A first computer sends an electronic message transparently to a second computer of intended recipients of an electronic mail (e-mail), in response to the e-mail addresses of the intended recipients being entered, by a first end-user on the first computer, into a ‘To’ message header field of the e-mail. The second computer sends a Boolean value to the first computer, wherein one of the intended recipients is not available to respond to the e-mail. The first computer queries a repository to return to the first end-user contact information of backup contact entities to respond the e-mail for the intended recipients that are not available to respond to the e-mail. The first computer sends the e-mail to the backup contact entities that are available to respond to the e-mail. The first computer deletes the e-mail from each inbox of the backup contact entities that received but did not read the e-mail before the intended recipients read the e-mail.