[eluser]xwero[/eluser]
So there is nothing wrong on the php side. Now there should be a reason why the validation plugin only returns the email exists error. From now on it would be purely guess work as i don't know how the plugin works and what the quirks are.
I suggest you open the firebug window and see what happens in the console tab. If the url gives errors the problem lays there. if the responce is more than the word true/false that could be the problem.