nicholas, i'm afraid you got a little bit confused here.Nicholas the Italian wrote:2) can we ascertain whether or not it is actually his?
Of course not (at least, not without the Mind Reading MOD HoL is secretly developing).
what does it mean "is it actually his"?
who is "he"?
from the admin POV, the only "identity" attached to a user account is the email.
of course, if you ask your users to fill-in real name, or any other "real-life" information, this will bet be verified.
however, on the default registration, the only "real" part is the email, so by verifying this one detail, you verify all the "real world" data you have.
of course, it is theoretically possible that someone will fill out registration to a BBS and will supply someone else's email. however, in those cases, the most likely outcome is that the actual owner of this email account will never press the "confirm" link, so these kind of registrations will not create user accounts.