Anyway for regular folk to trace e-mails ??

eldiablo · May 1, 2006

I was wondering if I created an e-mail address would someone be able to trace it to me or my house ? I am NOT talking about criminal acts or such where professionals or law enforcement would trace it. Just want to remain anonymous from work.

I thought about creating an e-mail account from somewhere else or a friend's house. I was just wondering if someone who received the e-mail could ask the provider to reveal any info. I would think it would take some kind of court action, etc. Does an IP address tell anything about someone or someones location ?

freebie · May 1, 2006

it's very easy to trace if the person knows how to read email header of the incoming email.

If it's a good mail server like yahoo. They will identify the original IP where it first send call X-Orginal-IP:192.168.0.1 (just an example)

THECLOSER · May 1, 2006

interesting...

TTinCO · May 1, 2006

freebie said:
it's very easy to trace if the person knows how to read email header of the incoming email.

If it's a good mail server like yahoo. They will identify the original IP where it first send call X-Orginal-IP:192.168.0.1 (just an example)

Yup

eldiablo · May 1, 2006

What can you do with an IP address ? I guess playing it safe from an internet cafe/Kinkos or a friend's house would be the way to go.

trytrytry · May 1, 2006

not if you dont want the friend to get in trouble or get caught for something!

quantumleap · May 1, 2006

el diablo said:
What can you do with an IP address ? I guess playing it safe from an internet cafe/Kinkos or a friend's house would be the way to go.

The Internet Service Provider (ISP) would have a record of who the IP belonged to. I don't know if someone outside the ISP would be able to get your address information unless it was law enforcement with the proper documentation.

Don't forget that IP addresses can be spoofed, meaning it can appear to come from another computer. That is becoming more difficult to do unless you use another computer to send your email.

eldiablo · May 1, 2006

Nothing criminal or unethical, etc ........just some whistle blowing. So if they traced it to someone else .....they would just say who is "John Doe" versus tracing it to me.