XADM: How to Send Mail with the "Anonymous" Sender Name

This article describes how to send mail anonymously so that the receiver of the message does not know who the message came from. This may be useful when sending messages to a Comments or Feedback mailbox or public folder where the sender would not like his or her identity revealed but would like their views noted.

To avoid misuse of this facility, the administrator can add a delivery restriction on Distribution Lists as well as individual mailboxes to reject all messages received from the Anonymous account. The administrator can also set the permissions on public folders to prevent the Anonymous account from mailing messages to the public folders.

Using the Exchange Administrator program, create a mailbox with the display name Anonymous. Give the Windows NT Domain Users group (or any other group containing all or some of the Exchange users) Send As permissions on this mailbox.

To send mail so that it appears to have been sent by the account Anonymous:

1. Choose Compose and select the New Message command.
2. From the View menu of this form, select From Box. This should now display the From field.
3. Click the From button.
4. From the address list displayed, select Anonymous.
5. Select one or more users to send the message to and then send the message.
6. When the message is received, it displays Anonymous as the sender name.

To add Send As permission on a mailbox to a Windows NT account from the Microsoft Exchange Administrator program:

1. From the Tools menu, select Options.
2. Click the Permissions tab.
3. Check the Show Permissions Page for All Objects checkbox.
4. Click OK.
5. Click the 'anonymous' mailbox.
6. From the File menu, click Properties.
7. Click the Permissions tab.
8. Click Add.
9. Select the Windows NT account that requires the Send As permission.
10. Click Add.
11. Select Send As as the Role.
12. Click OK.