How do I configure Outlook to show the sender email id instead of the sender email name?

Question

Dear all,

• We run a mix of M365 users with approx 75% using the Outlook OWA and approx 25% who use the downloaded installed version of Outlook
• I note that Outlook inbox displays by default in email the sender email name but not the sender email id
• Is there a policy option anywhere that decides which of they 2 parameters are displayed?
• I ask in that anyone can change their sender email name to whatever they want, and it has no bearing on who the actual sender really is
• E.g., I could edit my sender name to be Taylor Swift, even though my name is not Taylor Swift
• I ask this question since our users received scam emails with the sender name edited to that of our Directors
• My thinking is that displaying the sender email id instead of the sender name will make it easier to spot scam emails that arrive in the inbox

Thanks for any help.

Regards,

Steve

Answer 1

Hi @SteveCRF ,

I note that Outlook inbox displays by default in email the sender email name but not the sender email id
Is there a policy option anywhere that decides which of they 2 parameters are displayed?

Short answer is no.

From what I know, it's currently not feasible to change this behavior from either the Exchange side or the Outlook/OWA client side.

Here's a relevant feature request I found in the official feedback portal for Outlook and I've voted it up. I'll leave the link below in case you or others see our discussion here would like to add vote or comment there as well. Hopefully this can come true at some point in the future.
Show email address

I ask this question since our users received scam emails with the sender name edited to that of our Directors My thinking is that displaying the sender email id instead of the sender name will make it easier to spot scam emails that arrive in the inbox

Just wondering have you checked if these scam emails are actually sent from external or it's done by a real internal user? If it's the later, I'd recommend removing the MyProfileInformation role from the role assignment policy used in your organization so that the users would not be able to change the display name by themselves:

Assuming your users are hosted on Exchange Online, the default policy has this role enabled so you'll need to manually disable it as image above. For more detailed instructions, you can check: Role assignment policies in Exchange Online.
If you still have users hosted in Exchange on-prem, based on what I've seen in my lab environment, this role is disabled in the default role assignment policy, but you can still check it again and make the modification if necessary. Read more: Manage role assignment policies in Exchange Server.

If these scam mails are determined to be from outside the organization, I would recommend setting up an external sender disclaimer rule similar like below (This applies to both Exchange Online and Exchange On-premises. ).

In this way, your internal users can quickly identify if the incoming mail is from external users：

Reference: Add external sender disclaimer in Office 365.
(Please Note: Since the web site is not hosted by Microsoft, the link may change without notice. Microsoft does not guarantee the accuracy of this information.)

Provided that all users are in cloud, another option is to enable the built-in external tags by running Set-ExternalInOutlook -Enabled $true. For more details, you can refer to this blog: Native external sender callouts on email in Outlook.

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