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

For anyone else having this same issue, who finds this page,

I went to the feedback page, looked for someone who had already raised this concern, couldn't find it on the list, so added it myself;

If you want this fixed, please add your voice:

https://feedbackportal.microsoft.com/feedback/idea/6f783689-929d-ee11-92bd-0022484eec36

(if that is a duplicate feedback request, very happy for it to be deleted / amalgamated with any overlapping existing feedback request - but I couldn't see anything there)

I absolutely agree with the OP. Saying "one can easily check the true email address" is an incomprehensibly bad security attitude. The entire point is that busy, stressed people in a company won't always spot this, and it only takes one slip. A security policy that relies on human users being infallible is bafflingly inappropriate.

It's a really poor showing that Microsoft does not offer an option to disable that pointless 'friendly name' feature. It was a bad idea in the first place, and it's a terrible feature in the 21st century landscape of constant cyber-attacks.

Microsoft should be setting a lead and disabling this feature by default. The disadvantages massively outweigh the benefits. The OP hit the nail on the head. I will be adding this as a feature request. I encourage others reading this with the same issue to do the same. It's just a bit embarrassing and rather telling if that's the only way to effect such a long-overdue commonsense change.

Hello! Sanjana Chowdhury

Thank you for your patiently waiting.

I have a word from our internal team regarding of your concern.

The quick answer is that Outlook, and I believe most email services, will show the "friendly name" that is chosen by the user who created the account, that is how things have worked for a long time. This does have a fraud/scam avenue, but one can easily check the true email address by hovering over the identity's profile or name, or by double clicking it to see any related account information including email address.

We have more information on the subject as well as how to spot this kind of email here Protect yourself from phishing - Microsoft Support

If you wants it to appear differently, this is not a bug, this will require you to suggestion this as a feedback in the feedback hub app for the developers to apply the change.

You can follow the steps on how to submit a feedback here: How do I give feedback on Microsoft 365? - Microsoft Support

I hope this helps!

Thank you for patience and understanding.

Best Regards,

Vince
Microsoft Community Moderator

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

Vince,

You said, “However, you can change this setting by going to Outlook.com settings, selecting "View all Outlook settings," clicking on "Compose and reply," and then selecting "Always show email address." 

Response:

This isn’t helpful. Please see reasons below.

1. “Always show email address" is not an option that is displayed under “Compose and reply”. Please advise or provide screenshots to accompany your instructions.
2. I’m assuming you’re referring to the web-based application because on the desktop app, settings are accessed by clicking on “file”, then “options”. Please provide instructions for the desktop outlook Application as well.

Thanks,