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How to Find the IP Address of an Email Sender

Identifying the origin of email messages

By Bradley Mitchell Bradley Mitchell Writer Massachusetts Institute of Technology University of Illinois An MIT graduate who brings years of technical experience to articles on SEO, computers, and wireless networking. lifewire's editorial guidelines Updated on May 10, 2021 Reviewed by Ryan Perian Reviewed by Ryan Perian Western Governors University Ryan Perian is a certified IT specialist who holds numerous IT certifications and has 12+ years' experience working in the IT industry support and management positions. lifewire's editorial guidelines Tweet Share Email Tweet Share Email

In This Article

Expand Jump to a Section Find IP Addresses in Headers Multiple 'Received' Lines Internet Email Services and IP Addresses This article explains how to find a sender's IP address in an email that you've received. The info you need is found in the email message's headers.

How to Find IP Addresses in Email Headers

Modern email clients often hide the headers from view. However, headers are always delivered along with the message contents. Most email clients provide an option to enable the display of these headers if desired. Internet email headers contain several lines of text. Some lines are labeled Received followed by the IP addresses of the sender's email server (from) and the receiving email server (by), as in the following example: Received: from teela.mit.edu (65.54.185.39)
by mail1.aol.com with SMTP; 30 Jun 2003 02:27:02 -0000 These lines of text are automatically inserted by email servers that route the message. If only one Received line appears in the header, you can be confident this is the actual IP address of the sender.

Understanding Multiple ' Received' Lines

In some situations, however, multiple Received lines appear in an email header. This happens when the message passes through multiple email servers. Some email spammers insert additional fake Received lines into the headers to confuse recipients. Identifying the correct IP address when multiple Received lines are involved requires a bit of detective work. If no faked information was inserted, the correct IP address is contained in the last Received line of the header. This is a simple rule to follow when looking at mail from friends and family. If faked header information was inserted by a spammer, different rules are applied to identify a sender's IP address. The correct IP address isn't contained in the last Received line because information faked by a sender appears at the bottom of an email header. To find the correct address: Start from the last Received line and trace the path taken by the message by traveling up through the header.The by location listed in each Received line should match the from location listed in the following Received line.Disregard any entries that contain domain names or IP addresses that don't match the rest of the header chain.The last Received line containing valid information contains the sender's true address. Many spammers send emails directly rather than through internet email servers. In these cases, all Received header lines except the first one are fake. The first Received header line contains the sender's true IP address in this scenario.

Internet Email Services and IP Addresses

Popular internet-based email services differ in their display of IP addresses in email headers. Use these tips to identify IP addresses in such emails. Google Gmail omits the sender's IP address from all headers. Instead, only the IP address of the Gmail mail server is shown in the Received line.Microsoft Outlook.com provides the IP address in the first Received header line.Emails from Yahoo contain the sender's IP address in the last Received entry. Was this page helpful? Thanks for letting us know! Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day Subscribe Tell us why! Other Not enough details Hard to understand Submit More from Lifewire How to View Full Message Headers in Mozilla Thunderbird How to View the Source of a Message in Apple Mail How to Use AOL Mail Through an Email Client 4 Ways to Find Your Roku IP Address (With or Without the Remote) What Is an IP Address? How to See Full Message Headers in iCloud Mail How to Forward an Email as an Attachment in Outlook DNS Servers: What Are They and Why Are They Used? What Is a Public IP Address? (and How to Find Yours) Email Headers Can Tell You About the Origin of Spam How to Access an Email Message Source in Outlook.com Differences Between the Email Body and the Header How to Find the Default IP Address of a Belkin Router How to View the Source of a Message in Gmail How to Use an IP Address to Find a MAC Address How to Send an Email With Any From: Address in Outlook Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up Newsletter Sign Up By clicking “Accept All Cookies”, you agree to the storing of cookies on your device to enhance site navigation, analyze site usage, and assist in our marketing efforts. Cookies Settings Accept All Cookies