I have several classmates whose messages keep bouncing. I think a few of them may have typed in their e-mail address wrong (or maybe they put in a fake one on purpose, who knows). If I send them a private message from on our website to ask them to check their e-mail address, will they get the message on the site even though it bounces to their e-mail address? (hope this makes sense).

Answer is yes. Let me say a few words here so everyone understands the exact process. A Classmate sends an email through the site to another Classmate. Two things happen immediately:

1) The message is delivered internally to the Classmate's inbox.

2) A notice that the message exists is sent to the Classmate's private email box.

Message #1 will make it every time, so if the Classmate logs in, they'll definitely see it. #2 will usually make it, but if the email address is bad, then the message bounces back and the bounce can be seen by site Administrators.

We block out the body of the message for privacy reasons, but at least Admin's can see that a bounce happened, can see that an email address was bad, and can then take steps to fix the email address so bounces don't countinue to happen.

Is there a way to let us know who was sending a message to the bounced email so we can notify them the message didn't get through? I don't want to see the private messages between two people, but if someone sent a message that is not getting through, I'd like to tell them to resend it.

Hi Cathy,

All bounces for any mail sent through your site will bounce back to the admin account - you won't see the full email - but you will always know who the email was being sent to so you can notify them to correct their email address.

Ok, so we can't notify the sender, only the sendee. That doesn't help in this case b/c the sendee was possibly a fake account. It was either the real mccoy using a fake email or an imposter screwing around with a fake email. So, I just delted the fake account, but have no way to notify whomever sent the PM that the message did not go through. Any way to add that feature somehow without divulging the message contents?

Cathy,

The bounce detail will only include the recipient details for correcting the receiving email address - we do not receive additonal details on the senders address - only information from the recipients listed mail server if they are unable to deliver the notification that they have a message waiting for them in the system.

When an email bounces the private message still stores in the recipients inbox when they login to the system so they can notify you if there is anything odd about the email or the sender. If their email adddress is wrong in the system they would not be receiving notifications of emails stored, however, the email is still there when they login.