in message
Thank you for your response. We do not have a rule set up. Our
e-mail
provider is Comcast so we utilize POP3, however, this person is not
a
"family" member and doesn't share our e-mail account. He is a
business
associate of my husband. Everyone we've spoken to is mystified and
can't
provide an explanation. Is there such a thing as a "hidden" rule
that could
be turned on in the background somewhere?
"an associate of mine is getting copied on ALL outgoing and INCOMING
e-mail to and from my e-mail address."
So it maybe what is happening is:
- You send an e-mail. Whether you want to or not, this associate is
getting included as a recipient. This means the intended recipient
and this associate both get your e-mail.
- The intended recipient is probably replying but selecting to Rely to
All. That means that recipient is replying to you and everyone else
you included which is the associate. You sent the e-mail so you get a
reply. You included the associate so a reply to your email results in
the associate also getting a reply if Reply to All was used.
You: Send an email to recipient and to associate.
Associate: Gets your email.
Recipient: Gets your email.
Recipient: Uses Reply to All. That sends the reply to you and the
associate.
You: Gets the reply.
Associate: Gets the reply.
So perhaps the problem originates with you including the associate in
your outbound emails. That the associate also gets the replies is
incidental because the recipient of your emails is replying to all
instead of just to you.
When you look at the copy of your sent e-mails in the Sent Items
folder and open then (double-click on them or right-click and Open so
the e-mail shows in its own window), what are the list of recipients
in the To, Cc, and Bcc headers (the Bcc will only be shown if
non-blank)? Is the associate listed in those headers as an included
recipient of your outbound e-mails? If so, you are using a plug-in or
template that always includes the associate in every e-mail that you
compose. If not, the something upstream of Outlook is including the
associate.
I might've mentioned to use the embedded editor in Outlook instead of
Word but you say that you are using Outlook 2007. That version of
Outlook forces you to use Word to compose e-mails. So you might want
to look at the template to see if Bcc was specified. I don't use
templates (and I don't use Word to compose e-mails) so I don't know if
Bcc can be recorded in the template to always have a non-blank value.
Opening the copy of the sent e-mail in the Sent Items folder would
show if Bcc was non-blank. Don't use the preview pane to view the
sent e-mail. Open the sent e-mail in its own window.
You say there are no rules. Go check. See if any rules are defined
that start with "Check messages after sending".
See if a plug-in is causing the problem by starting Outlook in its
safe mode ("outlook.exe /safe"). That will load Outlook but without
any plug-ins. If the problem goes away, you have a plug-in causing
the problem.
Sending an e-mail using the webmail interface to your e-mail account.
Send a test e-mail to a recipient and then check if the associate also
gets a copy. That eliminates Outlook and anything running on your
host since you are telling the webmail interface up on the mail host
to send the e-mail (i.e., you are not using local programs to send
e-mail). If the associate gets a copy of your test e-mail sent using
the webmail interface, there is something screwed up in your e-mail
account. Comcast doesn't let users define server-side rules so you
would have to find out from Comcast why they are including this
associate on every outbound email sent from your account (when using
their webmail interface so nothing of Outlook or your host is
involved).
