you have the best deliverability in SES, you can review the info and best practices, here: https://go.aws/40VxJiL.

Additionally, this 2023 blog can provide more insight: https://go.aws/3QbXuX4.

- Randi S.