The e-mail system was developed for people to communicate with each other and so it is inherently an open system where everyone can communicate with everyone.

But e-mail senders do not always disclose exactly who they are or, more specifically, can hide who they really are. The level of sophistication with which a message is sent can be high and so it can be complex to understand a forged message, but the first step, which will carry a regular user a long way in finding the real source of an email, is described here.

The best way to understand the route an email has taken and who has sent it is by reading the e-mail header. This header is composed by commands inserted by the email systems and the e-mail servers through which the message has passed.

For example, to look at the header information in Microsoft Outlook, right click the message and click in Options. The header of the message will be displayed at the bottom of the window and will provide a lot of useful information to find out if the senders of the messages are who they say they are.

If you want to further analyze an e-mail, its sender or validity, you can contact us at info@nextstepnetworks.com