identify yahoo e-mail sender?

[sammyg2]

Someone recently sent an e-mail to my company using a --------@yahoo.com e-mail address. Is there any way (without a court order) to identify who sent it or where it came from?

[singpilot]

Try calling, or emailing Yahoo. Especially if there is something threatened.

[John Rogers]

Did you try the hints noted here: http://www.usus.org/elements/tracing.htm

[RickM]

Are you able to view Full Headers? That'll give you more info that you may want to document. You can also try a lok-up on the Yahoo Member Directory. There may be a profile associated with the Email.

[juanbenae]

were they trying to sell you prescrption drugs? i get those a couple times a week. go through outlook email and put them on a blocked list, but it's another each time.

by the way, i can get viagra for a song.

[87coupe]

The problem is existence of SMTP servers that act as an open relay. Anyone with some basic knowledge of the SMTP protocol can format an email that can appear to be from any address they like - header and all. One could easily send an email out as billg @microsoft.com or any other address they choose. All you need is the IP of an open relay, and a telnet connection over port 25.

The better route for tracking down the source is via IP, however with free / open internet access in so many public places you will likely not get to the originating source. Also, anyone doing anything suspect (spamming / phishing / hacking) is likely running their traffic through a random proxy, making IP tracing extremely difficult.

[EdT82SC]

For those that don't understand what Brandon is saying:

SMTP - Simple Mail Transport Protocol - the way mail is sent around the internet

Some unsecure mail servers allow anyone to send a message as anyone. So those emails from yahoo.com could really be coming from an unsecure mail server in South Korea or the Ukraine.