How to find the real source of emails

tracking down a virus source

[tedster]

I've been getting virus infected email attachments lately. They're clearly the result of the virus tearing through someone's Outlook address book. But the emails have falsified "From:" fields, so I don't know who is broadcasting these little gems.

Is their a way to get the real information about the source of such faked emails? For advertising spam I never bothered about it, but these viruses are a pain in the day, and someone I know has an infected machine.

[evinrude]

When viewing the full headers of an email, you can look at the "Received:" fields to track its origin

[tilt]

Outlook Express tends to hide a lot of the crufty headers. To view all of the headers for a message, select "properties" either with the right mouse button or from the file menu. From the properties dialog, select the "Details" tab. That shows all the headers. There's also a button labeled "message source" that shows all the headers and the message. (May be slightly different in Outlook)

You can usually find the originating server even if you can't find the originiting mailbox. Then you can send a letter to "postmaster" at the server and let them know.

[tedster]

Thanks for the help. I'm using Netscape Messenger, and the complete headers turned up in View > Headers > All. I never thought to look at that option before.

And now I have tracked the poor infected client who is sending me all the viruses.