Email Tracking

I have recently experimented with a service that tracks emails. My experimentation has opened more questions than I have the technical expertise to answer, so I would like some help. Most emails I send are opened once by the intended receiver of the email. Some emails are opened, then forwarded to a second location and opened, and them forwarded to a unidentifiable server and opened a third time.

Is there a logical explanation for this or am I being someone attempting to create a new conspiracy theory? I welcome your suggestions and possible explanations.

To have people help, give the name of the service.

My initial thought is that whatever service you are using is piggybacking your traffic to make sure that can monetize their own list or provide you with better follow up service

Quick example (remember this is just a theory)

You pay for their service to track email traffic

Reroute 1 takes your target to the company's capture page and obtains their email address for their data base

Reroute 2 takes them to your analytics page hosted by the company on your behalf

Outcome- the company is getting email leads to later use either on your behalf via follow traffic generation or for their own use.

Another very plausible thought is they could have several versions of your content going out so there was a need to host different sites for split testing purposes.

Best solution is to call them and ask them what they are doing and why.

Most emails are opened once at one location, so I don't think the pattern is related to anything being done by the service I am using. Emails to people well known to me have a very normal pattern. Emails to some new contacts are opened multiple times, with multiple locations, and multiple IP addresses.

If they are using mobile devices and check their email on those devices, you may see such activity. I know I may open an email on my phone to get a quick idea of the message, then open it again on my computer later to re read it and type a reply. Also, is it the same recipients who you see this activity with? Or some common characteristic for them?

Also along these lines, I am not sure if an email is marked as read when its pushed to my phone and tablet or not. Your tracking service may very well show this as multiple reads and even forwards as the email is received on each device. I also see my phone pull up email I have already read once on my phone in the past. That could generate multiple open message back to you as well.

What service are you using?

All of the answers above are plausible/probable and here is what i know happens to me on my tracking...its a simple version I copies from a site because Im too lazy to type it...

"....If you’re using different devices to access Gmail, you may also see more than one device listed. For me, at any point in time, my Gmail account could be open on my desktop PC, my laptop, a Mac, my Android-based phone, or my Amazon Kindle. Depending on my usage pattern and how long Google keeps track, it may look like Gmail is open from five different locations. Coincidentally, all have the same IP address here at my home."

from : http://askleo.com/should-i-be-worrie...ge-from-gmail/

( I did not twant to create a link - though it would be funny -lol)