Emails forwarding but forwarding in settings is not turned on. How else can it be forwarding emails and how to stop it

Question

When an email is sent to this account, it automatically forwards it to three other people in my office. How can I turn this off? I dont see anywhere in settings it is set to foward emails.

Answer 1

Hi @Klezmer Maudlin Intake Team 

Thanks for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum.    

You may start by reviewing your Inbox rules in Classic Outlook to confirm whether any active rule is set to forward messages to another mailbox. You can check this by going to File > Info > Manage Rules and Alerts. 

In addition, please consider contacting your IT administrator to verify whether any transport rule in your organization is applied to your account that could be redirecting emails to another mailbox. This can be reviewed in the Rules section of the Exchange Admin Center. 

It may also be helpful for your IT admin to review any Microsoft Power Automate flows associated with your account, in case there are automated actions configured to forward emails. 

I hope this provides some helpful insight. If you have any updates or further questions, please feel free to share them. 

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Answer 2

If emails are being automatically forwarded without the forwarding setting being turned on, there are a few possibilities to consider:

1. Inbox Rules: Users can create Inbox rules that automatically forward messages to other recipients. You should check for any existing Inbox rules that might be set up to forward emails. To do this, sign in to your Microsoft 365 account, go to Settings > Mail > Automatic processing > Inbox and sweep rules. Look for any rules that may be forwarding emails and either update or delete them.
2. Mailbox Forwarding: An admin may have set up mailbox forwarding for your account. This is a different setting from the user-configured Inbox rules. If you have admin access, you can check this in the Exchange admin center under Recipients > Mailboxes. If you don't have admin access, you may need to contact your IT department to verify if mailbox forwarding is enabled.
3. Compromised Account: If neither of the above options reveals the source of the forwarding, it’s possible that your account may have been compromised. In this case, it’s important to change your password immediately and notify your IT department.

To stop the forwarding, ensure that you check and disable any relevant Inbox rules and verify that there is no mailbox forwarding set up by an admin.

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References:

• Control automatic external email forwarding from cloud mailboxes
• Configure email forwarding for a mailbox in Exchange Online