Deprecated function 'the_author()' being used

Notice: the_author was called with an argument that is deprecated since version 1.5! Use get_the_author() instead if you do not want the value echoed.

is the error being thrown when i turn on wp_debug, I did a search for that function call in my site folder and its not being used in any of my templates of my functions.php, or anywhere, so I’m very confused. Still functions would just like to squash this bug.

https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-email/