Summary: Finding out who owns a Hotmail account is nearly impossible.
I keep getting "strange" emails from someone using a Hotmail account. How do I find out who they really are?
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Hotmail is one of the most used, and abused, mail systems on the planet. One of the reasons that's so is that it's nearly impossible to tell who really owns a Hotmail account.
There are situations where I believe it's possible to find the owner of a Hotmail account, but it's difficult, and you won't like what it takes.
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First, let's look at why it's so hard to determine the owner of a Hotmail, Yahoo, GMail ... or any free email account for that matter.
Sign up for one, and as you're doing so, lie. Lie about everything. I mean make up every last bit of information that Hotmail asks you for when you create an account. Make sure it's all completely bogus. When you're done, you'll have a working Hotmail account that has no information that would relate to you in any way. None.
So if someone creates a Hotmail account this way, there's no way to tell who they really are from the account information, because like you just did, they could have just made it all up.
There's one, small, thin thread of information that might give a clue, however: The IP address from which the account was created. And it may not help at all. Why? An IP address does not specify a name or a location, only a computer. The IP address could change, it could be a router or proxy server for thousands of users, or the computer could be a public computer, such as those at a library. And, of course, you'd need the folks out at Hotmail to tell you what IP address had been used.
The upshot is that an IP address is not a way for normal folk like you and me to identify anyone. And as such an IP address is useless to you and me to identify a Hotmail account owner.
If, and it's a big if, an IP address could be traced to a specific user or location, it requires the cooperation of the ISPs and perhaps others involved. Due to privacy laws, ISPs will not divulge this information to anyone without a good reason. And "a good reason" usually means that a) the account was used for something illegal, b) you involve law enforcement, and c) they then turn around and get a court order to have the ISP, or other entities, release the information - if the information is even available.
Remember also that many spammers and viruses masquerade as email coming from Hotmail accounts. Even if you could track down the owner of the account, they might not even have been involved.
The practical answer is: no, you cannot tell who owns a Hotmail account.
So what do you do?
If you're receiving harassing, threatening or otherwise potentially illegal email, then by all means, involve the appropriate authorities.
Otherwise, the delete key is your friend. My approach would be to delete the mail immediately and ignore it completely. If your email program supports it, I'd even create a rule to automatically delete the mail from that account as it arrives, or blacklist it on my spam filter.
Related:
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Are free email services worth it? Free email services and accounts are convenient and ubiquitous. But free email services aren't the right place to keep your important information.
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What can people tell from my IP address? People can tell very little from your IP address. They cannot, for example, tell who or where you are. How much they can tell varies a great deal.
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Someone's sending from my email address! How do I stop them?! Email spoofing is rampant. Spammers often send email that looks like it came from you. And there's little you can do about it.
Article C2404 - August 17, 2005
FYI... IP addresses change all of the time. ISPs no longer honor static IP addresses to the general pop. The only thing that is truly static is your MAC address. Today your IP address could be one number, and tomorrow, it could be something totally different. Just FYI
Posted by: jawanzal at January 9, 2009 11:39 AMHey I was writing to find out about an add request I got and the emial address is
Posted by: Jennifer Sturtevant at October 15, 2009 3:05 PM[email address removed]
I need to find out is this really a person or is it spam. I don't want to accept unless it is someone I know. Is there a way to find out if this is spam or not? thanks jen
I want to find out email address of a person who lives in India.How do I do it? His email address is with Hotmail. That I know
Posted by: Seesan at November 28, 2009 8:53 AMThanks, Leo. Great work on the article. And I like the tip jar idea, especially the "Buy Leo a Latte!" slogan. I'll think about it.
I know this article was posted back in 2005, so to bring the future forensic scientists up-to-date, when investigating mail supposedly from a Hotmail, Live, or similar Microsoft e-mail address, look for "X-Originating-IP" in the mail headers. All of these accounts will generate it if the mail is actually sent thru them.
Leo is right; you usually can't find out specifics on the person or even the computer it was created on without assistance. However, political pressure has put some investigational committees to work on our behalf. So since our tax dollars are going to them whether we use them or not, if you want to respond to spam effectively, let's learn how to use them.
First of all, if you are receiving the legal form of spam (the kind that properly identifies who it's from and how to stop receiving it) and you actually had some form of interaction with the company associated with it, simply unsubscribe. There will be instructions in the e-mail for how to do it.
Now, to report the illegal spam, forward the spam to "spam@uce.gov". And don't forget to include all of the e-mail header information. For illegal Microsoft mail account related spam, forward it to "report_spam@hotmail.com" also.
If you are feeling a little more agressive, you can usually report the illegal activity to the company controlling the server from which it came and, in instances involving Hotmail, to the ISP involved. First, determine the IP address of the mail server. This is usually the first IP address in the e-mail headers. Next, look up the "whois" information on the company that controls IP address; for example, copy and paste the IP address to the search box at "http://ws.arin.net/whois/". The example doesn't work 100% of the time, but is usually sufficient. A majority of results will be responsible enough to include an e-mail address for reporting unsavory practices, such as illegal spam. Just look for the word "spam" or "abuse" and forward the spam to that address, again being sure to include e-mail headers. Repeat the above process to report Hotmail spam to the ISP provider, this time using the IP address from the mail headers labelled "X-Originating-IP".
The more timely your reporting of illegal spam, the better chances the authorities involved have to do something about it.
Posted by: David L. Burkhart at December 9, 2009 9:17 AMi have a question and i hope you can answer it , how can i get the e-mail address from :
Posted by: doyant at January 13, 2010 7:43 AM1-name user
2-from my contacts networks