Tracking an e-mail?

[ashdavid]

The situation is , someone sent an e-mail to work using a one off yahoo address from an internet cafe. But this tells me nothing as to who it is, I know you need an e-mail address to make one of these accounts ,so is there a way of finding that address out?

[Kronie]

How do you know it was from an internet cafe?

[Pete]

Yahoo addresses are pretty much throw-away accounts. In order to sign up, you need nothing in the way of personal identification.

This is why spammers use them, zero traceability.

[ashdavid]

How do you know it was from an internet cafe?
It is easy to find out where an e-mail was sent from.

Yahoo addresses are pretty much throw-away accounts. In order to sign up, you need nothing in the way of personal identification.

This is why spammers use them, zero traceability.
Oh crap. So there is no hope then?

[Pete]

If someone wanted to send an anonymous email, then you're right - you can't trace.

I just signed up for a Yahoo account. The only piece of identafiable information it wanted was a Zip code. And they're simple to pick up from anywhere on the web.

Yes, the sign up asks you for an alternative email, but you don't have to fill it in.

If this email is important, your next point of call would be the internet cafe to see if they have any records for who was using which computer at what time (or if they have a CC camera in operation).

The likelyhood is that they don't bother keeping track of who does what - which is why spammers will often use places like this.

[Titus213]

I would expect that an internet cafe would not give out any client lists even if they did keep one. At least not without a federal warrant of some kind.

[Kronie]

It is easy to find out where an e-mail was sent from.



Really? How? All your going to get is an IP address and that wont give you a physical location of where the email was sent. I'm curious to know how this is done.

[basroil]

Really? How? All your going to get is an IP address and that wont give you a physical location of where the email was sent. I'm curious to know how this is done.

It is easy to find out where an e-mail was sent from.


Oh crap. So there is no hope then?


As Kronie said, IP address generally doesn't tell you any useful information. Even if the IP address has contact information associated with it, that contact is either a legitimate host that has illegitimate actions does by people holding accounts there (i.e. your ISP), has fake contact info (used to be eastern europeans mainly, now the chinese), or the IP is spoofed/routed anyway and means nothing. If it came from an "internet cafe" (not sure how you got this info, i'm guessing an IP tracer that resolved to an smpt at a cafe), chances are it's a compromised computer that is just sending junk without anyone knowing.