BCC names are visible on AOL email accounts

[Bob Hansen]

I am using 9.0.053

Sending emails using SMTP_BCCLIST for the first time. No documentation about using it, but the wizard cleared that up with field boxes and check boxes. Thanks for that.

But, I am testing now with a few email accounts. And I am seeing that if an email address is for @aol.com the other recipients are showing up on the aol message, the other names are not blind. And some name(s) are receiving message they should not get.

The process is:
Send Emails to BCC list.
Send Confirmation Status Email to separate list, not BCC.
(Some names are in both lists for testing purposes now)

Here is an edited excerpt from the log:

10/28/2007 21:51:25:727 -

Let>SMTP_BCCLIST=[email protected];[email protected];[email protected];[email protected]
10/28/2007 21:51:25:774 - SMTPSendMail>,smtp.registeredsite.com,[email protected],Attorney Referrals,Attorney Referral Plan information,We encourage you to participate in our referral plan.
For more information connect to our web page at
http://www.Domain1.com/referral.html,%Attachment%

10/28/2007 21:51:27:383 -
10/28/2007 21:51:27:399 - // Confirm Sending Status
10/28/2007 21:51:27:399 - MidStr>250 Message received:
10/28/2007 21:51:27:399 - If>250=250,Success,Fail
10/28/2007 21:51:27:414 - Let>EmailStatus=47 emails were sent successfully
10/28/2007 21:51:27:414 - Let>UpdateDatabase=YES
10/28/2007 21:51:27:430 -
10/28/2007 21:51:27:430 - Label>SendConfirmation
10/28/2007 21:51:27:430 - // Send confirmation email
10/28/2007 21:51:27:430 -

SMTPSendMail>[email protected];[email protected];[email protected],smtp.registeredsite.com,[email protected],ABC Marketing Emails,47 emails were sent successfully on 10/28/2007,Email result on 10/28/2007 was: 47 emails were sent successfully,

10/28/2007 21:51:32:399 - MidStr>250 Message received:
10/28/2007 21:51:32:414 - If>250=250,UpdateProcess

Problem:
1. [email protected] is receiving a Confirmation email. They are listed in the BCC list but not in the confirmation list.
2. [email protected] is receiving the Marketing email as they should, but they can see [email protected] on the distribution.

Hmm, as I am thinking about this, maybe I need to clear SMTP_BCCLIST before I send the Confirmation email. That may stop [email protected] from receiving the Confirmation message. But how to stop the other aol members from showing as recipients on the Marketing BCC list?

[Bob Hansen]

Yes, clearing SMTP_BCCLIST befpre the Confirmation Email command did stop the undesired email from being delivered. When I first used the wizard to make the BCC list, I did not include a name in the To Email field. The code that was provided had the first parameter blank, and I thought that got filled with the BCC list. But I was incorrect. I can include a name in the first parameter, in addition to the BCC list which is handled separately. That is good.

So, now I have a better understandng of the BCCLIST, and I suspect the CCLIST will work the same way.

I was looking at the AOL account using Thunderbird, so I thought perhaps that was part of the problem. So, I went directly to the AOL Web email and checked the info there. And the BCC names do show there. Thunderbird email client just downloaded what was already there on the AOL site.

So the only problem I have now is how to stop AOL recipients from seeing BCC names? Any suggestions, please?

[Marcus Tettmar]

Are both AOL names yours? Are they somehow both linked to your account?

Just that from your first message it appears the AOL address is only seeing the other AOL email, not the non-AOL email addresses.

[Me_again]

Bob

There is (or at least used to be) something unique about the way that aol mail handles bcc's. IIRC when you send an email with bcc's, and cc or bcc yourself, you will see all the bcc's on the copy that you receive, but the regular bcc recipients don't see all the bcc's on their copies. Sorry if that's not exactly correct, it's been several years since we switched mother-in-law to yahoo What I'm trying to say is to check very carefully what is really happening.

[Marcus Tettmar]

Personally I would avoid BBC like the plague anyway. Much better and safer to create a loop which sends an individual email to each recipient. That way the email is less likely to get blocked by spam filters and the email can also be made personal (you could include their name too). While slower, I believe the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. Some email systems are set up to completely block emails where the recipient's email address is not in the To or CC headers (i.e. is BCCd).

[Bob Hansen]

Marcus -
The aol account only sees BCC names that are also aol. The [email protected] receives its copy, sees [email protected] on distribution, but does not see [email protected] or [email protected]. Only other
aol names show up on the distribution list.

Me_again -
Thanks for that info, not good news. But it sounds like an AOL issue, not the code. I will have to borrow some more AOL accounts to test more. Is this a "well known" problem that MJT can research?

I just used Thunderbird to send email to [email protected] with BCC mail to [email protected], [email protected]. The Name1@aol, normal recipient can see no other on list. That is good.

I then used Thunderbird to send email to [email protected] with BCC mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]. The Name1@aol, normal recipient can see no other on list. That is good.

These are using a different smtp server from the original tests. Don't know it that is relevant, but thought it might be helpful