What is an MX record?
An MX record names the server that receives email for a domain.
Last read from the sources at the foot of this page.
What does MX record mean?
The lookup first attempts to locate an MX record associated with the name.
The record holds a host name and a priority number. A firm whose mail runs on a hosted service points its MX at that service. A firm behind a filtering gateway points it at the gateway, which passes clean mail on.
For a look-alike, the MX record is the signal that changes the risk. A look-alike with no MX record is a name. One with an MX record can receive replies, which is what an invoice fraud needs when the client writes back to confirm.
A domain that sends and receives no mail can say so with a null MX, a single record pointing at a dot. It tells sending servers there is nowhere to deliver, which suits a parked second domain beside a strict SPF record.
Where does it show up in a reading?
In a LeakTrace reading it is read under “Look-alike names”: names made from yours, each asked whether it is registered and set up for mail.
In a LeakTrace reading it is read under “Your other domains”: the email records of every other domain your firm owns.
Each look-alike is asked for its MX record. The firm's own mail host names the provider its steps are written for.
Which pages use this term?
Where does this come from?
- RFC 5321, Simple Mail Transfer Protocolrfc-editor.orgRead 1 November 2026
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