helpneeded wrote:
> How do I take back a message in Outlook2000, in order to prevent a recipient
> from reading it? I sent a message to someone in regards to a new account for
> work and it went to the wrong customer, so I need to recall that message
> ASAP. Any help would be appreciated!
Recall rarely works across different e-mail servers. It only sometimes
works when both sender and recipient are using the same Exchange server
(or Exchange servers within the same organization); however, you are
sending e-mails via SMTP, not Exchange. That means rather than issuing
a recall *function* to the Exchange server to yank out the original
e-mail from the recipient's mailbox, you are sending a *new* e-mail that
requests the recipient's mail client to remove an item AFTER the mail
client has downloaded the original message from their mailbox. That
means the e-mail client must understand the encoded Message-ID header in
your 2nd new e-mail that makes the recall request. It also requires
that the recipient open the recall e-mail BEFORE they open your original
e-mail - and that means the recipient would need to have e-mails listed
in descending sort order rather than ascending sort order. If the
recipient opens your original e-mail (which they WILL already have
downloaded) before opening your recall e-mail then they can obviously
read the original message because they have not first opened your recall
e-mail which then attempts (in Outlook only) to delete the original
e-mail.
Even if the recipient reads their e-mails in descending sort order, it
is unlikely that their e-mail client knows how to handle a recall. The
Microsoft-specific non-standard modification of the Message-ID header
(by adding the "!-!" prefix and encoding information within the userID
portion before the "@" character) is used to indicate a recall but it is
only recognized by Outlook (and the recipients have to read e-mails in
descending order so they open your recall e-mail first) so don't expect
the recall to work. A recipient using anything other than Outlook
2000+, like Outlook Express, will see both the original message and
recall messages and first opening the recall e-mail will NOT delete the
original e-mail. Non-Outlook e-mail clients don't know how to handle
the recall request that is encoded within the Message-ID header.
If using Exchange to send your e-mails which were sent to a recipient
also using the same Exchange organization then recall might work because
the mail server is handling the request to delete messages from the
recipient's mailbox. That is not your case. You are using SMTP from
your e-mail provider to the SMTP host of another e-mail provider.
Recall won't work unless both sender and recipient use Outlook 2000+ and
the recipient happens to open the recall e-mail first. At this point,
you should send another new e-mail to correct your mistake in your
original e-mail or to apologize for the content of your first e-mail.
Getting a recall e-mail will only draw more attention by the recipient
to your original e-mail.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/197094/en-us
If you read the help already included in Outlook to search on "recall",
it would have plainly stated "This feature requires Microsoft Exchange".
For SMTP, there is a miniscule possibility that if the recipient also
uses Outlook then the recall via the Message-ID directive will work
since Outlook handles that non-Exchange method. It rarely works.
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