A new DMARC tool to avoid copy-pasting records

We have all done it at some point in our careers.

You realize you need a DMARC record for your domain, so you open Google and search for "DMARC record example."

You scroll past the ads, find a StackOverflow answer from 2019 that has a few upvotes, and copy the record into your DNS provider's dashboard. Maybe you remember to change the email address to your own. Maybe you do not, and you never notice because the whole thing is confusing anyway. You would be surprised by some of the requests for free support that we receive on socials.

You tell yourself you will come back and fix it later, but later never comes.

Three months down the road, you are scratching your head wondering why your marketing emails are landing in spam folders, or worse, why your security team is telling you that someone has been sending phishing emails as your CEO and you had absolutely no visibility into it.

The copy-paste approach to DMARC configuration is exactly how domains end up with misconfigured records, broken policies, and zero insight into who is actually sending email on their behalf. It is a pattern we see repeatedly, and it is entirely preventable.

That's why... we built a free DMARC record generator that does significantly more than just spit out a TXT record for you to paste! Everyone loves free tools, including me.

Our tool walks you through each decision, explains every tag in plain English, warns you about common mistakes before you make them, and produces a record that actually matches your specific situation and needs. No signup required, no email harvesting, just a useful tool that solves a real problem.

The Fundamental Problem (with Copy-Pasting DMARC Records)

Here is a typical DMARC record you might stumble upon while browsing technical forums or documentation sites:

v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[email protected]

At first glance, this looks perfectly simple and straightforward. The syntax appears correct, and it seems like it would work just fine. But this record, when blindly copied into your DNS, is riddled with problems that can cause serious headaches down the line.

The first and most obvious problem is that the email address is almost certainly wrong for your situation. You copied [email protected] from the example, but your domain is actually mybusiness.com.

Depending on how carefully you were paying attention, you might have your DMARC reports being sent to someone else's inbox, or more likely, they are bouncing into the void and you have no idea.

You set up DMARC thinking you were doing the right thing, but you are flying completely blind because you never actually receive any reports about your domain's email authentication status.

The second problem is more subtle but equally important. This example record does not include an ruf tag, which means you are missing forensic reports entirely.

Now, to be fair, most major email providers have stopped sending forensic reports due to privacy concerns about sharing email content (and that's a shame). But some providers still send them, and if you want the option to receive detailed information about individual failing messages, you need to specify the ruf tag in your record. By copying an incomplete example, you have made a decision without even realizing a decision was being made.

The third problem is conceptual rather than technical.

Many people who copy DMARC records do not actually understand what p=none means. There is a common misconception that "none" means "no DMARC" or "DMARC is disabled."

This is completely incorrect.

A policy of p=none means "monitor only, do not enforce."

Email receivers will still evaluate your messages against DMARC, and they will still send you reports about the results, but they will not quarantine or reject messages that fail authentication. This is perfectly fine as a starting point while you are gathering data and identifying legitimate senders, but it provides absolutely zero protection against spoofing.

If you think your domain is protected because you have a DMARC record, but that record says p=none, you are operating under a dangerous false sense of security.

For a comprehensive understanding of what DMARC actually does and why it was created, our documentation on why DMARC was developed provides essential context. We will be happy to process your DMARC reports, my team is waiting for you business.