How do I filter emails from mailing lists that have no "to:" entry?

Question

I have a small 5 man team and we use Google for our email. All of the mail goes to [email protected] and we filter it to our personal emails from there. So if someone sends mail to [email protected] it gets caught by the "to:" filter and passed on.

I keep getting 'indirect' emails, usually from mailing lists that people signed up for, that the filter can't catch.

For Example:

from:    gov-list <[email protected]>  
to:    
cc:      gov-list <[email protected]>  
date:    Wed, Apr 22, 2015 at 11:04 AM  
subject: email list stuff

1. Why can't I see who this is being sent to?
2. How can I properly filter these to the right people?

Answer 1

You probably can't see who it's being sent to because the sender didn't put a value in the to: field. This is fairly common for mailing lists and such and is a courtesy; I know I get annoyed when my email address is exposed in a message sent to hundreds of people.

If you open up the message menu and choose "Show Original", you'll get a view of the raw email, including the headers. The "delivered-to:" heading there will let you know who the ultimate recipient was.

To filter these messages, you'll want to use the deliveredto: operator. In your filter, in the "Has the words" field, put

deliveredto:[email protected]

(Obviously, replace the email address with the email address you're filtering for.)