Changing the Email From field display in received email

Hello, I have posted a few days ago, and no answer yet. It would be great if someone can assist me to achieve my aim, please.

You want the From to appear on the final email as Betty Boop?

This is known as Email Spoofing, and is obviously not allowed by your mail server. Your mail server is the one that adds “on behalf of..”, not Postman.

Yes, it’s possible to send an email “from Betty Boop”.. viruses and spammers do this all the time. But you may not receive that email because it might get caught in a Spam trap.

You’ll have have to live with “From Admin” or “From Admin on behalf of”.

I think what you really want is to set the Reply-To address on your email to be Betty Boop. That way when you hit the reply button, the reply is composed to Betty Boop, not you. Setting the Reply-To field is done by the program that composed the email in the first place. Consult that program’s documentation.

Hi. No, that was a misunderstanding.

The name Betty Boop was just an example form-submitter name (sender of the form) I used in testing the form – I was testing the form as a “form submitter” to see how the email looked when I received it. And then how it looked when I replied. I want it to look professional when they receive my reply.

My first image showed how it looked when I received the test email FROM Betty Boop – form submitter.
The second image showed it it looked when I hit the reply button.

I never see this “on behalf of” thing on any other reply emails I get when I submit forms myself in real life. If I submit a form in real life, the reply email says it comes from whatever the company name is, and it shows my real name as the sender. That’s all I wanted. Replace Betty Boop with the name of the form submitter. I did not want us as the company to be Betty Boop!

So the From field in the emails I receive should be the name of the person who submitted it (in my test example it was Betty Boop – form submitter) – not from Improve21 to Improve 21.

It was my hope that the “on behalf of” thing doesn’t appear, and I theorized that it may have been your program that added that extra wording.

So you say that your program didn’t do it and that it is added on by my mail server? That’s interesting, because, in the past on various other websites I have done over the years (none being wordpress, as this is my first go at wordpress installatioin), where I have installed many different contact forms, none of those show “on behalf of”. Never did I get the emails showing to be “from company name on behalf of senders name”, to “company name”. It showed proper sender’s name in from field, and proper company name in the to field.

But I will contact my server people and see if our server is the one doing it. If it is not the server people then I can only think that it is instead a WordPress thing.

So to recap – it is a problem with how the form submitter’s name appears in the resulting email.

The name Betty Boop was just an example

I realize.

I never see this “on behalf of” thing on any other reply emails I get when I submit forms myself in real life.

Well, it is new.

If I submit a form in real life, the reply email says it comes from whatever the company name is, and it shows my real name as the sender. That’s all I wanted. Replace Betty Boop with the name of the form submitter. I did not want us as the company to be Betty Boop!

So the From field in the emails I receive should be the name of the person who submitted it (in my test example it was Betty Boop – form submitter) – not from Improve21 to Improve 21.

There’s no misunderstanding. What you want to do is forge an email as Betty Boop. You might not mind this, but Betty Boop may.

Here’s a better example of why Email Services are cracking down on this.

Your website is in control of the recipient. Right now, that recipient is you, so no big deal. But what if the recipient was my mom. Or my boss. You want the ability to address an email from me to my boss and send whatever content you want. Would you agree that has a high potential for abuse?

That’s why your email says From Improve21 on behalf of Betty Boop. Because Betty Boop didn’t write the email. You did.

It was my hope that the “on behalf of” thing doesn’t appear, and I theorized that it may have been your program that added that extra wording. So you say that your program didn’t do it and that it is added on by my mail server?

That’s right. You can verify exactly what Postman sent by looking at a session transcript in the Email Log.

That’s interesting, because….

Like I said, it’s new, only certain Email Services do it (for example Gmail and Hotmail) and you’re going to see it more and more as the Internet gets tougher on Spammers and Phishers.

If you want to learn more search the web for SPF, DKIM and DMARC. One of the reasons Postman works so reliably compared to other WordPress plugins is because it understands these new Spam rules and makes sure to comply with them.

Cheers!
Jason

I understand about spoofing/forging etc. That is NOT what I am trying to achieve and haven’t the slightest desire to do so – I just want things to look professional!

You said “What you want to do is forge an email as Betty Boop. You might not mind this, but Betty Boop may”.

I do NOT want to be seen as Betty Boop (or whoever), I want to be seen as Improve 21. And I want my received emails to SAY they come from Betty Boop (or whoever) instead of from me to me. And when I hit reply I want them to see that their name as the original sender and me as the original recipient who is replying to them. Nothing forg-ey or spoof-y about that! I just wanna see correct display – just like every other email that is sent/received out there…
I receive an email from [whoever]… their name should be in the From field – not mine (I did not send the form to myself). And when I reply to them I want them to see that reflected – that the original email came from them [their name] and was sent to me [Improve 21] and that I am now replying to them – NOT to myself, and NOT that I am trying to send an email as them!

That is not spoofing or forging. That is simply showing correct display.

Gmail and hotmail etc did not play any part in my test submissions because I didn’t use those types of email addresses, and so my current issue has nothing to do with such providers.

Here’s a real world example…
If I send you a normal email as a normal person, and I have say a Hotmail email account, in your inbox you don’t see the email as being From Hotmail. You see it as being from me – My name. That’s all I want. And you don’t see the email as coming from your email account’s company either … You do not see “From Gmail/Hotmail” (you) to “Gmail/Hotmail on behalf of [my name]”. You see … To [your name], From [sender name]. That is correct display.

There is not one form I have ever submitted ever, where when I receive their reply that it doesn’t show me as the original sender, and them as the receiver and replier. And that is professional. And has absolutely nothing to do with spoofing or forging.

So, if we take out the belief that I am trying to spoof something, again I have to ask…. how can I get my emails to properly display the From name of the form sender?

Hi,
If you use any form on the website, the standard is, that the Sender is your website – your email address that is authenticated with DNS (SPF, DKIM). Never a submitter.
The right way is that submitter is in “Reply to’.
So you will receive an email from Sender anything@yourdomain (bc. it is a sender, it’s your web application), it does not matter who filled the form.
The submitter is not a sender, you are the sender, the submitter is just someone who filled that form. You are not receiving an email from him but your web application.

If I set up DMARC policy for my email, (and your Email provider check this what he should) in your scenario if I fill up your form with my email address, you will not receive this email as it fails during control, bc. Your server IP or email service is not as permitted sender for my email.

In your scenario, I can fill up the form on your website on behalf of anybody, and it will show you, that he sent you an email what is not true. That is why transactional emails work this way.

Yes, in Hotmail or Gmail you see You as a sender, bc. You are the sender, authenticated with your registration for that email service.
You can not set up Betty as a sender there like you should not set up this in your web application/form too.

So, if we take out the belief that I am trying to spoof something, again I have to ask…. how can I get my emails to properly display the From name of the form sender?

You’ll have to take your grief to your Email Service company then.

Like I said, if you inspect the session transcript, you will see that Postman is already putting From: Betty Boop on your email.