Finding out the origin of an email message is not always as simple as looking up the message and reading who it is "from". This is especially true with emails you receive from senders you don't know. The problem is anyone can create a false identity or a fake address and use this as their sender information. For instance, someone could pretend to be a customer service representative from your bank in an attempt to scam you out of your money, etc.

Therefore, if you receive a suspicious email, and would like to find out the true origin of the electronic message, you will need to access the email message headers to discover the information you are looking for.

What are message headers? When you create an email, your e-message is processed by the email server at your Internet service provider (ISP). When your message is sent to another internet user who does not have a mailbox on the same server as you, the electronic mail server forwards the message to another email server. As the message moves through various mail servers, a new received header line is added to the message. It is not uncommon for the message to travel through numerous servers until it reaches the one where the mailbox of the recipient is located.

E-mail message headers contain a list of technical details regarding the email including:

- Who sent the message

- The software that was utilized to compose the message

- All of the email servers through which the message passed on its way to your inbox

Each of the above details can be extremely helpful when it comes to identifying problems with electronic mail or exposing sources of unsolicited commercial emails (UCE), also known as Spam. Unfortunately, spam has become an increasing problem on the Internet, and so has the nefarious practice of creating fake information in message headers, which is commonly known as spoofing.

How can you find message headers? In order to access the email headers you require, you will need to find out how to locate them through the program, web mail or e-mail provider where you have opened the questionable message. Each program and provider has their own method for displaying headers. To discover them with the service you are using, you can perform a general online query (I.E. "how to find email message headers in hotmail").