You won’t like my answer.
There’s just no way to know.
At least, not unless someone did get it and then tells you they did.
Become a Patron of Ask Leo! and go ad-free!
Email to an invalid address
Different email systems handle things differently. This means many different things could happen to your misdirected email.
- You may get a bounce telling you the message was undeliverable. This is probably the best possible situation, as you’d know it wasn’t delivered to the mailbox you sent it too.
- It may be silently discarded. No human may ever see it, and you wouldn’t get notification one way or another.
It may have been forwarded to a “catch-all” mail address. Many email servers have the ability to forward email sent to an invalid address to one central address. The idea is someone would decide if it was really meant for someone else and forward it. Thanks to spam, this technique is extremely rare these days, but it could happen.- The bad address may be valid. I know, you said you’re 100% sure — but how can you really be sure? You could be surprised. And clearly this is a case where you don’t want to be surprised.
It may have been forwarded to a “catch-all” mail address. Many email servers have the ability to forward email sent to an invalid address to one central address. The idea is someone would decide if it was really meant for someone else and forward it. Thanks to Remember also that system administrators can see all mail, valid or not. Whether they do is unknown, but they could.
The bottom line: someone might see it. Or not. There’s just no way to know.
What to do?
The reality is, once you hit Send, you lose all control of email. There is nothing you can do to recall, un-send, or otherwise prevent whatever happens next from happening.
What you choose to do next depends on the situation and your message. Perhaps you need to explain to the unintended recipient. Perhaps you need to apologize. Perhaps you need to start looking for a new job.
More likely, you need do nothing until you hear that the message was in fact seen by someone.
Podcast audio
Download (right-click, Save-As) (Duration: 3:06 — 2.9MB)
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS
Video Narration
Depending on the contents of the original e-mail, you could always follow up the same wrong address with a simple message along the lines of: “Sorry for the confusion. I mistyped the e-mail address, and it wasn’t meant for you.”
If the address happens to be “live”, or ends up in a catch-all box, the recipient will at least understand why they got this message. (And if it bounces, or goes to the bit-bucket, the same fate will meet the second message, and no harm is done.)
Of course, if the original message was something that you wouldn’t want someone at work seeing, you’re on your own. 🙂
Thanks so much for your replies… i feel a little better knowing that there is a high chance that it wont even be read at all…
Just have to leave it up to the Gods now…
Only hope that karma is on my side
thanks again 🙂
This should be a lesson learned…do not ever, EVER, send something personal to a work/business E-mail account. That is what personal E-mail is for. Business E-mail is subject to being looked at by the admins. So, if it was personal, it could be seen, even if it does go to the intended party. Sorry if I seem “preachy”.
I had this experience: I mistyped an email address causing me to inadvertently send an email intended for my ladyfriend who lived 30 miles from me in CA, to a married lady living in New Zealand. I did not realize my error until I received a response asking : Do I know you? I wrote back explaining the situation and recipient and I have become sort of pen pals.
I am trying to send a HUGE invite from youtube. So I gathered all my contacts into one word doc, separated them by commas and cut and pasted it into my youtube address box and pressed send. An error message came up saying please list valid address. Is there a quick way to find out which addresses are invalide?
—–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
Hash: SHA1
My guess would be that you’re exceeding a limit … it looks like there’s a 200
character limit.
Leo
—–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (MingW32)
iD8DBQFGHBI5CMEe9B/8oqERAqXvAJ0dw6JKL+mEbiWTawv7xVb6vfpIXgCfVtoT
FYs2JTga95/CaRN/U9vx+Hc=
=Idg2
—–END PGP SIGNATURE—–
Due to the ubiquity of text messaging from portable hand-held devices. e-mail is almost never used anymore.
That’s pretty much true for many people using messaging instead of personal emails to friends but email is still ubiquitous in business communication and probably will be for many years to come.
Which is completely, and demonstrably, false.
I think 2019 and Mark (sorry, Mark!) are probably projecting their own somewhat restricted (in this area) vision on the world. Plenty of people I know (including me) are happily and extensively using personal email!
If you want to know if anyone read it, send a followup email explaining the mix-up and then earnestly ask the receipient for their advice about a related problem.
If they got the first email, they will reply.
After 12 years?
For future reference. People keep making this mistake.
Dear Leo, For last few days, I am experiencing a problem that I receive email from Mailer-Daemon that contains below message. and more annoying point is, that address is unknown for me, means i did not send email to that email address. Please guide, how my outlook is sending to an unknown email address.
—
I’m sorry to have to inform you that your message could not be delivered to one or more recipients. It’s attached below.
For further assistance, please send mail to postmaster.
If you do so, please include this problem report. You can delete your own text from the attached returned message.
Your outlook did not send the email. A spammer did, spoofing your from address. There’s nothing you can do. More here: https://askleo.com/someones_sending_email_that_looks_like_its_from_me_to_my_contacts_what_can_i_do/