Stop changing the display of email addresses to names on outlook. This is supporting CYBERSECURITY Criminals.

Reported
Anonymous
2023-12-01T19:38:31+00:00

When I type an e-mail address to someone, Outlook changes it to the name in my contacts instead of leaving it alone as the actual e-mail address.

For example, I received an email from an unknown contact (a scammer) whose email address is **removed for privacy reasons**@gmail.com and outlook displays my CEO's name instead of the scammer's email address. How and why is my CEO's name displayed from an email address that has random letters??

The way Outlook is currently displaying names instead of email addresses makes people extremely vulnerable to scams, phishing, malware, and other cybersecurity threats.

Furthermore, I am not the first person to raise this issue. Please see this same issue raised at this link: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook_com/forum/all/show-the-actual-e-mail-address-instead-of-the-name/09baa36a-b494-456c-901f-475032c72b8d?page=1  Microsoft needs to address this issue and stop giving responses on forums that are unrelated to issue at hand. Instead please ESCALATE this issue to appropriate party responsible for making decisions and TAKE ACTION immediately.

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Settings

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47 answers

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  1. Anonymous
    2024-03-28T12:43:15+00:00

    I would also like this to be REMOVED as a feature.

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-03-19T15:39:08+00:00

    I'd like to also add my voice to the objection to this feature.

    Our company uses a ticketing system which is affected by this feature.

    One individual replies to a customer, but the friendly name feature switches the responder to another individual.

    This is not ideal as we have customers replying to the second individual and not the first.

    Can you please implement an off switch? We don't want or need this feature.

    Thanks.

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-03-19T12:53:41+00:00

    Hello! Sanjana Chowdhury

    Thank you for the reply!

    Kindly try this one as I have tried it in my Outlook application and it works.

    To show only the email address instead of the name of the sender in Outlook application, you can follow these steps:

    1. Open Outlook and click on the File tab.
    2. Click on Options and then select Mail.
    3. Under Message format, select Plain Text from the Compose messages in this format drop-down list.
    4. Click OK to save the changes.

    If you want to show only the sender’s email address in the message list, you can add the sender to your Outlook contact list.

    Please let me know if it works in your end.

    Thank you,

    Vince

    Microsoft Community Moderator

    This does not work and the idea of the OP is ABSOLUTELY necessary.

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-02-27T12:52:58+00:00

    I tried this. It did not work.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-02-27T12:30:02+00:00

    Hello! Sanjana Chowdhury

    Thank you for the reply!

    To show only the email address instead of the name of the sender in Outlook application, you can follow these steps:

    1. Open Outlook and click on the File tab.
    2. Click on Options and then select Mail.
    3. Under Message format, select Plain Text from the Compose messages in this format drop-down list.
    4. Click OK to save the changes.

    Vince

    Microsoft Community Moderator

    Please, read this again, and then tell me you are kidding. Plain text format to achieve something so seemingly simple? Really???

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