How did I get someone elses email?

[rob1963]

Either I'm going mad, or something very weird has just happened.

I received an email query about a disco which I couldn't cover, so I replied giving the website addresses of a couple of alternative businesses which I could recommend, as these are run by friends of mine.

I have now received an email along the lines of "You were recommended to me by Rob James Entertainment..." but in the "To" heading it just shows my friend's email address, and in the "Cc" heading it also just gives one email address, which appears to be the sender's Hotmail address...

...so how on earth did this email also come to ME?

Am I missing something really obvious, or have I finally gone off my trolley?

[Jonathan Ford]

Either I'm going mad, or something very weird has just happened.

I received an email query about a disco which I couldn't cover, so I replied giving the website addresses of a couple of alternative businesses which I could recommend, as these are run by friends of mine.

I have now received an email along the lines of "You were recommended to me by Rob James Entertainment..." but in the "To" heading it just shows my friend's email address, and in the "Cc" heading it also just gives one email address, which appears to be the sender's Hotmail address...

...so how on earth did this email also come to ME?

Am I missing something really obvious, or have I finally gone off my trolley?

I don't know how it's done, but you can send a group email to a number of addresses with just the senders email address visible, so that group recipients don't know who else is recieving it. Sounds like your enquiry has put your email address in with the rest of the contacts you gave.

[Mark Wild]

Yeah looks like they added your details to the BCC (blind copy)

I'm sure Marc J will explain alot better

[Marc J]

It's done by BCCing to multiple addresses.

If you want to easily send the same email to multiple recipients you might not want them to know who else got the email - it's bad "netiquette" for a start. So you send it to yourself and BCC it to everyone else.

If you're using Outlook or Outlook Express the BCC field isn't visible until you go to "View - All Headers" when composing an email.

EDIT: Mark beat me to it

[rob1963]

Thanks very much guys...it's good to know I'm not going off my trolley (just yet!)

[CRAZY K]

Thanks very much guys...it's good to know I'm not going off my trolley (just yet!)

BCC is a security precaution, if you are emailing loads of people and only do CC all the others will know each others email address which I believe in the Internet world is viewed as some kind of breach of privacy.

I dont know if there is any issue with Data Protection as well?

If its just a few close friends its not an issue, but for large commercial organisations no doubt a lot more sensitive.

CRAZY K

[nigelwright7557]

Spooky ! is there anybody there ?

[Solitaire Events Ltd]

is there anybody there ?

I quite often have that thought about you Nigel.

[nigelwright7557]

I quite often have that thought about you Nigel.

Nice to know you think about me sweetie !

[Penfold42]