Mail reveals TO recipient to BCC recipients

Question

Mail reveals TO recipient to BCC recipients

I have noticed the following strange BCC behaviour in Mac Mail on both iMac and MBP, both running OSX 10.13.3.

I have confirmed this is an issue through tests with another and more experienced Mac user than me.

I became aware of it when replies to my email from a BCC recipient were also being sent to TO recipients.

Here is what happens.

1) From boris#icloud.com I send an email TO dana#live.com and BCC jedah#hotmail.com

Now, checking the inboxes of those accounts online (i.e. NOT in Mac Mail), I get:

2) TO recipient dana#live.com receives the email FROM boris#icloud.com exactly as expected, with the TO recipient shown as dana#live.com, however

3) BCC recipient jedah#hotmail.com receives the email and in the email header section the sender is shown correctly as boris#icloud.com, BUT the TO recipient shows as dana#live.comIt should of course be jedah#hotmail.com

In Mac Mail itself the dana#live.com INBOX receives the email exactly as expected, but the jedah#hotmail.com INBOX receives the email with the TO field showing dana#live.com.

Thus the BCC recipient SEES the TO recipient email address! This should not be happening.

iMac, macOS High Sierra (10.13.3), Late 2012

Posted on Feb 19, 2018 2:15 AM

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Answer 1

Feb 19, 2018 1:55 PM in response to Csound1

Well that's weird Csound1 since apparently I have just demonstrated how BCC works!

I have run tests with 4 friends and using Mac Mail and Outlook, Yahoo and Google web mail.

They all work exactly the same. The BCC recipient instead of seeing their own address in the TO field of a received email sees the email address of the person in the TO field of the sent email.

It's certainly counter-intuitive!

When you receive an email from anyone you do expect to see yourself as the recipient.

The screen shot below shows what the BCC recipient (xxx@uni.sydney.edu.au) sees receiving an email from xxx@iCloud.com.

You'd expect to see xxx@uni.sydney.edu.au in the TO field (as they are, after all, the actual recipient!), but instead you see another recipient (xxx@live.com.au) - the address in TO field of the sender's email.

If this is how BCC works, so be it. But logically I'd expect the BBC recipient's TO field to show their own address plus any other addresses in the senders' TO and CC fields.

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Answer 2

John Galt

Level 10

146,252 points

Feb 19, 2018 5:28 AM in response to Thunderclutch

No, it shouldn't be happening, but I can't duplicate what you're describing. BCC is working as I expect.

I don't use "hotmail" or "live.com" either though, so that could be a contributing factor. Contact Support and describe what you're experiencing. It could be a Mail bug.

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Answer 3

Feb 19, 2018 12:34 PM in response to Thunderclutch

I have run a test using non-iCloud accounts and without using Mac Mail and I'm seeing the exact same result.

So it must be how it works 😀

Still, it seems very odd to me that an email recipient sees someone else's email address in the TO field! When someone sees an email to YOU it should show them as FROM and you as TO, surely!

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Answer 4

KiltedTim

Level 10

203,104 points

Feb 19, 2018 12:50 PM in response to Thunderclutch

Thunderclutch wrote:

Here is what happens.

1) From boris#icloud.com I send an email TO dana#live.com and BCC jedah#hotmail.com

Now, checking the inboxes of those accounts online (i.e. NOT in Mac Mail), I get:

2) TO recipient dana#live.com receives the email FROM boris#icloud.com exactly as expected, with the TO recipient shown as dana#live.com, however

3) BCC recipient jedah#hotmail.com receives the email and in the email header section the sender is shown correctly as boris#icloud.com, BUT the TO recipient shows as dana#live.comIt should of course be jedah#hotmail.com

In Mac Mail itself the dana#live.com INBOX receives the email exactly as expected, but the jedah#hotmail.com INBOX receives the email with the TO field showing dana#live.com.

Thus the BCC recipient SEES the TO recipient email address! This should not be happening.

Um... yes. That's exactly what should be happening. Putting someone in the BCC field prevents other recipients from seeing that address. It does not prevent recipients in the bcc field from seeing recipients in the to field.

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