Instructions on How to Bounce Email

Why Bounce?

Bouncing email is a method of sending messages that you have already received while preserving all of the original sender's information. This feature is similar to forwarding email to someone. However, when you forward email, the message header contains your email address and the current date and time; the original sender's address and message time is not included. Below are the instructions for bouncing mail with the email clients supported at UNC. If you have any questions about these instructions, please contact 962-HELP (962-4357).

In order for the Postmaster staff to track messages like spam or email viruses, they need to see more information, like the date and time the original message was sent and from what computer. Every email message contains header information which contains these details. There is a distinction between reporting spam, which should be bounced to spam@unc.edu , and reporting non-spam issues, which should be bounced to postmaster@unc.edu .

UNC Webmail

Go to the UNC Webmail site and log in. If you want to bounce the message to spam@unc.edu, you do not need to open the message. You can select the message and click on the Report as Spam link at the top of the list of messages.


If you want to bounce the message to someone besides spam@unc.edu, open the message and click on Bounce on the line just above the message header.

Enter the address to which you wish to Bounce the message to in the To: field and press Enter.

Thunderbird / Mozilla Mail

Current versions of Thunderbird and Mozilla Mail do not have a true Bounce feature. You will need to do a forward including the full headers.

Select the message in question. On the Thunderbird menu bar, click View > Headers > All . You should now notice that the original message will show more information than previously. Now right-click on the message and choose and put the address of the person to whom you wish to Bounce the message in the To: field and click . Once done, you will want to put things back as they were. To do so, click View > Headers > Normal .


Outlook XP / 2003

Outlook XP / 2003 does not have a Bounce feature. Instead, you will need to copy the full headers .

Double-click on a message so that it is in its own window. Click on View > Options. In the Internet headers: box, you should see the raw message header. At this point, you can highlight the message headers using the mouse (click and hold the left mouse button at the start of the headers and drag the cursor over the message or click anywhere in the box and enter Ctrl-A to select all the text).

Once the headers are highlighted, right click on the highlighted text, and choose from the popup menu. This will copy the text to the clipboard.

Compose a new message as you normally do to the person to whom you wish to Bounce the message. Right click in the message body and choose from the popup menu. This should place the contents you previously copied into your new message. You will also need to copy the original message itself in addition to the message headers. You can do so in the same manner in which you copied the headers.

Click to send the message with the full headers.

Pine

Display the email message you'd like to bounce. Press to bounce the message, and redirect the message to the person to whom you wish to Bounce the message. Then answer yes to send the message.


Mulberry

In the list of messages, right-click on the message in question and choose the option (may show as in older versions). Type the address of the person to whom you wish to bounce the message in the To: field and click.



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