Email sent to my newly created Outlook address appears to have reached another person's Live.com account

What is Next 0 Reputation points
2026-10-02T10:11:03.1333333+00:00

Hi,

I have a very strange issue with a brand-new Outlook.com address and I'm trying to understand what happened.

Today I created a new Outlook.com email address:The account was created only about 30 minutes before this happened.

I wanted to test whether the new account was receiving emails, so I sent a test email from my existing Gmail account to:it

The test email did NOT appear in the new Outlook account.

Instead, I received a reply from another person.

She wrote:

" im trying to help you"

I have never contacted this person, and I have never given her my newly created Outlook address.

So I am confused about how an email that I sent specifically to my newly created @outlook.com address could apparently reach someone using a completely different @live.com address, who then replied to me.

Outlook | Web | Outlook.com | Email
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  1. Emma1-N 13,430 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator
    2026-10-02T23:27:55.6433333+00:00

    Welcome What is Next,

    Thank you for reaching out to Microsoft Q&A forum.

    Before drawing any conclusions, could you clarify one detail?

    • Did the reply from the @live.com user appear as a direct reply to the test message you sent from Gmail, or was it a completely separate message?
    • Was the Outlook.com address you created exactly the same address you sent to, including spelling and punctuation?
    • When you sign in to the new Outlook.com account and go to “Deleted Items”, “Junk Email”, and the “Recover deleted items” option, do you see the test message anywhere?

    One possibility is that the message was actually addressed to a different address than intended due to a typo or an auto-complete suggestion in Gmail. Another possibility is that the reply came from a different email thread and only appeared related.

    To help narrow this down, please check:

    • In Gmail, open the sent test email and click “Show original” or view the message details.
    • Confirm the exact address listed in the “To” field.
    • Compare it character-by-character with the Outlook.com address you created.
    • Let me know whether the new Outlook.com account can successfully receive emails from another sender or another email service.

    Additionally, Microsoft explains how Outlook.com email aliases and addresses work here:

    Looking forward to your update.

    Was this answer helpful?

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