If you are getting a lot of spam or email from people that you personally don’t know, then it might be time to put on your investigator’s hat and find out who these people are. More often than not, they are spammers located anywhere around the world who are sending out millions of emails, but sometimes they are written by people who are actually really trying to scam or annoy only you. Luckily, it is not all that difficult to learn how to trace “anonymous” email addresses.
The first thing that you should do is take a look at the header information. No matter what email program you use, or even if you view your email on a website such as Yahoo! or Gmail, there will be a link, usually found at the top of each email, that says “view header.” This will allow you to see all the details of the email, often including the IP address from which it was sent. An IP address can give you a very good idea as to where the email originated and can often be traced to an individual person.
When you are learning how to trace “anonymous” email, keep in mind that the email address in the “From” line may not be their real address. Therefore, looking in the header information for their real address will give you a better idea as to who they are and where they are emailing from. You might be able to track them down by following their Internet provider, their email provider, or even the local authorities.
For the most part, most of the spam you receive is traceable but it often isn’t worth the effort; however, when it comes to individual emails that are harassing in nature, you should definitely track them down and find out from where they originated.
