How can I find the real address of an email

[billd766]

How can I find the real address of an email.

 

Someone has sent me an email and I would like to know how to reverse engineer it (if that is the correct term) and find out who really sent it.

[gamb00ler]

Give us a bit more information.  Are you using a web browser or an application to view your e-mail?  Who provides your e-mail service?  Google, MicroSoft, Yahoo etc?

[RmcaIssan]

Click on the down arrow next to the short name in the header ...that will give u full email name ...

[John Bird]

Tell me you don't know how the internet works without telling me you don't know how the internet works... 

[fdsa]

It is impossible to find out who is the _real_ sender of the email unless they explicitly tell that themselves.

And even if you receive an email from the known email address from a person you personally know nothing guarantees that their email was not hacked and someone else is pretending to be that person.

[candide]

17 minutes ago, fdsa said:

It is impossible to find out who is the _real_ sender of the email unless they explicitly tell that themselves.

And even if you receive an email from the known email address from a person you personally know nothing guarantees that their email was not hacked and someone else is pretending to be that person.

On top of it there are websites providing fake email services or temporary email addresses.

[KhunBENQ]

Not sure whether you question goes to the simple point of showing the mail address behind a display name. Every sender can freely choose a display name like "Amazon Customer Service", "McAfee", ... but the mail address behind is completely "arbitrary" junk.

Most mail clients will show the mail address just by hovering (moving) with the mouse over the symbolic name (without opening the mail).

Example from one of my SPAM folders:

Easy to guess that this is not a genuine mail from McAfee company.

There are deeper insight methods (show complete header) and trace all the way down where this mail was originated.

But I am afraid this is a bit too much for you.

Edited March 12, 2022 by KhunBENQ

[billd766]

17 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

Give us a bit more information.  Are you using a web browser or an application to view your e-mail?  Who provides your e-mail service?  Google, MicroSoft, Yahoo etc?

Thank you. I would have put that in but I did not think about it. My bad.

 

I use Gmail as does the person whose email I am trying to find.

[MJCM]

 

15 minutes ago, billd766 said:

I use Gmail as does the person whose email I am trying to find.

https://www.hostinger.com/tutorials/email-headers/#View_an_Email_Header_on_Gmail

 

 

Quote

 

What Exactly Is an Email Header?

An email header is more than the to, from, date, and subject section that precedes an email body. Headers also play an essential role in recording an email’s route since every email message has an email header.

When an email is sent from one address to another, the message will go through mail transfer agents (MTA). So, email headers will show If the email was sent to other addresses before reaching the final destination. If the header information looks suspicious, users can avoid engaging with the email.

Headers use metadata to provide information about the transmission process.

 

 

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by MJCM

[billd766]

17 hours ago, RmcaIssan said:

Click on the down arrow next to the short name in the header ...that will give u full email name ...

That worked but it only gives me the email address that I know already.

 

What I would like to know is who the account belongs to, name address etc.

[billd766]

17 hours ago, John Bird said:

Tell me you don't know how the internet works without telling me you don't know how the internet works... 

I have no idea what you are talking about.

Edited March 13, 2022 by billd766
Bad spelling

[billd766]

16 hours ago, fdsa said:

It is impossible to find out who is the _real_ sender of the email unless they explicitly tell that themselves.

And even if you receive an email from the known email address from a person you personally know nothing guarantees that their email was not hacked and someone else is pretending to be that person.

Thank you for that information.

 

That is really what I needed to know. If their email has been hacked and I am talking to somebody else.

 

 

[billd766]

16 hours ago, candide said:

On top of it there are websites providing fake email services or temporary email addresses.

Thank you for overtaxing my brain with that information.

[billd766]

15 hours ago, KhunBENQ said:

Not sure whether you question goes to the simple point of showing the mail address behind a display name. Every sender can freely choose a display name like "Amazon Customer Service", "McAfee", ... but the mail address behind is completely "arbitrary" junk.

Most mail clients will show the mail address just by hovering (moving) with the mouse over the symbolic name (without opening the mail).

Example from one of my SPAM folders:

Easy to guess that this is not a genuine mail from McAfee company.

There are deeper insight methods (show complete header) and trace all the way down where this mail was originated.

But I am afraid this is a bit too much for you.

Sadly you are correct.

[Mavideol]

33 minutes ago, billd766 said:

That worked but it only gives me the email address that I know already.

 

What I would like to know is who the account belongs to, name address etc.

impossible as majority of people may use fake name and/or fake address to sign in to email account.... even the email service supplier, in your case google, has no right to disclose the account holder name/address, etc. regardless if correct name or fake name, you can block/ignore the sender but not much more then that

[Sheryl]

While there are commercial sites that will (usually for a fee) search names that use certain email addresses this does not preclude someone using someone else's email for scam purposes.

 

If you have reason to suspect an email is not from whom it days it is (referring to actual sender email address not just listed name), you are probably correct.

 

You might try s googling the full email address of the sender, this may turn up other reports of people being scammed by it etc. (If nothing turns up, doesn't prove not a scam - but this can be a useful thing to try)

[nauseus]

1 hour ago, billd766 said:

Thank you. I would have put that in but I did not think about it. My bad.

 

I use Gmail as does the person whose email I am trying to find.

If it's bad report it to Gmail. They should have identification of their account holders but even this is often bogus. However if the sender is going beyond the agreed T's & C's or being abusive etc....... then Google can cancel their account.

[billd766]

16 minutes ago, nauseus said:

If it's bad report it to Gmail. They should have identification of their account holders but even this is often bogus. However if the sender is going beyond the agreed T's & C's or being abusive etc....... then Google can cancel their account.

The problem is that I am dealing with a person that I have never met and the only contact is through Gmail and he is simply a name with an email address.

[digbeth]

if you have access to web server, you can send them a link to a picture, or documents, and when they visit that link, you can see the IP address that they are accessing from, and at least show their country, maybe location where they are accessing your links from, if they are  not savvy, and with court orders, their internet provider can provide the account information 

 

say if your 'friend' is supposed to be in Europe, and you send them a link to your picture and you see they are opening it in Nigeria, that's a confirmation, 

 

modern email do guard against this somewhat, if you embed a picture in your email, and they're accessing it on gmail, it'll only show that someone from google accessed your picture, but you can send a link to say a document that they must click to download themselves

 

this is why it's risky to open links or attachment from unknown source

[tgw]

31 minutes ago, billd766 said:

The problem is that I am dealing with a person that I have never met and the only contact is through Gmail and he is simply a name with an email address.

that's how the internet works

[nauseus]

39 minutes ago, billd766 said:

The problem is that I am dealing with a person that I have never met and the only contact is through Gmail and he is simply a name with an email address.

Sure it's a he? 

[Wagga]

43 minutes ago, billd766 said:

The problem is that I am dealing with a person that I have never met and the only contact is through Gmail and he is simply a name with an email address.

Forget it, delete the email (preferably without opening it) and move on. Is it really that important to warrant a head f@#k over, unless you let it.

[bunnydrops]

Unless they are proving that they know you personally, just mark it as spam and forget about it. Often e-mail list stolen from some site show up on the "Dark Web" or are sold. They may make assumptions about you from what the website it was taken from.

Edited March 13, 2022 by bunnydrops
made clearer

[billd766]

4 hours ago, digbeth said:

if you have access to web server, you can send them a link to a picture, or documents, and when they visit that link, you can see the IP address that they are accessing from, and at least show their country, maybe location where they are accessing your links from, if they are  not savvy, and with court orders, their internet provider can provide the account information 

 

say if your 'friend' is supposed to be in Europe, and you send them a link to your picture and you see they are opening it in Nigeria, that's a confirmation, 

 

modern email do guard against this somewhat, if you embed a picture in your email, and they're accessing it on gmail, it'll only show that someone from google accessed your picture, but you can send a link to say a document that they must click to download themselves

 

this is why it's risky to open links or attachment from unknown source

Thank you for that info. That might be a bit too deep for me to try.

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by billd766
Bad spelling

[billd766]

3 hours ago, nauseus said:

Sure it's a he? 

I am fairly sure.

 

[billd766]

3 hours ago, billd766 said:

I am fairly sure.

 

It is the way that comments that he makes are very similar to another poster that I talk to and possibly a third person as well. A sort of pattern is emerging.

[GrandPapillon]

On 3/12/2022 at 7:30 AM, John Bird said:

Tell me you don't know how the internet works without telling me you don't know how the internet works... 

????

[ignis]

For the past 6 years or so I get every so often a email from my Cousin, another came yesterday..

 

Always delete as he died over 6 years ago..........  it is a very odd email address he used for years, saying no one what hack it......... looks like someone did !!

[treetops]

4 hours ago, ignis said:

For the past 6 years or so I get every so often a email from my Cousin, another came yesterday..

 

Always delete as he died over 6 years ago..........  it is a very odd email address he used for years, saying no one what hack it......... looks like someone did !!

Could be somebody spoofing the "Sent From" address and not necessarily a hack of your cousin's account.

[Lacessit]

On 3/13/2022 at 2:08 PM, billd766 said:

The problem is that I am dealing with a person that I have never met and the only contact is through Gmail and he is simply a name with an email address.

It's difficult to establish the bona fides of people one has met, let alone someone who is just a stream of electrons. Just delete the emails and ditch whatever the deal is if you feel uncomfortable.