Everyone uses email these days. It is a quick and easy way to communicate with anyone all over the world. But unfortunately, dishonest people like to use emails to spam you or to scam you. Some of these emails will promise you a lot of money or ask you to verify your bank account. In essence, what these spammers are doing is collecting your private information in an attempt to steal money from you. If you think that you are receiving these types of emails then you need to learn how to track an email address. If you can learn how to do this, you may be able to find the person that is trying to collect your personal information and have the authorities take care of them.
It is important that you familiarize yourself with the components that make up an email address. Arming yourself with this knowledge will make it easier when you begin to study how to track an email address.
Every email address contains a header. The header is what contains the information that you need to trace the email. Familiarizing yourself with the components that make up the header will reveal to you the path to the sender.
Uncovering the header to the email is not always easy. Some email providers will have the headers clearly revealed and others will make it a little harder to discover. The best way to find out how to uncover your email headers is to do a search for your email provider and find out how to uncover the header. Each email provider will have a different way of uncovering your headers.
After you have figured out how to open the header, look for the part that says received from. This section will have a “from and by” area. The “from” part is the machine that is sending the message and the “by” part is the machine that is accepting the message.
In this section of the header, you will see an IP address. You can easily spot this because it is a series of numbers that are broken up by periods. This IP address can be plugged into a reverse DNS lookup service that can be found on the Internet. There are a few free to use service providers available. This IP address will reveal the user’s ISP or employer.
The great news is that there are also services online that can provide you with the city and state that the ISP address is located in. Once you have your hands on this information, then you can decide if you want to take action against the malicious email senders.
So now you have the information on how to track an email address. This system will not always be successful if a spammer is using a fake “received from” header. There is always the option to use a email tracking service if you have trouble doing it yourself. But you can learn how to do a reverse email search.