I got an email from my friend the other day, and all I wanted to do was forward that to my colleague at work, but I also didn’t want my friend to know about the forwarding.
If you ever found yourself in a similar situation, you might want to know whether a person knows if you forwarded their emails.
So, read this piece that will clear this confusion once and for all.
If You Forward an Email, Does the Sender Know?
No, when you forward an email, the sender doesn’t know about it. The only way for the sender to know about the forwarded email is if you add him to the CC or BCC address of the forwarded email. Then he/she will receive a copy of the forwarded email and know about it.
Popular email clients such as Outlook or Gmail do not let you know if your emails are forwarded. The only way a person knows that their email is sent to another person is if someone informs them.
But can you know if you got a forwarded email?
On Outlook, if you receive a forwarded email, a blue tick will be present next to the mail. Similarly, Gmail also shows a special sign for forwarded emails. This is how a forwarded email looks like on Outlook and Gmail.
Sometimes, finding email addresses can be a hassle on Outlook. Read our guide, where we make viewing message headers on Outlook look effortless.
How Can You Forward An Email To Someone Without The Recipient Knowing it
To ensure that the sender does not know you have forwarded their emails, remove their email addresses from the CC and BCC fields. Also, remove their contact details from the forwarded email to conceal the person’s identity.
A Third party tool such as CRM software can track emails and let you know if someone forwarded the emails. They achieve this by doing something similar to what is described below.
You use the tool to send an email to someone. That email contains the codes that send alerts to a server whenever someone else opens it. And this is only possible if someone forwards your mail.
So, unless you are forwarding corporate mail, it is safe to say the sender does not see that you have forwarded them.
You can create some great signatures on Outlook that will reflect your online presence. If you are looking for where to start, follow our great guide to creating signatures on Outlook.
How to Check if Your Mail Has Been Forwarded
You can check if your mail has been forwarded using special tools like Paperflite. This tool will immediately notify you if it detects that someone has forwarded your mail, but popular programs like Outlook can already do this.
Gmail doesn’t currently have any feature to track your emails if it’s been forwarded, but it has a feature known as Confidential Mail. If you send confidential mail, the recipient will be unable to forward, copy, print, or download attachments.
In addition, you can also set an expiration date for your Confidential Mail, after which the message will disappear, or enable the requirement for a verification code to be sent as an SMS when recipients want to read the messages.
Wondering how to use the confidential mode?
These are the steps to use Confidential mode on Gmail:
- Go to the Gmail webpage.
- Click on Compose.
- Insert the email details in the appropriate fields.
- Click the lock icon that says Toggle confidential mode.
- Set the duration for the validity of the mail.
- Select SMS Passcode and click on Save.
- Enter the recipient’s number and click on the Send button.
Now, the person must enter a code sent to their mobile once they open this email. Only then can they view this email.
However, Outlook has both the ability to check if someone forwarded an email and prevent your emails from being forwarded.
To set this, click on Follow Up > Add Reminder > Select Forward from Flag to. Then add the necessary details and click Ok.
Then, you won’t have to do any complicated steps like these if you use a tool like Paperflite to send emails, as they are configured by default to send you a notification if your email is forwarded.
Do you need to block an email address on Outlook? Read our easiest guide to do so.
FAQ
Can you delete forwarded emails?
Yes, you can delete forwarded emails. The steps to delete forwarded emails are exactly the same as standard emails, and all you need to do is select the email, click on the menu next to it, and select ‘Delete this message’.
Is it OK to forward an email without permission?
No, it’s not OK to forward emails without permission. You can consider an email to be copyright protected by the author, and just like anything that’s copyrighted, you need the original owner’s permission before sharing it. However, it is ok to forward emails from your close friends.
Sometimes, you can send emails to the wrong address and spend days regretting. Well, not anymore.
Final Thoughts
That’s all you need to know when it comes to forwarding an email. To sum it up, you don’t need to worry about the sender noticing that you forwarded their email if you don’t include the sender’s email.
The sender can only know if you forwarded their mail if they are using an email service to notify them specifically if their mail is being forwarded.
Thank you for reading this article, and you know where to find us if you have any thoughts.
It’s goodbye until next time.
