Set up email forwarding

My support inbox needs to forward every incoming message to the escalation queue at escalation@company.com and keep a copy here for audit. Forward only emails sent to support@company.com, preserve attachments, and do not forward auto-replies or messages from internal addresses. Confirm the forwarding works by sending a test ticket from alice@example-customer.com and report back by Friday.

Before I turn on forwarding from support@company.com to escalation@company.com, make it low-friction for the team to verify delivery: show where to check the forwarded copy in the original inbox, list which common auto-reply headers to exclude, and flag whether forwarding will break any existing filters that route to the triage label.

I enabled forwarding from support@company.com to escalation@company.com and immediately got nervous about internal monitoring emails creating loops. The people involved are me, the on-call engineer Tom, and the escalation queue owner Priya; I can't see how the monitoring system tags its messages. What's the likely problem and the safest next step to verify and stop loops without turning forwarding off for customers?

Over the last year we repeatedly set simple forwards during incidents and later found gaps in attachments, missed auto-replies, or duplicated alerts. Which habit should we change so forwards are reliable and auditable—one configuration checklist, a test email routine, or a change review—and what exact steps should that habit include?