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Something very weird and troubling started happening on my wife's Gmail account today. She received an email from G. Arnold, who is a regular correspondent, but in her inbox it showed as being from "Crazy Arnold". That sounds quite funny and off-beat, but it's not in character for this particular person. Plus, when she opened the mail, it briefly flashed up with the sender's real name, then switched back to "Crazy". In the screenshot below, I captured the moment before "G... Arnold" switched to "Crazy Arnold". In addition, the "to" address shows as "that Bnos", instead of "Bnos ...", the organization on whose behalf she is receiving the mails.

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I checked in the mail headers, and the "from" address is normal. There is no sign of the word "Crazy" anywhere in the source.

This is not the only email thus affected. Many other senders are showing up with strange "from" names.

The common thread I can see between all these emails is that they have passed through a particular domain that I administer.

This smells very much like a hack. Any idea what kind of hack this could be, how to remedy it, or what preventative action to take?

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    I'm thinking it might be a browser extension. Have you checked those for anything unusual?
    – grooveplex
    May 13, 2019 at 18:16
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    Also check if this appears the same way in the Gmail app on a mobile device, as well as a different PC/browser.
    – Kevin Mirsky
    May 13, 2019 at 18:24
  • @grooveplex Right in one. I removed a few unnecessary extensions, and this behavior has disappeared. Please can you post an answer so I can accept it?
    – Shaul Behr
    May 14, 2019 at 16:33
  • @KevinMirsky Thanks for your suggestions; it helped confirm that the problem was an extension.
    – Shaul Behr
    May 14, 2019 at 16:33
  • @ShaulBehr done :)
    – grooveplex
    May 14, 2019 at 19:46

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It might be a browser extension. Have you checked those for anything unusual?

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    Indeed, it was a browser extension. Unfortunately, I don't know which one was the guilty party, because I removed several, one by one, and nothing changed, until I thought to refresh my Gmail page, at which point the weird behavior stopped. Thanks!
    – Shaul Behr
    May 15, 2019 at 12:57
  • @ShaulBehr No problem. Glad I could help!
    – grooveplex
    May 15, 2019 at 13:25

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