in reply to @ in regex, or not?

Additionally to what the former comments say I would sugguest you to make the match a lot more foolproof by making it more restrictive:
m/^((\w\d_\+\-\.)+\@(\w\d)(\w\d\.\-)+\.(\w){2,3})$/
This should be able to catch quite alot, you can always expand (or make it even more restrictive) to your needs.
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Alfie