Trace Gmail Email
When someone sends you an anonymous harassing email, you will want to find the IP address of the sender to reveal the sender’s identity. With that IP address, you can perform a simple geo-lookup to find the generalized location of the email sender. Both Yahoo! Mail and Hotmail include the IP address of the sender in outgoing message headers but if your antagonist is using Gmail, or Gmail for Google Apps, their IP address likely won’t be included in the message. In some cases though, it will include the sender’s IP address. But there are ways to trace Gmail email.
Trace Gmail Email Account Owner
Gmail MAY include the sender’s IP address
Gmail doesn’t include the IP address of the sender when the sender is using Gmail’s web interface to send an email. However, if he or she is using a desktop client (like Microsoft Outlook) or a mobile device to send that email, the IP address is often included in the outgoing message.
The above image shows the IP address of the sender, who sent an email from their phone.
The above image shows the IP address of the sender, who used Microsoft Outlook to send the email from a Gmail address.
To trace Gmail email, follow the steps below to find out if the Gmail email you want to trace includes the sender’s IP address.
- Click the three dots at the right corner of the email
- Click on “show original”
- Click on “copy to clipboard” and paste it into an email to send to you.
- OR select all the code, right-click copy, and paste it into an email.
If you have found an IP address, go to Infosniper.net, enter the IP address, and that will give you a location, such as a city the sender is in. Please note that an IP address doesn’t give you much more than an approximate location of where the sender might be at that time. Through an IP address trace you can get basic details like the:
- The Internet Service Provider (ISP)
- Country
- Region / State
- City
- and more.
If the sender is hiding behind a VPN or proxy, the IP address will give you a false location. Most IP-lookup services will tell you if it’s a VPN.
How to Trace Emails from Gmail
If you want to trace Gmail email, but it doesn’t include the sender’s IP address, there are two other options to trace Gmail email account owner.
Social Engineering
Our cyber crime investigators use a combination of high-tech expertise and old-fashioned instinct to trace Gmail email to account owners. We can obtain an IP address of any email address, as long as the email address is still active.
Then, using our report and affidavit, you can subpoena the Internet Service Provider to release the customer information related to that IP address. If you decide to take the Gmail email account owner to court, we will testify in court if need be.
You don’t need to subpoena if you have a suspect, which can save you a lot of time and money. We can also rule in, or rule out a suspect and give you the evidence you need to make your antagonist stop harassing you.
Subpoena Internet Service Provider
The other, more costly and time-consuming way is to subpoena Google to obtain the IP address. Then you need to subpoena the internet service provider (ISP) that belongs to that IP address. This information is critical. This IP address data from an ISP can reveal someone’s identity and address.
But ISPs want to protect their customers and don’t easily hand over this customer information. That is why you can only get this data through a court order, which a lawyer or law enforcement can obtain.
We can help your lawyers or law enforcement with the wording of the request by ghostwriting the subpoena for them. This reduces your lawyers’ costs and increases the likelihood of obtaining the information you need because we know exactly what to ask for.
Tracing an Email Sender’s Location Through Social Media Platforms
Another method worth trying out before you engage investigators or lawyers, is to see if you can trace the location of an email sender by doing a search for this email address on social media or search engines. The email owner may have used the email address to register social media accounts, which may lead you closer to finding out a name and, or, location.
A great tool for this is Spokeo.
Trace Gmail Email to End Harassment
Harassment by email is, unfortunately, a very common form of anonymous harassment. It is easy and quick to set up an anonymous email account with Google, Hotmail, Yahoo, or Protonmail. We deal with clients all the time, who are suffering from months, if not years, of anonymous harassment and torment. But know that there are ways to end this harassment by finding out who is responsible, and holding this person accountable. Here are is a case study of a client, who was harassed through different Protonmail email addresses. Even though the user would set up a new Protonmail email addres after using it, we were still able to trace it back to the suspect of our client. We provided her with the evidence she needed to take this person to court and bring an end to the harassment.
