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All of a sudden a user is receving an read receipts from another user which are pretty old emails

pavan kumar 371 Reputation points
2020-12-18T03:31:40.57+00:00

Hi,

We have a wired issue, all of a sudden the mutliple users are receiving the read receipts from a single user which are pretty old emails like 2012 and 2013. i am unable to figure out why this happened and what could be the reason.

Can you please guide where to look for the issue. also this stopped after one day.

Thanks
Pavan.

Microsoft Exchange Online Management
Microsoft Exchange Online Management
Microsoft Exchange Online: A Microsoft email and calendaring hosted service.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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Exchange Server Management
Exchange Server Management
Exchange Server: A family of Microsoft client/server messaging and collaboration software.Management: The act or process of organizing, handling, directing or controlling something.
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  1. Ashok M 6,521 Reputation points
    2020-12-18T07:11:57.33+00:00

    Hi @pavan kumar

    Based on my research, it looks like read receipts does not have the validity. So, even if the user reads the email after years, it will send the read receipts to the original sender. Default action for Receipt on Messages Received in outlook is set to "Ask each time whether to send a read receipt" in outlook -> file -> options -> Mail -> Tracking. This means it will prompt whether to send read receipts to the original sender or not for the recipient.

    https://practical365.com/exchange-server/real-world-case-read-receipts/

    If the above suggestion helps, please click on "Accept Answer" and upvote it

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  2. pavan kumar 371 Reputation points
    2020-12-18T20:00:52.09+00:00

    Hello ashok,

    But the user stated that she never read the emails recently. so these are pretty old like year 2012 .

    what could be the possible cause.

    thanks
    Pavan.

  3. Andy David - MVP 151.1K Reputation points MVP
    2020-12-18T20:35:34.357+00:00

    Ok, then some other client touched those messages and logged onto her mailbox. Perhaps an IMAP client or some other process.
    If she doesnt know about any other client or process and you dont have audit logging enabled, you could in theory look in the IIS logs or IMAP logs on the servers ( Assuming IMAP logging is enabled )and track down the IP of the client

    You could also look in message tracking and find those read receipts and see if the originating IP is in there.

    If all else fails, and you don't have any idea what happened, have the user change their password just to be safe.

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  4. MM 1 Reputation point
    2022-09-02T13:39:45.857+00:00

    Hi, we have had this recently where 2 of our users have received OOO replies for emails they said they never sent for emails going back some years back. They experienced this immediately after we set up Exchange Online Archiving and set up a Default MRM Retention Policy
    Tracing these emails - it looks like they are Read receipts but not sure why emails would be being marked as Read through the archiving process?

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