Email Investigations. Our forensic analysts are often asked how to find out who is behind an email address and how to get a user’s IP Address from email. If this is something you’d like to understand, read on!
The reality is, it takes quite a bit of time and technical work to try and identify an anonymous offender or scammer hiding behind an email address. Whilst it can be reasonably easy for someone to register an email account anonymously, Cybertrace has the capability of investigating any email address or email account. Some techniques we use for a certain email provider, such as Hotmail or Gmail may not work for others like Yahoo or Proton Mail. So we constantly adapt our approach and continue to find innovative ways to investigate email addresses.
Our team is known globally for our capabilities in identifying cyber criminals, scammers, and anonymous offenders. And of course, revealing who is behind an email account is often part of this type of investigation.
Why would I need to trace an email account?
There are many potential reasons why someone might need to trace an email account. Perhaps you’ve sent money to a romance scammer, or been the victim of a cryptocurrency investment scam. Or maybe you’ve received harassing and threatening emails from someone trying to extort or cyberbully you. Cybertrace often investigates email addresses responsible for invoice scams, a very sophisticated type of fraud that redirects a business’ client’s funds by providing a fraudulent invoice. Others may receive an anonymous email claiming their spouse has been unfaithful to them. Claims like this can be really damaging to an individual’s mental health and personal relationship. We’ve found that in the majority of cases, claims of infidelity are untrue, yet can cause significant uncertainty and damage.
Whatever the situation is, when all you have is an email address, it can leave you worried, stressed, and feeling very uncomfortable. Don’t suffer alone, contact us today to find out how we can help you.
How to trace an email account
There are some basic things you can try to do yourself, and you’ll find a lot of recommendations online. However, most of the recommendations you’ll find, are things like, “just ask the person who they are” or “google the email address”. And it is pretty obvious that simply asking or Googling the email address is very unlikely to render any real results.
Most email providers have a function that allows the user to reset their password in case they have forgotten it. And, I’m sure all of us have had to reset a password before right? Depending on the email provider, you may be able to work through the ‘forgotten password’ prompts to try and see if the platform reveals any recovery contact details linked to the offending email address. Identifying a partially revealed phone number or recovery email address linked to the account can be quite helpful, especially if you have someone you suspect may be behind the email address.
Comparing the writing styles of the offender and someone you may suspect can also provide valuable clues as to who might be responsible.
So what can Cybertrace actually do?
Quite a lot! With years of experience in investigating extremely complex global fraud, scams, and cyberbullying cases, we’ve honed our skills in email investigations. In the majority of cases, our team can collect the IP address of the offender or scammer. And we have a very high success rate in confirming the identity of the operator of the email address.
With forensic email investigation capabilities, our investigators have the capability to identify who is behind an anonymous email account. In fact, we’ve even developed some of our technical tracking tools to assist in email investigations. Whilst we don’t want to disclose all our specialised techniques, our investigations often include some of the following:
- Identifying linked recovery contact details
- Analysing the email content
- Investigations of any suspects
- Sending tracked emails
- Conducting social engineering
- Sending specialised tracking links
- Email header analysis
- Searches of international investigative databases
- Identifying linked profiles and social media accounts
- Identifying linked content, such as Google reviews
Collecting an IP address for the offender can be a powerful piece of evidence to have. But to use an IP address to confirm the identity of the person behind the email address, it takes expert analysis and other email forensic techniques. In the majority of email investigation cases, social engineering needs to be carefully used to collect evidence relating to the offender. In this context, social engineering refers to the art of creating a situation where an offender is likely to engage with tracking technology or reveal information that can be used to identify them.
Analysis of email header records is always conducted as part of any Cybertrace anonymous email investigation. However, many major email providers, such as Gmail, have strict security. Meaning that if our forensic investigators identify the originating IP address, it will not relate to the sender. Instead, it will relate to a Gmail proxy server. Proton Mail is loved by cyber criminals and is known for the anonymity it provides. Despite Gmail having strict security and Proton Mail is known for allowing users to operate anonymously, we still have the capability to investigate these email accounts to identify the offender.
So if you need to know how to find out who is behind an email address, contact our team of cyber investigators today for a confidential discussion.
