We've added the Validity Heatwave DBL as a data source for Blacklist Monitoring. It is a domain blocklist from the Validity Intelligence Network, and it targets a specific problem: sending domains that show up in "inbox warming" services and then graduate to unsolicited cold outreach.
What Heatwave Lists
Most domain blocklists flag domains that appear inside spam. Heatwave flags the sending domain itself. A domain is listed when Validity's spam traps see mail from it that scores as cold-email infrastructure, starting with the fabricated engagement traffic that warming services generate to fool reputation systems. If the same domain later starts real outreach, the listing escalates from warming to active.
If you run a legitimate mail program and a vendor has pitched you on "warming up" a new domain, this is the list that catches it.
How a Listing Is Reported
The zone returns no TXT record, so we build the listing detail from the response code itself. A listing on your report reads like this:
Active cold outreach - first observed 30-90 days ago, severity 73/100
Three things are encoded in that line:
- Stage: synthetic warming only, or warming that has progressed to active cold outreach
- Age: how long ago the domain was first observed, in bands from under 7 days to 180 days or more
- Score: a relative severity band from 1 to 100, or a manual listing where Validity added the domain by hand
You can check any domain yourself, or request a review of a listing, at lookup.validity.tools.
Enabling It
The source applies to domain hosts and is off by default. Turn it on per profile under RBL Monitoring > Monitoring Profiles > Data Sources, on the Email Deliverability tab. It is not a premium source, so it is available on every plan, including the free tier.
Also in This Release: HRBL
We've added HRBL (hrbl.hu), a Hungarian real-time blocklist that flags mail servers and domains sending malware and spam, including regional sources that the larger international lists often miss. Two zones are now available:
- bl.hrbl.hu - an IP blocklist covering both IPv4 and IPv6 senders
- uribl.hrbl.hu - the domain / URI counterpart
Both apply to Blacklist Monitoring like any other source.
Retired Data Sources
We've also removed several sources that their operators no longer maintain. Each had stopped returning data, so there is nothing you need to do:
- MailCleaner (iprbl.mailcleaner.net, uribl.mailcleaner.net) - discontinued.
- Woody (blacklist.woody.ch and its IPv6 zone) - folded into SWINOG; we continue to carry the active SWINOG list (dnsrbl.swinog.ch).
- wormrbl.imp.ch - retired by the operator, whose current lists are published under swinog.ch.
- list.anonwhois.net - a legacy Spam Eating Monkey zone that no longer returns listings; the active SEM URI list remains in place.
If any of these were enabled on your Monitoring Profiles, they have been removed automatically.