EaSecure allows you to send "Certified Mail" and obtain a "Certified Receipt" indicating that the recipient has opened your message at a specific time. To send a "Certified Mail," simply select "EaSecure Certified Receipt" under the "Tools" menu. A check mark will appear on this menu item. (The check mark toggles. If your select this menu item again, the check mark will disappear.) If you send the message with this menu item checked, you will receive a Certified Receipt when a recipient opens your message for the first time.

You may also specify that the receipt should be sent to ALL recipients, not just yourself by selecting "Send Receipt to All Recipients" under the "Tools" menu. A check mark on this menu item indicates that when a recipient opens your message for the first time, the Certified Receipt will be sent to you and all recipients of the same message (except Bcc recipients). If you select "Send Receipt to All Recipients" making it checked, "EaSecure Certified Receipt" will also be automatically checked. If you select "EaSecure Certified Receipt" to make it unchecked, "Send Receipt to All Recipients" will automatically be unchecked.

Please note: The check marks on these two menu items are not persistent. You need to check them each time you want to send a Certified Mail. Also note: when a Bcc recipient opens a certified mail, the receipt will not be sent to other recipients. It will only be sent to the original sender.

The following picture shows the menu item "EaSecure Certified Receipt" when it is checked in the standalone client. A receipt will be sent to the sender (testsender@easecure.com) when the recipient (testuser1@easecure.com) opens the message for the first time.

The following picture shows both the "EaSecure Certified Receipt" and "Send Receipt to All Recipients" when they are checked in the compose window of Outlook Express with the EaSecure plug-in. A receipt will be sent to the sender (testsender@easecure.com) and ALL non-Bcc recipients (testuser1@easecure.com and testuser2@easecure.com) when any of the non-Bcc recipients (testuser1@easecure.com or testuser2@easecure.com) opens the message for the first time. However, the Bcc recipient (bccrcpt@easecure.com) will not receive any receipt. When the Bcc recipient (bccrcpt@easecure.com) opens the message, its receipt will only be sent to the sender (testsender@easecure.com). This ensures that the existence and the identity of the Bcc recipients will not be revealed to other recipients.

When a recipient opens a Certified Mail for the first time, the following dialog box will pop up to ask for the password, instead of the normal dialog box asking for the password.

The Certified Receipt is an EaSecure message from notary@easecure.com. The subject of the Receipt is the original subject with the prefix "EAS: RCPT:" and the body of the Receipt has the following format:

This digitally signed EaSecure(tm) receipt is a proof that testuser1@easecure.com has opened the following message at Thu, Nov 24, 2005 21:24:37 (GMT).

From: testsender@easecure.com

Subject: This is a certified mail

Time: Thu, Nov 24, 2005 21:23:34 (GMT)

 

Message Hash: BLOV-74NB-UGPS-MIVT-MQ83-QLAN-Z7GO-EPYU-EGBE-TUJK-AOJZ-6YX4-O6QA

 

This receipt is void if the above message hash does not match the message hash of the original message.

(To see the message hash of the original message, open the original message and select "Show EaSecure Message Hash" under "Tools" menu.)

To verify the receipt, you need to have a copy of the original message sent. If the message hash shown in the receipt matches the message hash of the original message, the recipient cannot deny having received that specific message.

Under rare circumstances, you may receive more than one receipt for the same certified mail. This happens when a recipient opens your message on one computer and then opens it again on another computer. This is a harmless outcome. Any receipt can be used to prove that the recipient has opened your message.