-
Step 1
If you receive an email from an unknown party, you may wish to trace the email and find out the sender's location. You can use online tools to trace the email and find out the city and state or country that the person sent the email from. The email trace program can also reveal the sender's IP address and the ISP that they use.
-
Step 2
Find an online program that you can use to trace the sender of the email's location. You can locate several, but two examples of the simplest to use are IP-Address.com and What Is My IP Address? These programs are free and does not require registration to use. See Resources for links.
-
Step 3
View the email header from the mail that you wish to trace. Each email program will have a different way to access the email header. On IP-Address.com, you can see a tutorial on how to view the header for multiple email programs. For example, on Gmail, click on the upside-down triangle next to the reply key for the message. Select "Show Original" from the available options.
-
Step 4
Highlight and copy the entire header for the email that you wish to trace. The header will be written in technical language and include terms like "Message ID," "Return Path" and "Content Type."
-
Step 5
Place the copied header into the "Trace" box found on the online program you are using to find out the location of the email. Once you enter this information, the data will be analyzed and you can view the sender's IP address, continent, country, region, city and time zone. You can save this information for viewing later as well.
