Is it possible to trace an email back to a specific location?

so of course it is totally possible, but not for a home user.

If the police were involved, and felt compelled enough to really do something about it they could under warrant get details of the IP addresses which logged into the e-mail account you are receiving the e-mail from if it was UK administered. They could then go to the ISP and say 'who had this IP reservation' and if it was a home address, happy days.

Reality is that it would be a load of work for some hassle e-mails. You don't say its from numerous accounts, so just block/ignore the e-mails?
 
if the police wanted to they can tell where who sent the email, but until your friend is murdered they will not do it as it will take a load of time and they will have to get data from (probably) several ISP's

delete the email account create another do NOT reply to the emails
 
as you can see, it contains ALL the source IPs for each node it was routed through.

there are many tools (like this one: http://www.mxtoolbox.com/EmailHeaders.aspx) that allow you to parse the header information into a more readable format.

if you end up with a source IP (in my case, 212.99.204.33), do a who.is on that address, and you're almost certain to find a "report abuse" email address that you can use, which for that IP is ([email protected])

:)

it only traces back to the source SMTP server, unless its in someones office you happen to know its a dead end unless YOU are the police with a warrant...

you would have to contact who ever owns the SMTP server to see if they have a log of which IP sent the email, then ask the ISP who owned that IP at that time (something they dont do unless you are the police with a warrant)
 
And you can't use Outlook because?:confused:

Because it doesn't give you the email source, although I've just realised it *does* give you the headers, just not the full source, and we only need the headers in this case. So you actually could.

As a web developer if I ever need to debug the actual structure of a full email I'm sending from one of my systems, I have to use Express, due to Outlook giving no full source view, is why that was my default response.
 
Because it doesn't give you the email source, although I've just realised it *does* give you the headers, just not the full source, and we only need the headers in this case. So you actually could.

As a web developer if I ever need to debug the actual structure of a full email I'm sending from one of my systems, I have to use Express, due to Outlook giving no full source view, is why that was my default response.
Indeed. You can view the headers that way, and you can view the rest of the source by clicking 'view source'.
 
In more recent version of Outlook there's no view source ability at all.
I'm using Outlook 2010. How recent do you want to be?:p

Open the message, click the 'actions' drop down in the 'Move' group, choose other actions, view source. Applies to 2007 too, as far as I know.
 
Just report the email address to the email provider and then block it.

you would be better to set an auto delete rule or to create another account, I think its best not to even aknoledge in any way you have even seen the emails.. (unless anyone wants to tell me otherwise)
 
Best idea is to give out new email address to a list of people you know and tell them the other has been closed.

Then, see if you start to get those emails again and you may be able to work out who it is!
 
How about DidTheyReadIt.com ?
I think that has some tracing ability, but I can't say for sure as it's blocked at work.

Just tried them out. They are brazenly fronting about their magical email tracking - it's just an image in the email, exactly as I suggested in here earlier. Still requires the recipient to click the "download images" button in virtually any email client. Nowhere on their site does it mention this. Flippin' idiots.
 
Under The Malicious Communications Act a MalComm does not need to be threatening. It only needs to contain information which is untrue and known by the sender as likely to distress.

It is only triable by Summary Conviction (i.e. in the Magistrates Court) and therefore is subject to a 6 months time-bar. That is to say that the matter must be lodged in the Magistrate's Court no later than 6 months after the date of the offence or last in a series of offences.

The other option if there has been a course of conduct (i.e. more than one act) is action under The Prevention of Harassment Act 1997.

I would write to the Borough Commander explaining that this is causing psychological distress and that you find it impossible to believe that the Police cannot act under either the Mal Comms or PHA.
 
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