Outlook Adds People to the BCC Field that I Didn't Put there

[nolajen]

Sending out lots of "we've moved" emails. Instead of sending one mail and bcc'ing everyone, I'm sending hundreds of individual emails. Some of the emails (which were only sent to one person) now show the names of other people in the bcc field when I look at the message in folder view, but I didn't add them there.

When I open the email, the bcc field is blank.

The names that are popping up in the bcc field are people who also received individual emails.

Is Outlook really bcc'ing these people (and thus sending them duplicate copies of the email) or is this some simple program glitch? Is there a way to tell for sure?

 

[Ralston18]

You have halted the mailings - correct?

How did you generate the original email? E.g. Word and Mail Merge? Third party software, database.....?

What is the source of the mailing email addresses? Customer list?

Go back and double check the settings or any related configuration parameters being used. Hopefully a bcc everyone else button or option would be defaulted off but hard to tell these days. Especially if the "button" is not clearly identified.

Do you know any of the intended recipients? If yes, then just give them a call.

And designate someone to constantly monitor your incoming mail for complaints/replies.

 

[nolajen]

You have halted the mailings - correct?

How did you generate the original email? E.g. Word and Mail Merge? Third party software, database.....?
It was typed in Outlook. I saved a copy of the message without any recipients to my desktop. I would drag a new copy into the drafts folder and then edit for each person. This was really "low tech" no mail merge or anything fancy.
What is the source of the mailing email addresses? Customer list?
An Excel Spreadsheet.
Go back and double check the settings or any related configuration parameters being used. Hopefully a bcc everyone else button or option would be defaulted off but hard to tell these days. Especially if the "button" is not clearly identified. No such button was pushed

Do you know any of the intended recipients? If yes, then just give them a call.
I don't know most of these people personally. However, after a long chat session with my hosting provider, we figured out that the bcc's are not real. Each person is only being sent the mail once. This leads to a separate, but less alarming issue--why outlook says the messages were bcc'd to certain people when they weren't.

And designate someone to constantly monitor your incoming mail for complaints/replies.

 

[Ralston18]

Key words: "certain people".

Look for some pattern or other constant with respect to those people. E.g., did you do your editing in some manner that matches the bcc recipients? E.g., every 10th email, every email via a certain email service provider.

Sometimes Word, Excel, and other products are too smart. They think you are making a mistake and make some correction.

Look at the Excel spreadsheet. Expand the cells, check properties, etc. Flag those that had the false bcc.

 

[nolajen]

The only pattern that I can see is that it is bcc'ing people who have already received a copy of the same or a similar email.

On one batch that I did, to prove I was not doing this by accident, I did screenshots of the emails when in the draft folder and then again in the outbox. (Outlook is set not to send automatically). In both screenshots the bcc field was blank. However of the 11 emails sent at that time, when I opened the sent box, 1 of the 11 had a bcc added to it.

Other than that, everything is random. The service provider is the same because this is all being done from Outlook. The only editing that is done is me copying the text of the email address and pasting it into the to box.

I have even sent the mails from two different email addresses. In some cases the original mail was sent to the person using email address "A", but the bcc is added when I send the email from address "B".

Key words: "certain people".

Look for some pattern or other constant with respect to those people. E.g., did you do your editing in some manner that matches the bcc recipients? E.g., every 10th email, every email via a certain email service provider.

Sometimes Word, Excel, and other products are too smart. They think you are making a mistake and make some correction.

Look at the Excel spreadsheet. Expand the cells, check properties, etc. Flag those that had the false bcc.

 

[Ralston18]

Two patterns: 1) previous receipt = bcc, 2) Use of address "B" = bcc.

Tedious part: Compare the settings between email addresses A and B. Use the File Tab and select Options. Look for differences even if cc/bcc is not directly indicated. Could be some other setting somewhere else.

Also there are many shortcuts in Outlook:

https/www.shortcutworld.com/en/win/Outlook_2010.html

(Many more than I ever realized or even needed to use......)

Maybe some pattern in your cut and paste/edit process is parroting some short cut. Did not note any viable matches....

Tabbing is interesting: Tabbing, as you know, will move you though the available fields. Any series of tab key presses in your work? Or use of the letter "Q" where you could brush the Tab key beforehand..... Any indication that the keyboard is tossing out "ghost" tabs?

If you close the bcc field you should not be able to tab into that field. Does address A's new mail form not have bcc but address B does have the field in the form?

You are finding things that I believe are not some misstep on your part. Just Outlook doing "its thing".

Wish I could provide a direct "this is it" answer but you are really in the best position to really know what you are fully doing and able to test and observe the results.

 

[nolajen]

Thanks so much for your extensive input.

This has been happening for about a week now, so I have tried multiple things to stop it.

Yesterday, I turned off the bcc field for all emails being sent from both addresses. I still had people end up in the bcc field after the email was sent.

I also tried to duplicate the problem on another colleague's computer (we share the same email addresses). I could not duplicate the problem. The only difference between the 2 machines is that I'm using Win 7 and his is XP. We're both using Outlook 2007.

Just as a last bit of information for now, I am second-guessing my hosting provider's response from yesterday. After looking through all of my read receipts, I found one of the contacts that had been bcc'd had sent 2 read receipts. I think people may truly be getting multiple copies of these emails because of the bcc.

Two patterns: 1) previous receipt = bcc, 2) Use of address "B" = bcc.

Tedious part: Compare the settings between email addresses A and B. Use the File Tab and select Options. Look for differences even if cc/bcc is not directly indicated. Could be some other setting somewhere else.

Also there are many shortcuts in Outlook:

https/www.shortcutworld.com/en/win/Outlook_2010.html

(Many more than I ever realized or even needed to use......)

Maybe some pattern in your cut and paste/edit process is parroting some short cut. Did not note any viable matches....

Tabbing is interesting: Tabbing, as you know, will move you though the available fields. Any series of tab key presses in your work? Or use of the letter "Q" where you could brush the Tab key beforehand..... Any indication that the keyboard is tossing out "ghost" tabs?

If you close the bcc field you should not be able to tab into that field. Does address A's new mail form not have bcc but address B does have the field in the form?

You are finding things that I believe are not some misstep on your part. Just Outlook doing "its thing".

Wish I could provide a direct "this is it" answer but you are really in the best position to really know what you are fully doing and able to test and observe the results.

 

[Ralston18]

Appears to be narrowing down; i.e., "Windows 7". (Versus XP.)

Unfortunately I have neither XP or Windows 7 availalble any more and cannot do any testing or trial balloons so to speak.

Maybe some hidden control characters or text string is forcing the bcc. How was the Excel spreadsheet created? An import, direct manual key-in, Notepad, Word, or parsed from some other spreadsheet/database? Look for any stray, nonsense like characters, embedded tabs, etc..

I did a bit of online searching regarding turning bcc on/off or otherwise disabling it. Did not note anything specific but there were various links addressing bcc issues. Feel fairly sure that you have probably done much the same already.

Keep looking for the pattern (aka "perfect storm"). As you have been doing keep trying to duplicate or otherwise make the problem happen.