Every email that you receive in your Inbox has a lot of information in its header that the email provider hides from you because it is not considered essential for every user. However, that information can be used to trace an email sender. In this tutorial, we will show you how to trace an email sender using the email header.
Getting the email header
Depending upon the email service you are using, the process of accessing the email header may vary. Herein below we have covered the processes to get the email header for Gmail, Yahoo, Windows Live Hotmail, and Apple Mail.
Gmail
Perform the below steps to get the email header for an email received in your Gmail Inbox:
Open the email for which you want to get the email header.
Locate the down-arrow next to the Reply link and click it. A menu appears.
Select the Show Original option. A new window will appear with the header.
Yahoo
Perform the below steps to get the email header for an email received in your Yahoo Inbox:
In the Inbox, right-click the email whose header you need.
Select the View Full Headers option. A new window will appear with the header.
Windows Live Hotmail
Perform the below steps to get the email header for Windows Live Hotmail:
Right-click the email whose header you want to access. A menu appears.
Select the View Source option. You will see a new window having the email header and the html coding of the email.
Apple Mail
Perform the below steps to get the email header for Apple Mail:
Select the message for which you want to see the header.
Now, on your keyboard press Shift + Command + H. You will get the header.
An example of the Email Header
An email header contains email of the sender, website or platform using which the email has been sent, IP address of the email sender, date of the email, and some more information. Given below is an example of the email header that will help you to identify the email header:
Delivered-To: ****353@gmail.com
Received: by 10.112.198.36 with SMTP id iz4csp337237lbc;
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 09:13:00 -0800 (PST)
X-Received: by 10.98.72.215 with SMTP id q84mr68493930pfi.152.1455210780377;
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 09:13:00 -0800 (PST)
Return-Path: <transactional-32094359-****adeepak2353=gmail.com@****chargemail1.in> Received: from ms215.****chargemail1.in (ms215.****chargemail1.in. [207.189.186.215])
by mx.google.com with ESMTP id cc5si13622594pad.168.2016.02.11.09.12.59
for <guptadeepak2353@gmail.com>;
Thu, 11 Feb 2016 09:13:00 -0800 (PST)
Received-SPF: pass (google.com: domain of transactional-32094359-****adeepak2353=gmail.com@freechargemail1.in designates 207.189.186.215 as permitted sender) client-ip=207.189.186.215;
Authentication-Results: mx.google.com;
spf=pass (google.com: domain of transactional-32094359-****adeepak2353=gmail.com@****chargemail1.in designates 207.189.186.215 as permitted sender) smtp.mailfrom=transactional-32094359-****adeepak2353=gmail.com@freechargemail1.in;
dkim=pass header.i=@freechargemail.in;
dmarc=pass (p=NONE dis=NONE) header.from=****chargemail.in
DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; s=trans; d=freechargemail.in;
h=Date:To:From:Reply-to:Subject:List-Unsubscribe:Message-ID:MIME-Version:Content-Type; i=noreply@****chargemail.in;
bh=NbyP1Js8wXNZAzAYEZJBCB4hqSk=;
b=Bdyq7wDv0JN66r2QIo4sI0jySpx7MrORbeZrU2dcbBY6CPqt5dvPOsGzM4uVYoNCrZPagWWwBSiv
MrHPp29a1oVx/CKfRiJO7N/0PoQ6Hs2DWu6e8BCkyncfqENK/ch/8U+R2R3pLdehECgy3Bz8OhmT
QEOdA1v70uUPXogxJR4=
DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; q=dns; s=trans; d=freechargemail.in;
b=twYouOw73PbWfeb6E/AwgwAHDityULrwVzl0SxcJlwIjRQ4/bP133mzb0YmuNDf9EaQqFGihidQu
wLrtinFzTn6YwhfGO/VM6hX/JIRwMtXgmjyRwauwhwVAeeRAjQTpylbjqooKjnhtYl5MuSa4cjEB
I6YrFJm2+vVX/doFDk8=;
Date: Thu, 11 Feb 2016 22:41:11 +0530
To: ****adeepak2353@gmail.com
From: FreeCharge <noreply@****chargemail.in>
Reply-to: noreply@****charge.in
Subject: Rs.288.00 has been credited to your FreeCharge Account!
X-Mailer: ****chargemail1.in
X-Complaints-To: abuse@****chargemail1.in
List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:unsubscribe@****chargemail1.in?subject=transactional-32094359-****adeepak2353=gmail.com>,<http://****chargemail1.in/lt/u/32094359/Z3VwdGFkZWVwYWsyMzUzJTQwZ21haWwuY29t>
Message-ID: <transactional-32094359-****adeepak2353=gmail.com@****chargemail1.in> MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: multipart/alternative;
boundary=”b1_753f29392b390090285014f0bb4c3723″
Tracing email sender
After you have accessed the header, copy it, and then perform the following steps to trace the email sender:
Open this website http://www.ip2location.com/free/email-tracer
Scroll down to find a text box.
In that text box, paste the header code that you had previously copied.
Now, click the Lookup button.
Within a few seconds of clicking the Lookup button, you will get details of the email sender, as shown below:
IP Address
This is how to trace email sender using the email header.
