Matching Gmail filters on BCC mail

Question

I am using Google Apps for Domains to handle my personal email. I have the following filter configured:

Matches: to:([email protected])
Do this: Skip Inbox, Mark as read, Delete it

Here is the exported filter XML:

<entry>
    <category term='filter'></category>
    <title>Mail Filter</title>
    <id>tag:mail.google.com,2008:filter:1348992826412</id>
    <updated>2012-09-30T08:16:38Z</updated>
    <content></content>
    <apps:property name='to' value='[email protected]'/>
    <apps:property name='shouldMarkAsRead' value='true'/>
    <apps:property name='shouldArchive' value='true'/>
    <apps:property name='shouldTrash' value='true'/>
</entry>

Despite this rule, mail to the [email protected] address is not being matched by the filter. Here is one example headers of a mail that was not caught by the filter:

Delivered-To: [email protected]
Received: by 10.49.35.178 with SMTP id i18csp10155qej;
        Sun, 30 Sep 2012 02:09:09 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by 10.68.225.68 with SMTP id ri4mr32446176pbc.115.1348996149371;
        Sun, 30 Sep 2012 02:09:09 -0700 (PDT)
Return-Path: <[email protected]>
Received: from mail.tbb.com.tw ([210.202.75.124])
        by mx.google.com with SMTP id c5si10659paz.41.2012.09.30.02.09.07;
        Sun, 30 Sep 2012 02:09:08 -0700 (PDT)
Received-SPF: neutral (google.com: 210.202.75.124 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [email protected]) client-ip=210.202.75.124;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com; spf=neutral (google.com: 210.202.75.124 is neither permitted nor denied by best guess record for domain of [email protected]) [email protected]
Received: By OpenMail Mailer;Sun, 30 Sep 2012 16:05:41 +0800 (CST)
From: "Loan Financial Private Company" <[email protected]>
Reply-To: [email protected]
Subject: Loan Financial Private Company
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2012 16:05:41 +0800 (CST)
MIME-Version: 1.0
Return-Path: [email protected]
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=big5
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

Note that I have tens of other similar filters that do properly match mail per address. It is only this one address / filter combination that is failing to match mail.

To proactively address the obvious red herrings and ensure that the discussion remains focused: I am aware of the dangers of posting a live email address publicly. I am aware of Gmail's excellent spam filters. I am aware of the arguments against catch-all email addresses.

Answer 1

Gmail help says:

*Search on bcc: cannot retrieve messages on which you were blind carbon copied

You need to use the deliveredto: operator.

Search for messages within a particular email address in the Delivered-To line of the message header Example: deliveredto:[email protected]

Meaning: Any message with [email protected] in the Delivered-To: field of the message header (which can help you find messages forwarded from another account or ones sent to an alias).

Answer 2

You need to match on Delivered-To SMTP header, check the below link on how to configure that.

GMail filtering on SMTP Headers

Answer 3

To add to the already great answers, you can also use negative filters. For instance to filter the messages where you're in bcc only :

from:[email protected] -cc:[email protected] -to:[email protected] 

Nicely selects the mails where you are bcc, since this is the only one option left.

But this doesn't work when you send a mail to yourself in bcc within the same Gmail account, Gmail search includes it in "to:" field ???

Anyway, I found this pretty useful to filter mails where I add a bcc: copy to myself on an "archival" Gmail account.

Answer 4

Another version thanks to Joel.O.

I modified Joel.O's answer and used:

-to:me -cc:me -in:sent

And that worked for me.