An incorrect read email receipt rec'd but not from my contact

Question

I rec'd a read receipt from Monrovia, Reykjavik for an email that I sent to my local bank contact, WHY?

Answer 1

Hello, do you want to stop read receipts completely or only avoid seeing these unexpected ones?

In Outlook on the web, go to Settings, then Mail, then Message handling, and turn off “Send read receipts.” Then go to Mail, then Compose and reply, and set “Read receipts” to “Never send a response.” This stops Outlook from sending or responding to receipts and prevents confusing entries from appearing. Also check Settings, General, Language and time, and set your correct time zone so any system generated timestamps show properly.

Answer 2

The Monrovia/Reykjavik information in the read receipt is not related to your bank contact’s actual location. It comes from how Microsoft 365/Exchange Online generates read receipts.

For Microsoft 365 and Outlook/Outlook on the web:

• Read receipts are stamped with the time zone of the Exchange Online server, not the sender’s or recipient’s computer.
• Because Microsoft 365 is a global cloud service, the server uses Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). In many cases this appears in receipts as “(UTC) Monrovia, Reykjavik.”
• This means the read receipt time and time zone reflect the server’s UTC setting, not where your contact is physically located.

So the receipt is still for your message to your bank contact; the Monrovia/Reykjavik label is just how the service represents UTC time, not an indication that the message was read in that region.

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References:

• Read receipt from a Microsoft 365 recipient displays incorrect time zone information