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Ok, so you are emailing back and forth for a foreign intern, house swap or even a bride/husband.  Our advice is to use registered and reliable agencies but if you have decided to undergo this task yourself , perhaps you’ve come across an incredible Craigslist post, we suggest you take the initial steps of verifying the person’s email address.   That should give you a handle on whether you are communicating with a scammer or have lucked upon a true find.  

How to Find an IP Address  

The below information, on backtracking an IP address is intended for Gmail, Yahoo mail and Hotmail but will also work for a few other web-based email servers. Try the options folder if none apply.  

Finding IP address in Yahoo! Mail  

1. First of all log into your Yahoo! mail with your username and password.
2. Click on Inbox or whichever folder you have stored your mail.
3. Open the mail.
4. On the top-right side of the mail page, there is a hyperlink that says Full Headers. Click on it.
5. If you see Brief Headers and not Full Headers, then ignore step 4, and jump to step 6.
6. Look at the headers that are now displayed above the message.
7. Read the Received: headers and search for IP addresses between square brackets like this [ ].
8. Look at the example below on how to read the IP address.

Finding IP address in Hotmail  

1. Log into your Hotmail with your username and password

1. Click on Inbox or whichever folder you have stored your mail.
2. Open the mail.
3. If you do not see the headers in the mail, click on the Options hyperlink
4. On the Options page, click on the Mail button and then on the Mail Display Settings hyperlink
5. You should see the Message Headers here as
   None Basic Full Advanced
6. Select Full and click on the Ok button.
7. Go back to the mail.
8. Review the headers that are now displayed above the message.
9. Read Received: headers and search for IP addresses between square brackets like this [ ].
10. Look at the example below on how to read the IP address.

Finding IP address in Gmail  

1. Log into your Gmail account with your username and password.

1. Open the mail.
2. To display the email headers, click on the inverted triangle beside Reply. Select Show Original.
3. Look for Received: from followed by the IP address between square brackets [ ].

What you should see:  

Return-path:
Received: from mta17.srv.hcvlny.cv.net
 (mta17.srv.hcvlny.cv.net [167.206.5.111]) by mstr4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net
 (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 1.25 (built Nov  5 2009 ))
 with ESMTP id <0IC700HD6S9R3Q@mstr4.srv.hcvlny.cv.net> for
 ; Sun, 26 Sep 2009 09:29:52 -0500 (EST)
Received: from aqua.relinfo.ru (ns.mari-el.ru [195.161.208.130])
 by mta17.srv.hcvlny.cv.net
 (iPlanet Messaging Server 5.2 HotFix 1.25 (built Mar  3 2009 ))
 with ESMTP id <0IC7000M5S9P4V@mta17.srv.hcvlny.cv.net> 
; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:29:51 -0500 (EST)
Received: from 36.214.dialup.mari-el.ru (36.214.dialup.mari-el.ru [195.161.214.36])
 by aqua.relinfo.ru (8.12.11/8.12.11) with ESMTP id j1KEPeNQ036650 for
 ; Sun, 26 Sep 2010 17:27:56 +0300 (MSK envelope-from alena_cmok@mail.ru)
Date: Sun, 26 Sep 2010 17:24:48 +0300
From: Alena <alena_cmok@mail.ru>
Subject: Re: Hello
In-reply-to: <004e01c516fb$281033c0$15755143@hfcldbwlwttqne>
To: ****
Reply-to: Alena
Message-id: <15143372.20050220172448@mail.ru
MIME-version: 1.0
X-Mailer: The Bat! (v2.10.01) Educational
etc etc etc…  

Review the last IP from the “RECEIVED FROM” lines. Sometimes there is one, often many.  In this email header, you can see this IP – 195.161.214.36 – in the last “RECEIVED FROM” line. Sometimes there is an “X-ORIGINATING IP” at the top of the header. Until you are familiar enough to select the final IP address, check all.  

You can check the IP address here:  

http://www.dnsstuff.com/
  

http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.htm
  

http://ws.arin.net/cgi-bin/whois.pl
  

Related Articles  

• How to tell if your Gmail account was hacked (backupify.com)

 BNI Operatives: Street smart, web savvy.  

As always, stay safe.