Emails received after moving messages to local folder
I have moved some folders of emails from an imap email account in my Thunderbird client (Supernova) to local folders. I did this by right clicking the folder and selecting 'Move to' and selecting the destination folder in Local Folders. The emails appeared to move successfully.
About a minute after doing this I received two emails from Mimecast saying 'your message couldn't be delivered'. The receipient email it shows is not one I have a record of previously sending to. The email headers show the email appears to have been generated on that day and time with no previous activity, suggesting it is a genuine incoming email.
I am worried that moving the folders of emails to local folders has somehow sent emails out to recipients. Is this possible? Are there logs within Thunderbird that I can check to see exactly what it did during the move process? Unfortunately there is nothing in the headers of the emails I received to suggest what was actually sent to the address.
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re :I am worried that moving the folders of emails to local folders has somehow sent emails out to recipients. Is this possible?
You have 'moved' a folder off the server along with all of it's fully downloaded copies of emails into the 'Local Folders' mail account.
The only communication with server is to delete a folder and all it's contents off server. The action to send an email is very specific and there is no code associated with 'Move to' that could 'send' an email.
All copies of emails you sent will be in the 'Sent' folder. Emails which you chose to 'Send Later' and stored in the 'Outbox' can get sent if you chose to 'send unsent messages' - if you went into 'Offline' mode and have settings to auto send anything currently in the 'Outbox' before going offline then an email can get sent.
re : Mimecast saying 'your message couldn't be delivered'. The receipient email it shows is not one I have a record of previously sending to. The email headers show the email appears to have been generated on that day and time with no previous activity, suggesting it is a genuine incoming email.
It may be a genuine incoming mail from server but it doesn't mean you sent the original. If someone was abusing your email address - pretending to send as you - to a bunch of random email addresses hoping some would get through to inboxes and people might respond then spammer knows the email address is live and who knows what was in the content. However, it it got sent to an email address that is unknown then it gets bounced back to what the server thinks is the sender - you. Sometimes this is the first indication that some nefarious person is trying to use your email address.
re :not one I have a record of previously sending to. If you have preferences set up to save outgoing email address in the 'Collected addresses' address book then there will be an entry for that email address.
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Chosen Solution
re :I am worried that moving the folders of emails to local folders has somehow sent emails out to recipients. Is this possible?
You have 'moved' a folder off the server along with all of it's fully downloaded copies of emails into the 'Local Folders' mail account.
The only communication with server is to delete a folder and all it's contents off server. The action to send an email is very specific and there is no code associated with 'Move to' that could 'send' an email.
All copies of emails you sent will be in the 'Sent' folder. Emails which you chose to 'Send Later' and stored in the 'Outbox' can get sent if you chose to 'send unsent messages' - if you went into 'Offline' mode and have settings to auto send anything currently in the 'Outbox' before going offline then an email can get sent.
re : Mimecast saying 'your message couldn't be delivered'. The receipient email it shows is not one I have a record of previously sending to. The email headers show the email appears to have been generated on that day and time with no previous activity, suggesting it is a genuine incoming email.
It may be a genuine incoming mail from server but it doesn't mean you sent the original. If someone was abusing your email address - pretending to send as you - to a bunch of random email addresses hoping some would get through to inboxes and people might respond then spammer knows the email address is live and who knows what was in the content. However, it it got sent to an email address that is unknown then it gets bounced back to what the server thinks is the sender - you. Sometimes this is the first indication that some nefarious person is trying to use your email address.
re :not one I have a record of previously sending to. If you have preferences set up to save outgoing email address in the 'Collected addresses' address book then there will be an entry for that email address.
Hi. Thanks for your response, it's much appreciated. As a further thought, although I haven't been able to find any emails from or to the mystery responder, is it possible those incoming emails were the result of old emails being read by the move process and triggering a read receipt? Once they were sent, they then bounced back because the recipient email address is no longer valid?