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
    2024-04-24T22:39:24+00:00

    This is a HUGE security risk. Inconceivable that MS still FORCES dangerous and misleading "friendly names" for Outlook desktop app users. Besides the security risk, I would like to know what email address I sent an email to by quickly looking at it. Note the word "quickly" here and don't tell me to open the message or hover over anything. And I want to be able to archive emails by printing to a PDF that shows which email address I sent a message to. This can impact legal liability in my business. How hard is it to fix this??????

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  2. Anonymous
    2024-04-25T08:08:06+00:00

    Good to see more people flagging support for this change.

    A reminder: if you're reading this and agreeing it is a problem, please go here, and add your vote:

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

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  3. Anonymous
    2024-08-15T13:52:04+00:00

    I have 1 question. Why hasn't this been changed yet? At this point, I consider anything short of a notification to Security and Entra Administrators that this feature REMOVAL is a WIP gross negligence.

    Ostensibly, at some point this become "Aiding and abetting a criminal".

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  4. Anonymous
    2024-09-06T13:25:55+00:00

    There is no "Plain Text" or "Compose messages in this format" option under "Message Format" for me.

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  5. Anonymous
    2024-09-09T02:27:06+00:00

    Has this issue not been fixed?.

    Very disappointing if this is an ongoing security flaw that hasn't been addressed.

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