The reasons it’s hard and the steps to take.
You probably don’t.
Hotmail (now Outlook.com) is one of the most used and abused mail systems on the planet. The problem is much greater than Outlook.com, though. Almost any free email service can be abused like this.
And very few, if any, will help you find out who owns an email address on their system.
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Finding the owner of an email address
You probably cannot.
- It’s easy to create an email account with false information.
- It’s easy to fake the “From:” address.
- IP addresses are both imprecise and easily obscured.
- Even when information is not fake, email services will not divulge it.
- Law enforcement may be able to compel disclosure, if warranted.
- You might simply ask or search for the email address online.
- Avoid online services claiming to find people.
- Best practice is to delete, mark as spam, or set up a filter to dispose of such messages.
It’s so easy!
First, let’s look at why it’s so hard to determine the actual owner of a free email account.
Sign up for a new account at your favorite free provider, and as you’re doing so, lie about everything. Make up every bit of information it asks for when creating the account. Make sure it’s all completely bogus.1
When you’re done, you’ll have a working email account with no information relating to you in any way. None.
There’s no way to tell who the owner of a free email account is from the account information.
“From:” isn’t always from
It’s trivially easy to fake the “From:” address on an email.
What this means is the email address you see might have nothing at all to do with the email. Even if you could somehow track down that email address’s owner, they would have no idea what you were talking about since they didn’t send the email.
This is exceptionally common in spam, and I discuss it further in “From” Spoofing: How Spammers Send Email That Looks Like It Came From You.
What about the IP address?
There’s one thin thread of information that might give a clue: the IP address from which the account was created or from which it’s being signed into.
Chances are it won’t help at all. Even if you know the IP address, it doesn’t tell you nearly enough. I have more detail in What Can People Tell from My IP Address?, but in summary:
- Public IP address information does not specify a name or specific location. It specifies a device — usually a router somewhere — connected to the internet. All the computers in a home, a library, or a business could appear to be at the same IP address of the router they share.
- The IP address can also be hidden using a VPN service or TOR, and of course the IP address could change.
- You’d need the email service to tell you the IP address used, which for reasons of privacy they would not.
About that privacy thing
Privacy is a double-edged sword. We want our privacy, but we’re more than willing to breach someone else’s privacy if we feel threatened or think they’ve wronged us.
I’m sure you don’t want random people tracking you down by your email address, and yet that’s exactly what you’re asking to do here.
Email service providers do not know whether or not your complaint is legitimate. They have no way to evaluate whether they should allow you to see the information you’re requesting. The result is, even if the account in question was created with totally accurate information with no attempt to hide anything, email services will not give you any information beyond what the account holder makes public.2
Except…
Legalities
If the emails you’re getting run afoul of some law in your jurisdiction, you can contact the police or other appropriate authorities.
In fact, I probably would. (Caveat: I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice.)
The issue, of course, is that what you consider strange, annoying, or even harassing may not be illegal. Put another way, that email you’re concerned about might be totally legal.
Only an attorney or the police can advise you on that.
If it meets the criteria to be illegal, then law enforcement might get a court order to have the service release the information — if the information is even available and if it’s serious enough for them to spend their limited resources on it.
Straws to grasp at
There are two things in your control you might try. I don’t recommend them, but want to include them to be complete.
You might just ask. Depending on the email, you might reply and ask who this person is. The risk, and the reason I don’t recommend this, is you’re probably replying to spam and will get more spam as a result, or you might reply to a scammer, who’ll then use the opportunity to string you along further. That’s why I say this approach really depends on the email.
You might search for the email address. The reason I don’t recommend this is that, as I mentioned above, the “From:” address could be fake, and any information you find online will have nothing to do with your situation. On the other hand, I’ve occasionally found surprising amounts of information simply by Googling an email address.
Straws to avoid
Avoid online services claiming to find people for you.
When you search for an email address or name, you’re likely to encounter ads for services that claim to be able to find anyone. Some may be legitimate, but will string you along until you find they require payment to get the results they supposedly have. Others are scams and skip right to the “payment required” step.
This is where a quick phone call to your attorney might be in order. If nothing else, they may be able to either perform the search using trusted tools they have access to or recommend a tool for you to use directly.
Do this
The pragmatic answer is no, you cannot tell who owns an email account if they don’t want to be found.
If you’re receiving harassing, threatening, or otherwise potentially illegal email, then involve the authorities.
Otherwise, I recommend you mark the email as spam or junk and remember that the Delete key is your friend. I would delete the mail immediately and ignore it completely.
If the problem persists and it’s from the same sender, then if your email program supports it, I’d create a rule or filter to auto-delete the email from that address as it arrives.
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I would like to find a out if my friend has a hotmail account. All I have is a name, is this even possible? Could u please help me?
I know of no way to find a person on Hotmail with only their name.
Remember, they may simply not use their name in their hotmail registration, or there could be 100’s of people with the same name, or they may not have a Hotmail account at all.
Best you just ask your friend.
i have a hotmail account and regularly correspond with another hotmail user.
a week back i received an offensive email from an unknown person having a hotmail account.
when i traced the IP using the advanced header option in hotmail, i found that my contact and this person had the same X-IP sender’s address.
i am shocked and wondering if the same ip address can be shared by two different people
please advise
Certainly. Sometimes all computers for a single corporation “appear” as a single IP address on the internet. More commonly homes with multiple computers that use a router all appear as the same IP address. (I have seven or eight machines here – yet they all appear as a single IP on the internet).
So it really depends on the specifics of the IP and how your friend connects to the internet. But it’s possible.
That’s this article: http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_find_someones_email_address.html
Sharon: that’s a legal question, and I’m no lawyer. You’ll need to consult with your attorney.
Someone i work with has set up an email account with hotmail and is using it to send malicious emails about employees to other companies regarding supposed illegal practices. It is causing distress to several work employees. Is there anyway to try and track it at all?
Only by involving the police.
hi, I’d really like to know if I can find someone’s e-mail adress if I have all the details about them. Please help me I’m desperate!
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That’s this article:
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_find_someones_email_address.html
Leo
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I have been receiving harrassing emails from a hotmail account. I have emailed abuse@hotmail.com as to notify them about it. However I want to do some investigating on my own part. The problem is that I copied the emails through outlook from one account to another for safe keeping. They emailed my work address and I wanted to remove the malicious emails from my work computer so I transferred the info to my hotmail account by a simple click and drag. Is there a way to get the original header information back? Thanks
Here are some free people and email address search resources :
http://www.people.yahoo.com
http://www.whitepages.com
Or find the person through military, college or professional affiliations :
http://www.militaryconnections.com – for military personnel
http://www.facebook.com – finding college students.
To read more on :
1. What email address trace and reverse email lookup is
2. 5 Tips on how to find someones email address, or email lookup.
http://www.squidoo.com/how-to-find-someones-email-address/
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You contact the police.
Leo
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Hello Leo!!
I read your article, it seem impossible to find someone by his email adress. But I really want to find back his information what could I do?? His email is now desactivate for 3 years now, I was not able to respond to her and her adress is inactive now..
All I have is her first name, her email adress, and some basic information like her puppet name and her badminton racket name and the name of the shop she was working but I dunno where because there are a lot other store like the one she was working..
So, if I was able to find his informations with his email and have his last name it would be wonderful.. and I have all the emails which we correspond..
I would give you a lot of beer lol..
Thanks anyway..
Sam
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No beer for me.
You can try this article:
http://ask-leo.com/how_do_i_find_someones_email_address.html
but I believe it’s a lost cause.
Leo
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hi, i am the member of a family site, to which we all have our own individual pages. recently i got a pendin friends request and a name i recognised i therefore accepted only to find that the profile was completely made up but contained a few pics of a real friend of mine. the parson who created the fake profile had incorrect and nasty information on there about my friend and had altered the pics of her, they had also joined her to a group of transvestites that dont exist. this is an arguement that has spilled over from another site in which i have contact with my friend. hope this is makin sense so far, anyway, as this is a family site and the pics and information were inappropriate i blocked and deleted the profile. reported it to the site in question and also informed my friend what had happened. i have the email address that was used to create the fake profile but cant seem to get anywhere when tryin to find out who this person or persons really are.
can u help.
would appreiciate an email back.
x
if we knw the email addree(hotmail) can we find out the ip addressof the account and the actual computer tht has been used to create the account??? i really need to find out abt this as one of my friend has been threatened by someone!!! plz.. thank you!!!!!
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Nope. If you’re being harassed, contact the authorities.
Leo
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Hi, i belive that this info is wrong, you can find out the ip, the ip can tell you the location of the computer. and if it is from a library you could check the time you got the mail and hope that the library can tell you who sat at the computer at that time. in some librarys (in swe) you have to tell those who work there your name before you sit down at a computer.
-Leo
As I’ve said over and over and over again, unless you are the police with a court order an IP address will NOT tell you the physical location of a computer.
-Leo
There’s actually a way to find the location of a computer based on Ip address, for free, without being an authority or acquiring a court order, getting at least where the computer is connecting to (which ISP and where in the world it is) by going to http://www.ip2location.com/free.asp and putting the IP address that you got from the email header (which should be viewed in full details).
Specifically, ip2location above is 15 miles wrong for my IP address. In a populated area that narrows my location down to one of a few hundred thousand households.
-Leo
I tried this. Said I was in Germantown, Maryland, -I’m in Illinois. But, it did get my provider right.
I just found out that my husband was cheating. How can I find out if he has e-mail addresses that I don’t know about (example, Hotmail, AOL, Yahoo, etc.)? For some reason I think this person and him are still in contact, but I need to prove it first. I really hope that you can help me. I just need to find somehow that I can search by whatever means to see if there’s any e-mail addresses out these established with the same info.
IMO, your only real hope is if your husband is using a computer you have access to, in which case you could take it to someone who’s good at computer forensics to see if he’s left traces on it. Naturally this’d probably cost money.
-Leo
I know what the IP address for my personal computer is. There seems to have been a hotmail account created in my name. Can I find out what computer it was created on? I want to know if it is connected to my personal computer.
09-Dec-2008
FYI… IP addresses change all of the time. ISPs no longer honor static IP addresses to the general pop. The only thing that is truly static is your MAC address. Today your IP address could be one number, and tomorrow, it could be something totally different. Just FYI
Thanks, Leo. Great work on the article. And I like the tip jar idea, especially the “Buy Leo a Latte!” slogan. I’ll think about it.
I know this article was posted back in 2005, so to bring the future forensic scientists up-to-date, when investigating mail supposedly from a Hotmail, Live, or similar Microsoft e-mail address, look for “X-Originating-IP” in the mail headers. All of these accounts will generate it if the mail is actually sent thru them.
Leo is right; you usually can’t find out specifics on the person or even the computer it was created on without assistance. However, political pressure has put some investigational committees to work on our behalf. So since our tax dollars are going to them whether we use them or not, if you want to respond to spam effectively, let’s learn how to use them.
First of all, if you are receiving the legal form of spam (the kind that properly identifies who it’s from and how to stop receiving it) and you actually had some form of interaction with the company associated with it, simply unsubscribe. There will be instructions in the e-mail for how to do it.
Now, to report the illegal spam, forward the spam to “spam@uce.gov”. And don’t forget to include all of the e-mail header information. For illegal Microsoft mail account related spam, forward it to “report_spam@hotmail.com” also.
If you are feeling a little more agressive, you can usually report the illegal activity to the company controlling the server from which it came and, in instances involving Hotmail, to the ISP involved. First, determine the IP address of the mail server. This is usually the first IP address in the e-mail headers. Next, look up the “whois” information on the company that controls IP address; for example, copy and paste the IP address to the search box at “http://ws.arin.net/whois/”. The example doesn’t work 100% of the time, but is usually sufficient. A majority of results will be responsible enough to include an e-mail address for reporting unsavory practices, such as illegal spam. Just look for the word “spam” or “abuse” and forward the spam to that address, again being sure to include e-mail headers. Repeat the above process to report Hotmail spam to the ISP provider, this time using the IP address from the mail headers labelled “X-Originating-IP”.
The more timely your reporting of illegal spam, the better chances the authorities involved have to do something about it.
I find you to be a good teacher. Will you kindly tell me why the analysis of “(1)http://www.iplocation.net/ ” and “(2)http://whatismyipaddress.com/trace-email” differs. I have pasted (as per their instruction) the header into their finder box and the first one says the email in question comes from inside USA, while the other says it comes from Mauritia. I find http://whatismyipaddress.com/trace-email to be more logical. Am I correct. I wish you will time time to answer me. Thanks
Is there really still no possibility to find out who is writing to you when you have got at least 50 e-mails and more from one hotmail address? I have been in contact with a person for over a year and in the end… he is not the person he said he was. He does not exist. His name is not correct. He does not work where he said he worked. And he freaks me out. I mean. He can say scary stuff. Police knows about it, but they still do not think it is dangerous. And it would take a looong time to get any information. But I live today and have my fears today……. Is there nothing I can do to get some information about this person? I have nothing…… because nothing was correct…..
The only way you would be able to get this information is with intervention from law enforcement and a court order. Since this is a legal and not a technical issue, you might want to contact a lawyer to find out your options.
Only by contacting law enforcement, and hoping that it’s important enough for them to spend their time on.
{removed}@outlook.com threatened to murder my 14 year old child. How do I find out who this person is?
In that situation, I’d contact the police. Any attempt to solve this on your own can be very dangerous.
I met a woman online about 6+ years ago. Through time and physical visits she moved cross country, or so I thought, to live with me. After 3 months I felt a very awkward tension between us and ended it abruptly. Since then, I’ve been hacked to a point of a complete life change. Lost my hone, jobs, friends, family , and it hasn’t stopped completely yet. I’ve done my own “investigations ” with great results but it stops at the point of making it factual. I’ve taken legal steps and that’s a joke. I think she actually secretly purchased the house I lost. Without the next step I’m stuck. IP and geo locations could possibly be the key.
The only way that would work is by getting law enforcement involved as only they can get access to those records.
Hi.I have been receiving threats from someone I met .He Asked for my email address saying he was interested in knowing more about a charity I support.Sending texts saying he can find out everything about me.Address,social media history.If I am on a dating site etc,etc .Creepy ! Is it possible he could achieve this please Leo ?
I suggest you Google your name and see how much information there is out there on you. Other than that information, there’s not much else he can find. Fortunately, for you, there is an actress with your name and probably many others with that name,
Is it possible? Sure. Is it likely? No, not at all.
Leo this hotmail p*************9@hotmail.com
hacked my facebook account and I can’t retrieve my password
Pls help me out and send it to me
We cannot recover hacked accounts, lost or forgotten passwords. Please see these articles for more information on your options:
https://askleo.com/how_do_i_recover_my_facebook_log_in_password/ and/or
https://askleo.com/how-do-i-recover-my-hacked-facebook-account/
I’m closing comments on this article because they’re consistently questions that are answered in the article itself.
I’ll say it again: read the article. Thank you.
Leo