How to Blind Copy a Business Letter

Usually, a hard copy of a business letter is mailed to a single recipient. In some cases, the sender may want to forward a copy of the letter to one or more other individuals, indicated on the letter as carbon copy, or cc, recipients. When you don’t want the primary recipient or cc recipients of the letter to know that you have sent the letter to a third party, you send, a blind carbon copy, also called a blind courtesy copy.

Blind Carbon Copy

Initially, blind carbon copy, or bcc, was used to send a copy of a business letter to an individual or interested parties without their names appearing on the letter. The main purpose for using a bcc designation is to protect the identity or privacy of a recipient. Since the emergence of email, the use of bcc is a courtesy that keeps the email addresses of individuals who do not know each other confidential. When a person’s email address is entered in the bcc field, other people receiving a copy of the business correspondence are unaware that someone else is receiving the letter.


Often a business or organization sends the same letter to multiple recipients. To produce a bcc for hard copy business letters, make an extra copy. Type or write "bcc:" and the person’s name at the bottom of your file copy and the bcc recipient’s copy of the letter after the closing and signature. Left justify the information for a correct business letter format. Mail it to the person for whom the blind copy is intended. Even though the bcc recipient can see the names of the main recipient and any cc recipients of the letter, those individuals will not know there is a bcc recipient. The sender is the only person who knows there is a bcc recipient.


Blind copying print business letters has long been a common practice for keeping others informed on the progress or status of a situation. Although blind copying a letter electronically protects personal contact information by hiding the email address from the letter’s other recipients, the use of the “reply all” email function in some standard email programs allows the primary recipient to see who else received the communication. In Outlook Express, eliminate the risk by selecting “Have replies sent to” under message options. Enter your own email address. Even if a recipient hits the “reply all” key, only your address will appear in the “To” field and only you will receive a reply message.

BCC Etiquette

Although you should be cautious about the use of bcc when forwarding business correspondence, there are situations when it may be practical. Organizations often use bcc when sending bulk mail, particularly in regard to a fundraising mailing list. Additionally, when other people need to know about a certain situation, but you feel that the primary recipient of the letter would be offended or get upset that you shared the information with others, you may decide to bcc a letter. An alternative is to forward a summary of the information to the other recipients and let the letter’s main recipient know to whom you provided a summary. Sometimes you may feel it necessary to blind copy correspondence to someone higher up in the chain of command. Doing so keeps lead personnel informed about a situation without being unsettling to the person for whom the letter is intended. The best way to avoid ill feelings is to send letters or email correspondence separately to each person.