Catch-all, also known as “accept-all” is a domain-wide setting mail server that is configured to accept all emails sent to the domain, no matter if the specified mailbox exists or not.
Small businesses normally use a catch-all address to ensure that any email sent to them is received, regardless of the typos. These are also found in large government, medical and educational firms. Often these are valid emails, in fact. However, organizations may use this setting as a security feature to prevent unsolicited emails.
The disadvantages of keeping catch-all emails:
Catch-all emails can lead to hard bounces for B2B marketers, damaging your sender score and inevitably wasting your time and money. While your email might land in the catch-all inbox, if the email address is invalid, there is a good chance that it won’t be opened. This will skew your engagement rates, and hurt your marketing campaign performance.
SAFE – If you have a dedicated email server with your own IPs, accept all emails may be safe for sending dependent on the overall health of your list.
DON’T SEND – If you use a third party email provider like MailChimp, Mail250, etc that requires a bounce rate below 4%, these emails are not safe for sending.