Identifying or unmasking anonymous email senders isn’t just about satisfying a whim. It’s your first line of defense against spam, sophisticated scams, and all sorts of online threats.
This guide will share with you the step-by-step process of conducting an effective email owner lookup. You’ll discover all the best tools and techniques alongside the limitations and challenges to prepare for.
How Do I Find Out Who Owns an Email Address
There are many different ways to look up the owner of an email address. Here, we will discuss the most direct methods, using the email you received as your first step and tool.
Check Email Headers
A great first step to tracking down email address owners is learning how to read the email headers. Email headers typically have embedded data showing the entire path the email took to get to you. But you can’t view the entire email header immediately in most email platforms. You’ll need to view an entire new page or window to see it. Here are the steps to access and interpret email headers:
- Launch your email inbox.
- Click on the email you want to check. Depending on the email provider, you’re looking for the “More” button. Or in Outlook, the “File” button. Clicking on this opens up a dropdown. Look for an option that either says “show original,” “view the source code,” “show original email,” or “view raw message.”
- Identify the email sender from the “Received from” tag, beginning from the bottom as email headers are listed in chronological order.
- Scan to find information about the date and time the message was sent, the sender’s email address, server, and domain information.
Use Reverse Email Lookup Tools
Another fantastic solution to find out who owns that email is to use reverse email lookup tools. You need email address owner finder tools that can gather all the vital insights from a variety of public records and websites.
VerifyEmailAddress.org
This fantastic tool can look up an email address owner to uncover details like their name, address, and social media profiles. This email lookup service will connect you to the actual search tool, where you can find the details you need.
- Go to VerifyEmailAddress.
- Input the email address you want to check.
- Wait for the results.
Infotracer
Infotracer is also a great way to look up an email address owner with guaranteed positive results. Infotracer boasts of a library of over 100 million email addresses. So, your email owner lookup can yield valuable information such as the owner’s name, aliases, social profiles, phone numbers, and any images or videos associated with them.
- Go to the Infotracer.
- Input the email address and tap “Search.”
- Right away, you’ll find details like the IP address.
- Wait for the search to complete and pay the search fee to access the full report.
GetProspect
GetProspect also provides a fantastic way to search for email address owners. It’s used by sales and marketing teams around the world to authenticate the email addresses they have on their list. GetProspect provides a suite of lead generation tools like LinkedIn email scraping, reverse email lookup, email finder, and verifier. Using this tool, you’ll uncover the owner’s name, aliases, LinkedIn page, location, and associated social media profiles. To perform an email owner lookup using GetProspect:
- Go to GetProspect email lookup.
- Type in the email address and select “Find contact”.
- Check the results.
Search on Google
Google Search can also be a fantastic way to find out who owns an email. This search engine provides access to billions of records and web pages. Hence, it can help you search for an email address owner with decent results. To search using Google:
- Start by searching using the entire email directly in Google.
- Now combine the email address with keywords like profile, contact, or about. This can lead to social media profiles, contact pages, and other web pages mentioning the email address.
- Try using the “site:’ operator to search within specific websites. For instance, search using ‘site:linkedin.com “ericroberts@example.com”’ to find the email address on Linkedin.
- Also, use the “filetype:” operator to find specific documents such as resumes containing that email address. For example, you can search for ‘filetype: pdf “ericroberts@example.com.”
- If the email has a unique and recognizable domain name. For example, the email info@prospect.com means you can search for the domain “prospect.com.” Or newsletters@scientificamerican.com means you can search for scientificamerican.com. This can lead to a company website where you might find details about who sent the email.
- Also, use the “related:” operator to find websites that are similar to that domain name. For instance, ‘related:ericroberts.com’
Search on Social Media Search
Social media can also be a goldmine that aids your search for an email address owner. However, your tactics might differ slightly depending on the platform:
- On LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, search for the entire email address.
- Next, on all of these platforms, search using the name section of the email address without the @ area. For instance, janedoe@gmail.com becomes Jane Doe.
- Alternatively, if it’s a professional email, use the domain section.
- Look out for bio information, linked websites, posts, profile pages, and others that mention the address.
Check the Domain Name
It’s also possible to evaluate the domain name to track down email address owners. This is an advanced technique that can also prove reliable. Let’s talk about two popular ways to search for an email address owner.
WHOIS
Using the domain name of the email you received or your IP address, you can access more information about its owner. Here’s how it works:
- Go to the WHOIS domain lookup tool.
- Enter the domain name.
- Tap the “Search” button.
- Scroll down to view the registrant information. Note that some individuals may also make their information private which might limit your access.
ICANN Lookup
ICANN Lookup is also a great tool to find the owner of an email address. Depending on how public their information is, you’ll access the owner’s name, address, and other valuable insights. To use this tool:
- Go to ICANN Lookup.
- Type in the domain name.
- Next, tap on “Lookup.”
- Browse through the results, especially the Registrar information section.
Use a Browser extension
If you are a marketing professional or lead generation specialist, you will benefit from a more streamlined approach to carrying out your email owner search. That’s why browser extensions are perfect solutions. They allow you to find contact information for specific individuals, alongside valuable data like their job titles, company details, and social media profiles.
Skrapp.io
Skrapp.io is a Chrome extension primarily focused on LinkedIn and company websites to uncover B2B contact information. It’s also great for email owner search. Specifically, Skrapp.io has a dedicated email verifier tool you can use to confirm who owns a particular email address. Here’s how to use it:
- Go to the Skrapp website and tap on “Install for Chrome.”
- This redirects to your browser web store.
- There, tap “Add to Chrome” and confirm by clicking on “Add extension.”
- Next, you’ll be prompted to create an account with Skrapp.
- Now whenever you are on LinkedIn or a company website, you can find emails connected to particular people.
- However, to verify email, tap on “Email verifier” within the Skrapp.io dashboard.
- Next, input the Email and click on “verify.”
Snov.io
Snov.io is a broader sales and marketing platform with a dedicated extension as part of their key lead generation tools. Here’s how to use the Snov.io email finder extension:
- Go to the Snov.io extension and tap on “Install Email Finder.”
- This redirects to the Chrome Web Store where you should click on the “Add to Chrome” and confirm by further clicking on “Add extension.”
- Once it’s installed, you need to sign up.
- After setting up your account, you’ll be redirected to your Snov homepage.
- To verify that email, simply go to the “Verifier” tab.
- Next, type in the email and tap on “Verify email.”
- Wait for the verification process to complete.
IP Address Tracking
Another way to find the owner of an email address is by tracking the IP address. The email header also contains the IP address which you can use to verify all the paths the email took to get to you. However, do note that if it’s a personal email address, the IP address may not reveal details about the actual sender but the service provider. Even so, IP addresses can also help verify if the email has come from servers used for cybersecurity hacking attempts.
- Use the earlier method we shared to view the entire email address.
- Look for the IP address that shows where the email came from.
- Now use an IP address lookup tool like Whois IP lookup to uncover the additional data.
- Wait for the results.
How to Find Business Owners Email for B2B
We’ve talked about effective measures to carry out an email owner lookup for any suspicious email you received. Now let’s talk about some complementary methods to find business owners of email for business-to-business communications.
Check the Company Website and “Contact” Page
If the email you received has a special domain name (after the@) that signals it’s from a website, you could check to see the company page. There, you can check the company’s “About Us” or “Team” page for lists of employees’ email addresses. For example, concerning the email you received from janedoe@prospect.com. You can check the domain. prospect.com has “About Us”, “Team,” or “Contact Us” pages that might list the information you need.
Check Industry Directories
Industry directories aren’t designed as email address owner finder tools. They also usually don’t have dedicated search buttons for that purpose. But you can still use these directories to achieve valid data about the email addresses you want to check. These sources are credible as they list legitimate businesses and professionals. Great examples include Yellow Pages, Crunchbase, Wellfound (formerly Angie’s List), etc. For example, using Wellfound:
- Use an email lookup tool or Google search to first check the companies the emails may have come from.
- Now, using the search button on Wellfound, check the directory listings for the companies or even the professionals.
- Visit the company page which typically lists access to the company’s website or other general contact information.
- On the company page, you can also go to the “People tab” and check who corresponds to your target email address.
- Usually, the target professional would still have the same email listed on their directory profile.
- Examine other contact details and messages to see if they match the content of your email.
- Even when the directory does not list the same email address, you can use what’s there or other contact information to reach out to them and verify.
Use CRM and Marketing Tools
Although we’ve talked about two popular Chrome extensions that have built-in email verification services, there are other tools for the same purpose. Customer Relationship Management tools do a decent job of authenticating how you generate, identify, or verify email addresses. They are ideal for managing a database of contacts. And with their embedded email verification features, they allow you to clean your entire database or verify emails in bulk. Usually, these tools are designed to be the central hubs for your customer and prospect data. Great examples of these tools include HubSpot, Salesforce, ZoomInfo, etc.
How Can I Find the Owner of an Anonymous Email Address?
You can find out who owns an anonymous email address using a variety of email lookup tools. Do note, that you’ll have to patiently use a variety of tools ranging from IP address trackers, to email address reverse search tools and more. That said, the information you’ll get here still depends on how they registered their association with the email address and if they selected to make their owner information public. Otherwise, the only way to access their individual IP address and owner information would be by using law enforcement or Internet service providers for access. To do this, you’ll need to make a legal request through court orders, subpoenas, or search warrants.
FAQ
Is it legal to look up Email address owner?
Yes, it’s legal to look up an email address owner. It’s a protective measure that can help you avoid fraud or phishing attempts. You can also lookup an email address to reconnect with lost contacts, old friends, colleagues, or business partners. Marketers and sales agents also validate emails for their lead generation.
How can I prevent my email address from being traced or looked up?
You can only prevent your email address from being traced or looked up by using privacy-focused email service providers which allow you to create email aliases. Also, you need to avoid sharing your primary email address, especially for signing up for newsletters or listing on social platforms. Also, use temporary or throwaway email addresses when necessary.
How can I verify if an email address belongs to a legitimate company or individual?
Start by using an email lookup tool to see any information on the server or ISP. Also, check the domain name of the email against the company website. Search the email address on Google to see if it’s listed on the company website. You can also use an email verification browser extension to further authenticate the email.
How do I find the name of the person behind an email address?
To find out the name of an email address, use a reverse email lookup or perform a WHOIS lookup on the domain for that email address. You can also search the email on Google or social media. Furthermore, authenticate the email using email verification services. Don’t forget the details you’ll get depending on the privacy settings the owner employs.
How do I deal with fake or anonymous email addresses?
The best thing to do is ignore and delete. Avoid clicking on any links, videos, PDFs, or any other media contained in that email received from that suspicious address. Also, click on the “Mark as Spam” or “Report Junk” buttons. This notifies email service provider filters that they should move such emails out of your inbox. Ultimately, you should never engage or reply to that email.
Wrap Up
Now you have all the best ways to carry out an email owner lookup. You no longer have to face undue stress or anxiety about tracking suspicious email address owners. Remember, not every email owner search will yield everything you need in one place. But armed with all the techniques we’ve shared, you can access valuable insights about them and make informed decisions on the go.
English 
Turkish 
Spanish