What Information Can Be Found Through Someone's Email Address?

The actual email address does not contain much information. The personal, local part of the address to the left of the "@" symbol is created by the owner of the mailbox. This can contain a name or other personal information. However, this information is not required, and the address can instead contain jokes or nonsense characters. The domain is to the right of the "@" symbol, and denotes the location where the email account is hosted.

Headers are typically not displayed when you are reading a message in a standalone or Web-based email client. However, you can configure your email client to display the headers of an email message. Doing so allows you to extract many more pieces of information regarding the originator of an email message.

The Received header in an email message typically includes a number of IP addresses, each of which denotes locations that the email message stopped at on its way to your mailbox. Chronologically, these points are listed with the oldest at the bottom. Each IP address is unique, and denotes an actual computer or server in the email chain, beginning with the email's point of origin.

Any alternate addresses associated with the message are also contained in the email header. For example, the address in the From field might be different from the address in the Reply-To field. This means that a reply to the message will be directed to a different address. When these addresses are different, it is likely that the person who sent the original message has access to both mailboxes.

Email headers can be changed by the person who sent the original message. This capability is often exploited by people who have malicious intentions. If you are viewing a suspicious email, it is likely that the headers have been changed and possibly even falsified to make the email appear more benign than it actually is.