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We're using MDaemon 10 as the mail-server software. The serious issue with it is that, it sometimes, and quite randomly, send a copy of a message to one or more wrong random recipients who have nothing to do with the message. Any help? Thanks.

The log says it went to recipient x but it went to y, too. The mail headers show it came directly to recipient y. The are no .forward files, nor any other automated forwarding systems, and users are not BCC-ing one another. Outlook Connector is known to cause this particular problem, but that's not the cause with me. I also asked at altn.com and at Server Fault, but this didn't help.

To answer some questions:

Could you ask one of the random recipients to forward you the full source of the email they received? And how does that compare to what's in your own log files?

I've seen the source of one of those random emails, the source looks like the sender sent the random recipient the email directly, but my log doesn't contain information about such a communication between the sender and the random recipient (recipient y).

How "random" are these recipients? (Like: do you know them? Are the domain names different?)

All the addresses are in the same domain, and people in the company are telling about the random emails they're getting, so the server contains no information that tells about that issue.

Are these people in the To: or Cc: list, or are those Bcc-copies?

They're in the "To" of the message, as if the message is sent to them directly, just like the right recipient.

Does it happen for all Senders, or just some people?

It happened with some of the senders, as it happens occasionally and quite randomly.

What did you already investigate?

  • I've seen the settings of the mail-server software (MD) and didn't found anything that causes that issue to happen, so no forward rules or anything.
  • The log files don't tell anything about the problem.
  • The source of the random email doesn't contain any helpful info, it looks quite innocent and is quite similar to the right email.
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Mail logs or it didn't happen. –  womble Nov 1 '09 at 18:29
No, nothing in the log... –  Moayad Mardini Nov 1 '09 at 18:50
Something is in the log. Either the log says it went to recipient x and you say it went to recipient y or the log says it went to recipient y. Even if it doesn't log an error there will be something in the log related to the message in question. –  pplrppl Nov 2 '09 at 1:56
The log says it went to recipient x and it went to y, too. –  Moayad Mardini Nov 5 '09 at 17:13
superuser.com/questions/64039/… –  warren Nov 6 '09 at 14:00

3 Answers 3

up vote 3 down vote accepted

Are you certain that the mail came directly from the server to "recipient y"? Perhaps it was only sent to "recipient x", but "recipient x" somehow forwarded the message to "recipient y"?

Examine the headers of the email received on both systems to determine the path the email took.

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Yes, it came directly to "recipient y". –  Moayad Mardini Nov 6 '09 at 20:43

I'd also check any .forward files that have been setup, or other automated forwarding systems.

And what about users BCC'ing one another?

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Again, no forward files, no automated forwarding system and no BCCs. –  Moayad Mardini Nov 6 '09 at 20:43

MDaemon has settings for parsing incoming and outgoing e-mails - check those rules if any; settings for address mappings; header substitutions; settings for monitoring mailboxes - source of the final message might not show how it was actually treated by the system.

Try to trace message route in all the specific logs. Check all the parsing or substitution rules.

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