Email problem - friend's email arriving at my mailbox!

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miselemeas

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My friend has a Hotmail email address.

Some replies to the email messages she sends have been addressed to me, which is obviously not satisfactory.

When I look at the properties it appears that I have sent the original message. I asked her to delete my email address from her contacts and use another. However the problem persists.

On closer investigation, I think it may be that the problem occurs when she completes online forms on websites requesting information. She obviously doesn't use my address, but it must be in the system somewhere.

This is probably as clear as mud but if anyone can be of assistance I (we) would appreciate it.

Thanks.
 
See the "clean PC" thread pinned at the top of this forum and start scanning for malware/viruses as a first step. Ask her to try another browser (e.g. Firefox instead of Internet Explorer) just to see if the problem persists.
 
Thank you for the suggestion, which I will pass on.

Unfortunately she doesn't live locally or I could do it for her. I think I might as well be talking Chinese as asking her to use a different browser as she only uses her computer for internet and email and had everything set up for her ready to go. However, she obviously wants to maintain her email privacy so its worth a try.
 
miselemeas said:
My friend has a Hotmail email address.

Some replies to the email messages she sends have been addressed to me, which is obviously not satisfactory.

When I look at the properties it appears that I have sent the original message. I asked her to delete my email address from her contacts and use another. However the problem persists.

On closer investigation, I think it may be that the problem occurs when she completes online forms on websites requesting information. She obviously doesn't use my address, but it must be in the system somewhere.

This is probably as clear as mud but if anyone can be of assistance I (we) would appreciate it.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Can you provide more information. What exactly do you mean when you say "Some replies to the email messages she sends have been addressed to me"? Is it that when she replies to emails in her inbox the reply gets sent to you? Does the intended recipient ever receive the emails? Are you sure that these emails you are receiving are legitimate communications (i.e. emails typed and sent by your friend)? If not it could be possible that her computer is infected with malware which is sending itself to all email addresses in her contacts. Another explanation is that your address is somehow being bcc'd (blind carbon copied) when she replies to emails received. Without further details it is impossible to suggest a likely answer
 
Does the intended recipient ever receive the emails?

Yes they do receive her message and when they send the requested information in a reply the address in the "To" box is mine, not my friend's. These replies are legit as they have the information requested. She has deleted my email address from her contacts list. She doesn't receive a reply - I have to forward it to her.

It only happens occasionally, usually when she requests information (eg reply to her email from American Embassy, Aer Lingus, white goods company, sent to me) not every time she sends a message.

It doesn't happen when she uses addresses from her normal contacts list.
 
Is she using the webmail interface or Outlook Express or something else? I presume webmail from the original post? Is there any mention of your address in the configuration settings for the browse? Could she clear all of her temporary files and cache and see if that helps? Note that this may also clear other information that she might want to retain.
 
I'd be surprised if this is the solution, but I would check (just to rule it out ;) ) that your address is not populating the "Reply-To" field in the header as she is sending her emails. This way, when someone hits reply, no matter how far down the line, it automatically places your address in the "To" field.
 
ButtermilkJa:
Have just been on to my friend.
She doesn't use Outlook or OE, but logs on to the Hotmail site to send/receive messages.
She didn't receive any of the replies in question (the ones addressed to me) until I forwarded them to her.
I've asked her to check the "Reply-To" field as u suggested and see how that goes.
 
She really should try Firefox and see if the problem persists. If not then it's a problem specific to IE which she can either investigate further and find out how to address or just ditch IE for Firefox. Downloading and installing is is a doddle.
 
Thanx for that suggestion which I'll pass on - I use Firefox myself but have found a reluctance from others to change from IE - quote "I'm used to it".

The thing that's bugging me though (no pun) is that it seems to be happening when she's making enquiries using website forms (such as Aer Lingus and American Embassy). In my experience you normally have to enter your email address on online forms.
 
miselemeas said:
My friend has a Hotmail email address.

Some replies to the email messages she sends have been addressed to me, which is obviously not satisfactory.
Click to expand...
miselemeas said:
The thing that's bugging me though (no pun) is that it seems to be happening when she's making enquiries using website forms (such as Aer Lingus and American Embassy). In my experience you normally have to enter your email address on online forms.
Click to expand...
You originally said that she was sending emails using Hotmail. Now you're saying that she subscribes form information using her email address using online forms. Which is it?
 
Clubman - apologies for confusion, which is understandable.

My friend logs on to Hotmail for her normal emails and doesn't use Outlook Express.

I have been receiving some emails which are intended for her. I have now come to the conclusion that, because of their nature, these are replies to online enquiries she makes.

I have asked her now to check if Outlook Express was set up at any stage and to check the properties. If, for some reason, my email address appears there, that would explain the problem.
 
Has she tried clearing out all cookies and passwords in IE. Did you ever login to your hotmail on her PC.
 
Problem solved!

She checked OE and hey presto, there was my address in the default account. Obviously what happened was when she clicked on a "mailto" OE kicked in and inserted my address automatically as the sender.

I must have given her step-by-step instructions on how to set up an account in OE at some stage and used my email address as an example for her to copy.

Appreciate all the assistance/suggestions from you guys, thank you. :)

 
Only seeing this now. I'm increasingly using [broken link removed] to solve these sorts of problems. It's a simple way to logon to their desktop from your PC and work through their issue remotely (provided of course the problem isn't with their network setup!). There are free alternatives to CoPilot, but it's the easiest for a remote user to setup. My time is worth more than walking them through VNC setup (or writing a script to do it), and fighting with firewalls on both ends.
 
miselemeas said:
....She checked OE and hey presto, there was my address in the default account. Obviously what happened was when she clicked on a "mailto" OE kicked in and inserted my address automatically as the sender.

I must have given her step-by-step instructions on how to set up an account in OE at some stage and used my email address as an example for her to copy....
Click to expand...

..and your password too?
 
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