Can I stop or 'un-send' an email I sent by mistake?

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Actually I beg to differ with "You cannot track whether it's been read or not. You cannot tell if it's been forwarded or deleted. You can't even know whether it's been received at all".

The first and 3rd parts are false (the 2nd is true). You CAN tell if it's been read, if you attach a read receipt to the message. Similarly, if you request a delivery receipt, you can have the receiving system tell you when the message has been delivered to the receivers mailbox.

Now for the caveats: Read receipts are often optional. The receiver can choose whether or not their email program will send them, some don't.

And the delivery receipt fires when the email enters the users mailbox. It does NOT mean that the receiver has seen the email message, just that it's entered the users mailbox.

Think of it like postal delivery. You get notified that the mail you sent has entered the users mailbox but you don't know if the user has walked down to the mailbox and collected the mail. They might not get to their mailbox for two or three weeks, but the mail's been sitting there for all that time, and the next time they get to their mailbox they'll get the mail.

Actually, I disagree. Sort of.

Absolutely all those things are intended to do what you state. The problem is that they only work *sometimes*. ALL reciepts are "optional" based on the user's email client, his or her preferences, and in many cases even the email server they're using.

What I've found is that reciepts are DISabled (or disallowed) a surprisingly high percentage of the time. So much so as to make them, effectively, useless, and as a result, pointless to recommend.

I respectfully disagree with your comment "You cannot track whether it's been read or not. You cannot tell if it's been forwarded or deleted. You can't even know whether it's been received at all". I use the program called MSGTAG (free version available) which lets me know when an email I have sent has been opened (actually viewed) by it's recipient. And I understand that the paid version can even tell you how long the person viewed the email, whether they forwarded it, and various other specifics. I highly recommend this program.

This program, and various so-called tracking mechanisms are also not guaranteed to work. They typically relay on HTML email and what are called "bugs" placed into the email. These bugs reference web URLS when the email is viewed. Recent versions of email programs such as Outlook Express and Outlook 2003 disable remote URL retrieval by default. While it can be turned on, it's a step that people need to take, soemtimes per email, sometimes per sender, and they often do not take that step. Email sent as plain text, and email read while disconnected from the internet will also cause these techniques to fail. But the bottom line is that these techniques are NOT reliable.

A one chance in a million happened to me. I was Replying to a letter from a relative. In my reply I told about some problem I had with another relative .

WELL.....After clicking on Send the person's name I had wrote ABOUT appeared as well as to the one the email REPLY should have ONLY gone to. I was VERY VERY UPSET .

I don't know how in the World this could have happened!! The other persons name wasn't on the original letter and I certainly didn't click on it by mistake. I use Hotmail and this has never happened before........and of ALL the names it could have put on it was the one I wrote about!

Hi. I've got an email in my Microsoft Outlook 2003 outbox and it has already begun transmitting the message. Is there anyway I can stop it from being delivered?

Not cleanly, that I'm aware of. I'd disconnect from the network, let Outlook error, delete the mail from the outbox, and then reconnect.

help! i just responded to a private email from a family member. my hotmail account plugged in another family member's email address by mistake. i didn't notice the extra address was in the send to line until it was too late. is there any way i can retrieve this email? fast?

As stated in the article: No.

Please help!! I sent an e-mail to a friend, by mistake included another friend's address!! can i stop that??? how do i do that? how do i prevent friend number two to read the mail????

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