How to track emails via IP address

Whether you have received disturbing emails or want to investigate your correspondence, knowing the sender’s location can be helpful. There are many ways to do this, but one of the easiest methods might be to sniff the IP address. But how to find this information and use it to locate the whereabouts of the sender?

You’ll find out right here. This article will show you how to track emails via IP addresses.

How to track an email via IP address

It takes a lot to receive an email. Once your interlocutor presses the “send” button, the message is processed by several servers. Scratch the surface of these servers and you’ll find headers with lots of useful information, including the sender’s IP address.

Therefore, accessing the header is key to retrieving the address.

1. Open the message.
   
2. Press the message which allows you to see the source of the message. You should now see a large window on your screen with a lot of code.
   
3. Use the shortcut Ctrl + F to activate its search function.
   
4. Type the following line in the box: Received.
   

The data after “Received from” shows the sender’s IP address.

As with most other complex email tasks, you may encounter hiccups when searching for the sender’s location. One of which could be that the header displays multiple “Received from” lines. Why is this happening and how can this problem be resolved?

Generally, spammers send emails using multiple servers to help hide their true location, which is why you may receive multiple lines. The good news is that there is a simple solution:

1. Open your email and go to the message header.
   
2. Use the search function to find the “From” information.
   
3. If there are multiple lines, start from the last one and work your way up. Most likely, the first and two “From” lines have different “from” and “by” IP addresses. The first line where these two details match represents the legitimate “Received from” line. Use it to locate your sender.
   

You now have the IP address of the other party. It’s not doing you any good though, is it? You are not a supercomputer that can instantly match numbers to a physical location anywhere in the world. Fortunately, you don’t need such advanced knowledge because several websites can perform this function.

Here’s how to use some of those websites:

• IP.net Search – This is a simple website that displays your IP address. In addition to that, you can see a field at the bottom of the page that allows you to enter any other IP address. Paste the information you found earlier into this box and you will see the location of your sender.
• IP Tracker – IP Tracker is another easy-to-use website to find IP addresses. Simply navigate to the bottom of the page until you find the field to enter your address. Copy and paste the content of your email and press the red “Track IP with IP Tracker” button.

How to Track an Email Using Social Media

Social media is primarily designed to connect people with each other. That said, linking you with other people is not the only purpose of these platforms. You can also use them to narrow down the whereabouts of your email senders if the above methods don’t work.

The most reliable website you can use is LinkedIn, as this is where most people enter their email addresses in their bio.

1. Open the message from the sender you want to track.
   
2. Copy your email address.
   
3. Create a LinkedIn account or use your login credentials if you have already done so.
   
4. Paste the email address into the search box. If you’re lucky, the sender will have created their own LinkedIn account, letting you know who they are. Browse their profile and check if they have included your location.
   

You can try this method on many other social media websites, such as Facebook and Instagram. However, not many people share their email addresses on their public profiles these days. So, stay on LinkedIn for the best results.

How to track emails via IP addresses with time zones

Another alternative to the headers and IP address locators method is to track emails using time zones. Again, it is not as accurate as the first two techniques because dozens of countries can be found in a single time zone. However, this way can be useful if you suspect where your sender is from and want to limit their whereabouts a bit.

The first step in using time zones is to (you guessed it) determine when you received your message.

1. Go to your email application and access the email.
2. Scan the header and look for the “Date” p.
3. Find out when you received the email and go to a website that features time zones. Timeanddate.com It is a reliable option.
4. Find places whose time zone matches that of your recipient.

Frequent questions

Why would you want to track an email?

There are several reasons why you may want to track the sender of your emails. For example, you may have been sent disturbing or threatening messages and you are concerned about your safety. In that case, you can report the person to the authorities or get a better idea of ​​who might be behind the correspondence.

Can you track an email via IP address if the sender uses a VPN?

Technically, you can trace the origin of an email using its IP address, but it doesn’t make sense if the sender used a VPN. Don’t forget that a VPN masks the true sender address. As a result, you may get a location that is on the other side of the world from your actual whereabouts.

How do you access the header of an email?

As mentioned above, finding your email header is crucial to determining the sender’s location. We’ve outlined the general process for doing this, but there may be some variations depending on your application:

•Gmail

o Log in to your account and open the message whose IP address you want to recover.

o Navigate to the top right p of the message.

o Press the three vertical dots.

o Choose “Show Original” and you’re done.

• Microsoft Outlook

o Sign in to your account.

or Go to message.

o Browse the window and select “More”.

o Choose the message that allows you to view the raw message. You will now see another tab containing your email header.

• Apple Mail

o Sign in to Apple Mail and find your email.

o Choose “View” and press the “Message” option.

o Press “Raw Source”.

•Yahoo

o Access your account and open the email.

o Scroll to the top of the email and select “More.”

o Choose “View raw message.”

No place remains out of sight

You don’t have to be a tech expert to find out the whereabouts of your sender using their IP address. All you need is a few clicks to discover its location. From there, you can determine if you need to take additional steps to protect your privacy by blocking the person. Regardless of your choice, it will always be useful to know the location of your correspondent.

Have you ever checked the location of the senders of your emails? If so, what method did you use? Do you track the location of every unknown email sender? Tell us in the comments p below.