To track an email, you can follow these main methods depending on whether you want to trace the sender's location or track email opens and interactions:
1. Tracing the Sender's Location via Email Headers
Every email contains hidden header information that records the path the email took and the IP addresses involved. Steps:
- Open the email you want to trace.
- Find and copy the full email header. How to do this depends on your email provider:
- Gmail: Open the email, click the down arrow next to "Reply," then select "Show Original."
- Yahoo: Open the email, click "More," then "View Full Header."
- Outlook/Hotmail: Open the email, click "Actions," then "View Message Source."
- Copy all header text.
- Paste the header into an email header analyzer tool (such as the one on WhatIsMyIPAddress.com).
- The tool will extract the sender's IP address.
- Use an IP lookup tool to find the approximate geographic location and ISP of the sender.
Note: This method can be thwarted if the sender forges headers or uses anonymizing services
2. Tracking Email Opens and Engagement
If you want to track whether a recipient opens your email or clicks links, you can use email tracking tools and services. Popular tools and approaches:
- Mailtrack for Gmail: Adds trackers to your emails and shows when and how many times the email was opened
- Chrome Extensions like Mailalert or Email Tracker: These integrate with Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc., to provide notifications when emails are opened and track link clicks
- Use tracking pixels: Small invisible images embedded in emails that notify you when the email is opened
- Use specialized email marketing or CRM software like HubSpot or MixMax to get detailed analytics on email opens, clicks, and recipient engagement
Summary
- To find out where an email came from, analyze the email header to get the sender's IP address and then look it up.
- To know if your sent email was opened or links clicked, use email tracking software or browser extensions that insert tracking pixels or monitor link activity.
These methods combined can give you both the origin of an email and insights into recipient interaction
