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Is there a way to detect if an email sent via Mandrill has been forwarded by the recipient to someone else?

The email will contain links (click tracking can be on). I'm wondering if somehow if the recipient of the forwarded email clicks any of the links that it could be used as an indicator that the email was forwarded.

Or perhaps some other approach?

StackOverflowNewbie
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  • Is this on a closed environment? As in you have complete control over your entire environment and emails will not leave your domain, just potentially forwarded inside your business? That could drastically change everyone's answers. Open internet = No. Closed environment = Yes – IT_User Jan 29 '16 at 20:24

3 Answers3

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As i know it is not posible to track normal forwarded e-mails. I mean mails that are forwarded with the "forward" button of the mail client.

I've seen some times an "Click here to forward" button in news letters. When you click on that button you go to an web page where you can put the mail address of the recipient. When you click on the send button an exact coppy of the newsletter is send to the mail addres which is typed in the textbox. With this method you can track the forwards.

The problem is that not everyone uses this method (so uses the default forward button). To trigger people to use your button you can give them something special (discount or credits where they can get something with). A second thing is that you need to put the button on the top of your mail for the best result.

If it is posible with Mandrill i cant tell you but i read in this topic the Mandrill support is good so maybe you can mail them. You need to do an fund first so you can get use the support but they can tell you if it is posible and how.

Link to Mandrill support page

Community
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CodeNinja
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Though I haven't used it, I believe it is possible with Merge Tags. Refer the below

The MailChimp *|FORWARD|* merge tag generates a link to an online form where recipients can share your email with others. Because Mandrill emails are generated and tracked individually, a web version isn't provided automatically.

More details can be found here

Rajesh
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There is not a way.

Unless that same message you sent gets forwarded from recipient 1 --> recipient 2 --> back to you (you would check headers), there is not a way. In order for this to even be an option, whoever your recipient uses as an email server/client, would have to be built with this functionality.

- Below is merely added to show a very limited potential to track emails being forwarded.

You could potentially reference an embedded image on the internet (something you can track), AND* if the "forwarded recipient" allows images to be viewed, you MAY* be able to see the IP's that have accessed your image you referenced in the email.

AND* = Image viewing is rarely ever enabled. User has to allow this to happen on a per-email basis.

MAY* = Now you run into the hassle of trying to understand your recipients network and if many people share public IP's (think home networks or small businesses, cheaper for internet provide to assign one IP to house/building)

You would THEN have to go into the hassle of tracking down an IP to a person.

IT_User
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