Why do e-mails addressed to others arrive in my mailbox?

J

JohnnyMac

I have two problems with microsoft outlook. E-mails addressed to me often end
up in my wife's mailbox. I used to be able to forward these from my wife's
mailbox but now they just go back to her box when I attempt this. I also
sometimes get messages meant for other people in my mailbox.

Any suggestions how we can sort this?
 
V

Vince Averello

Are you using a single POP3 mailbox to receive mail from multiple people?
Have you always used Outlook to receive your mail?
 
N

N. Miller

I have two problems with microsoft outlook. E-mails addressed to me often end
up in my wife's mailbox. I used to be able to forward these from my wife's
mailbox but now they just go back to her box when I attempt this. I also
sometimes get messages meant for other people in my mailbox.

Any suggestions how we can sort this?

For question two, the email you get was sent to your email address,
regardless of what you see in the headers. The critical information is in
the SMTP transaction between the sender's relay agent and your gateway mail
server. If the transaction includes, "RCPT TO: {Your_Email_Address}, your
gateway mail server must put it in your mailbox; it is a hard SMTP rule.
However, your gateway mail server is not required to show you this
"envelope" email address; and most gateway mail servers just discard it. A
rare few stamp a header line as, "X-Delivered-To: {Your_Email_Address}", but
you would only see that if you examined the full headers. And remember: I
said, "A rare few".

If your email address is just an alias to a single account, you would see
the exact behavior you are describing. You might try creating a rule to sort
your email by recipient email address (to you in this folder, to your wife
in that folder); but I am not certain that would work well if you received a
single email with both email address in a "Cc:" list, or even if it would
work at all on email sent "Bcc:". It would be easier, if your email provider
allowed it, to create separate email accounts for you and your wife.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Top