Summary: It's possible to send email to someone without having their email address show up on the To: or Cc: lines by using Blind Carbon Copy or Bcc.
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How do I hide the email addresses I'm sending to on a message? |
Have you ever gotten a piece of email where you weren't listed as a recipient? Your email address wasn't present on either the "To:" line or the "Cc:" (Carbon Copy) line, but somehow you got it anyway. What you didn't see was what's called the "Blind Carbon Copy" line, or "Bcc:" which allows the sender to specify a list of people to get the message without their name appearing on it.
Why "carbon" and what's this about it being "blind"?
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The term "Carbon Copy" dates from the pre-photocopy typewriter days where the way to make a second copy was to insert a sheet of carbon paper between two sheets of typewriter paper - when the typewriter struck an image of a letter on the top, it would also press an image through the carbon paper onto the second page.
In today's digital age, the term simply means any copy of a document or email sent to someone in addition to the primary recipient. It's common courtesy on business correspondence to let the recipient know who else is getting the document by listing them after a "Cc:" somewhere on the document. Email of course does this automatically with the "Cc:" field into which you enter email addresses.
"Blind" simply means that someone else gets a copy but they're not listed on the "Cc:" line as getting one.
Here's the rub: how you access the blind carbon copy function will depend on your email client. Look in the on-line help for "bcc" or "Blind Carbon Copy". In Outlook, there is a BCC field that's simply not visible by default. When you compose a message hit the View menu and you'll find an item labeled Bcc field which will turn it on. In Outlook Express, hit the View menu while composing a message and you'll see an item All Headers that does the same.
BCC can be a courtesy if used correctly. If you're sending email to a large number of people you can reduce the size of the message and the "To:" or "Cc:" headers that people might have to wade through by BCCing your message to them. On the other hand, it can also be somewhat rude to BCC what someone might think is a personal message to others as well.
BCC. Use it responsibly.
Related:
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How do I get outgoing mail to display "Undisclosed-Recipients:;" in the TO field? Undisclosed-Recipients is placed in the To: field by some mail programs or ISPs if the From: field is empty but Bcc: isn't. It's not easy to force.
How do I view the list of BCC'ed recipients on an email I've received? The list of BCC'ed recipients is not included in emails, so there is no way of determining if and who else the email was sent to.
Article C1889 - February 1, 2004
The solution to a personalized message without a long Cc list is to use a mail merge program like PC iMail (http://www.prosoftapps.com/pcimail). It will let you add mail merge fields such as "Dear [FirstName]" and will insert each recipient's name in the message, and it will also send the message individually to each recipient for a personalized touch.
The other issue these days is the limitations many ISPs place on the number of messages that can be sent in a given time period. My ISP limits me to 25 messages per minute, and so PC iMail's time delay feature helps out by letting me specify the number of messages that will be sent for a given time interval (e.g. Send 20 messages every 60 seconds).
Posted by: Rick Palmer at August 26, 2006 8:49 PMGreat tip, I found this site that obscures you email address using CATCHA. http://www.emailcover.com
Posted by: Kevin at February 21, 2007 11:33 AMHi Leo,
had the same question as someone before:
"Good afternoon.
I would like to know if there is any trick in Outlook to Hide my e-mail address once I send an e-mail from my outlook.
If there is such a feature I would also like to know if instead of my e-mail it would be possible to appear "Customer Services" or something like that.
Thank you very much for your answers and tips!
Posted by: Oriol at February 21, 2006 12:42 PM "
is there a solution for this?
Posted by: aiden at October 18, 2007 4:22 AMThanks
Aiden
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Yes and no.
You can change the "From:" address on email you send. This article covers that:
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_send_mail_from_my_mail_forwarded_address.html
However that does not *hide* you. Your actual email address may still be in
the mail headers, as may be the IP address from which you're sending email.
Leo
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How do I see who I've sent an email to once it's been sent bcc? Want to check and be sure I didn't already send it. Thanks.
Posted by: debb at May 13, 2008 3:58 PMdebb
Posted by: DAVE at June 25, 2008 12:32 PMIf Outlook Express try: Ctrl F3 keys at same time
You may want to try akapost (www.akapost.com)
akapost is a simple and easy way to protect your email identity from being exposed on the Internet.
Posted by: Smith at July 21, 2008 11:59 AMHello,
there is a webpage, www.emailhide.org, that encrypts your email address in a secure manner. All you nedd to do is type in your email address and is returned html code with a link with your encrypted email. I've tried and now i use it everytime. There's also a automatic gen for webmasters. Check it out.
05-Feb-2009
If i need to send out a message to a lot of people, but i want them to only see their own name on the email, as if i personally sent it to just them and not 25 other people as well, how would i do this in Microsoft Outlook?
28-May-2009
I have gmail and I've tried everything in the book to prevent my mail recipients to see other's addresses, but it won't work. I use the BCC feature but the addresses still show. I know this because I tried sending a message to multiple recipients, where I put one of my other mails in the TO box and the rest in the BCC box. That's when I found that the addresses were displayed.
Thank you very much for your help.
01-Jul-2009
Posted by: GLORIA at June 30, 2009 11:20 AM