hey is it possible to verify someones email so that i know that they are who they say they are, because im using a auction site and need to only allow trusted people
You can verify that the domain of the email exists, which doesn't really help you if it is gmail.com, or hotmail.com, and some mail servers are set up to block mail for non existent users. So on those servers you can verify the existence of an email address by connecting and issuing a RCPT to command with the email address. If the server says 'go ahead', the address exists.
It is not a general rule tho, and many hosting companies block outgoing SMTP mail from websites.
Best compromise seems to be that at signup you send a comfirmation email to their supplied address, containing a link that they have to click on to verify within a set period - e.g. 12 or 24 hours.
It sends a welcome email to new customers by default. You would have to modify that to include a back link to the store, and create a page that accepted the incoming links, and verified the user.
