Computer tech assistance required.

[Buddy]

Can e-mails be traced back to the sender?

i.e. is it possible to trace a spam email (or instance) back to who sent it?

Cheers!

[Banners]

You can look at the message header to see lots of route information, but pro spammers will spoof this or cover their tracks such as to make the info useless.

M@

[Tweak72]

what is Spoof?

[Bouwel]

Spoof=false information that seems real. Usually inserted by spammers to make the mail servers think it's a genuine mail header when it isn't.

-Bouwel-

[I, Cosh]

what is Spoof?

The practice of substituting a fake e-mail address in the "From" field for the actual sender. Very simple as the header is simply a few lines of text which can be easily manipulated. It's why your hotmail junk folder is frequently full of crap purporting to be from your own address.

[Tweak72]

Thanks guys. I did wonder how I was sending all that spam.

[Buddy]

And what if it's not really spam but from a source you just don't know?

[Banners]

And what if it's not really spam but from a source you just don't know?

If it's a legitimate email you can see the mail server it's come from and each step of the path it has taken to get to you. In Thunderbird, open the message and select View > Message Source. In Outlook Express, open a message and select File > Properties. Then look at the Details tab.

If you have a concern, can you you be more specific?

M@

[Buddy]

Nothing specific matt, just wonderin if emails could be traced back to the source.

I might one day want to send hate mail (and a turd in the post maybe!) to an artist. (that's a joke by the way)