Unlocking the Enigma: Tracing the IP Address of an Email

Email remains the most prevalent means to send and receive crucial documents and vital information. As emails seamlessly integrate into our daily lives, the onslaught of spam emails becomes more pronounced.

Many spam emails you receive have been identified and routed to the spam folder. However, some still manage to infiltrate your inbox. The senders of spam emails are becoming increasingly adept at making these deceptive emails appear genuine, making it easy to mistake them for legitimate correspondence.

If you harbor doubts about the legitimacy of an email, you can scrutinize the original IP address of the sender. This will reveal the geographical origin of the email. While IP tracking doesn't guarantee the email's validity, it provides additional information about the sender to help you decide whether to trust it or not.

Internet Protocol Address, or IP address, serves as a unique identifier for a device connected to a network. An IP address enables devices to communicate with others on the Internet, akin to a street address representing your home.

Unveiling the sender's IP address is not a casual feat; it requires a bit of digging. Here's how.

Tracing the Origin IP Address through Email Headers

The email header you see when you open a message is just a small fraction of the wealth of information it carries. Typically, you'll find fields like 'To,' 'From,' and the subject line.

To view the sender's IP, you need to explore the concealed part of the header. To open the complete header:

In Gmail

1. Open the email you want to inspect in your browser.
2. Click on the three dots in the top right corner.
3.  In the dropdown menu, select Show original.

1. You'll find the sender's IP in the SPF authentication section or any other authentication:

In Outlook

1. Access your Outlook mailbox and open the email you want to inspect.
2. Click on the three dots in the top right corner.
3. In the list, choose View.

1. Select View message source.

In Yahoo!

1. Access Yahoo! Mail and open the email you want to inspect.
2. Click on the three dots in the toolbar.
3. Choose View raw message.

Unlike Gmail, Yahoo! and Outlook lack a quick summary of crucial email header information. However, they all provide you with an original email that looks like the following.

By now, it might seem intricate and less meaningful. However, finding the sender's IP is straightforward with this original email. Pay attention to the line “Received:...” (you can use Ctrl+F to locate this phrase). Here, you'll find the sender's email address, followed by their IP address.

Locate the IP's Geolocation

After you've found the IP address, you might want to know its geographical location worldwide to understand where this email truly originates. Visit the website whatismyip.com. On the main page, input the IP into the IP Address Lookup field and click Lookup.

You'll receive results containing information related to this server's address. From there, you can decide whether to trust the sender of this email.

While looking up the source IP can be immensely helpful in determining the legitimacy of an email, don't believe everything you see. It's not difficult for spammers to use proxy servers to hide their IP address or add multiple 'Received' fields to confuse you. If you still doubt the true origin of the email, it's probably best to skip it and delete it.