Mail 9.3 full headers

I have this same problem except that I'm trying to forward with full headers by using Rules. That is, I have Rules set up to forward mail from certain spammers back to their ISP in order to file complaints about them. I don't want to have to do this for every message - I get mail from certain spammers several times a day. So, I set up rules to forward the message to their ISP. But, when the message is forwarded, Mail doesn't include all the headers. So, I end up getting a response back saying that they need the headers and I have to do it manually anyway. This is silly - I should be able to automate this process using the rules.

Of course, the problem would be helped greatly if certain ISPs, like Amazon, would actually kill the accounts of the spammers after enough complaints are received but Amazon refuses to do that (it would hurt their income). The same is true for the other companies that support spammers. And, no, sites like spamcop are not a solution.

There does not appear to be a built-in rule to do what you want, however you might be able to accomplish this by creating an AppleScript and using that as part of a rule.

For example, it is possible to have a rule triggered in Mail via some criteria which then runs an AppleScript which creates a new email and attaches a file to the new email. The file in this case wants to be the entire original email. The bit you need to do is include steps to get the email as a file i.e. a .eml or .emlx file. (This is the format Apple Mail actually stores the messages as.)

So perhaps if you can point the script to the file that is the particular email you can then attache it to the new email.

This article might be a starting point http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.21/21.09/ScriptingMail/index.html

A blunt force approach might be to first save a copy of the email that triggers the rule and then you can attache it to the new email which gets sent the ISP.

Aside from the fact that I've yet to get any Applescript to work, your approach is FAR more complicated than simply manually forwarding the mail from the start and doesn't accomplish the primary goal: to automate the process entirely.

There is no built-in function to do it automatically i.e. via mail rules. The method I described is the nearest automatic method you can achieve. Please don't blame me or other posters for this we are only trying to help you, we do not write the software nor do we work for Apple.

I have written a rule which uses an AppleScript which auto replies and attaches a file to the reply, I state this merely to show that this approach is possible and works although my own example will not be suitable for you.

Frankly one could argue you are wasting too much time over this. Spam is not going to go away, run a spam filter and ignore it.

It's because of the attitude of "run a spam filter and ignore it" that spam will not go away. If more people were to take action to complain about spam to the ISPs, and take legal action when a spammer can be tracked down, it would become unprofitable for companies to spam or for the ISPs to allow spam to continue and it would go away, at least to some extent. But a philosophical discussion about the sheep trying to ignore the wolves would not be productive.

No you aren't missing anything. It changes back in the forward message.

While the message header is in full format, do a command-a to select all and copy the message. Then click forward, and paste above the message. It will put the full header in above the message.

I searched for this for a long time then realized that I was making it too complicated. Hope this helps.

1. Open Mail
2. Double Click on an Email Message to open it up. It should open up in its own window.
3. Right-Click or (Control+click) the header area and select "Customize toolbar..."
4. A toolbar editing window will appear
5. Locate the "All Headers" button. It will be the picture of an envelope with a magnifying glass.
6. Drag the "All Headers" button into your toolbar
7. Click "Done" to close the toolbar editing window
8. Now the "All Headers" button will allow you to click to show or hide headers as required.

If you want to forward a message with the full headers why not select the message in the list of messages, right-click and choose 'Forward as Attachment'. This should forward the entire unaltered email including the full headers as an attachment in a form that someone else can view and analyse.