Clickbank Directory

There are several ways to get back in touch with a lost love or a long lost friend. If you don't know where the person lives, their current surname, and you forgot their contact information, it can seem very difficult to find the person. Here are a few pointers that should help you start your search.

First, use the person's first and last name to perform a simple Google search. You may find that your old flame has a whole website complete with his or her own domain name. Starting with a Google search, or any other search engine, could possibly save you a lot of time and frustration. If your search engine search doesn't turn up any useful information, then there are other steps you can take.

You can go to the main page of the larger email providers such as Hotmail, Aol or Yahoo, to name only a few, and see if the website will allow you to search for an email account by first and last name. If the person you are searching for has an email account with one of those email clients and registered for that account with their first and last name- then you should be able to find their email address. Unfortunately, some people do not sign up for email accounts using their real or full names out of concern for their privacy and security.

One more thing you can try on your own is to do an internet search for the high school your lost love or friend attended. Many high schools have their own websites now, and you might be able to get in touch with the class's reunion committee. While you may be able to find out how to contact the person through more direct means this way, the committee may not have a current email address. Some of the websites that specialize in reuniting high school students might be a good place to look, although you'll likely have to pay for a membership to get any information, and if the person hasn't also registered, this could also be a dead end.

If none of these options provide you with the email address you're looking for, a better option may be to contact and online business that specializes in retrieving contact information. These websites can provide all kinds of information, from current contact information to background checks. You may be able to get some information from a free search, but you generally have to pay small fee for contact information. As another option, you can also pay a bit more for a membership and have an unlimited amount of information at your fingertips.

If you decide to contact one of these companies, the more information you can provide to them, the better. If you remember the person's full name, birth date, their parents' names, and the town where you last knew they resided, you are more likely to find the information about the specific person you are looking for.

It can be very scary to receive harassing or threatening email in your inbox. Anyone who has been targeted by this type of email knows that it can be extremely upsetting- especially since you generally don't know the identity of the person behind it. Is this a real threat? Is this some kid who thinks it's a funny prank? Does this person know me, who I am, where I live? These types of questions can keep a person awake at night. If you receive an email like this, the most important thing to do immediately is to save the email- don't delete it. Not only can it serve as powerful evidence later, but it can provide the very information the authorities will need to track down the perpetrator. This important information is hidden in the email header.

Most emails do not show a full header. The header you normally see is a compact version that shows only the 'to' and 'from' email addresses and the time at which the email was sent. In normal circumstances, this is all the information you need. But when it's a matter of harassment or threats, the full email headers can provide authorities with enough information to find the exact location and identity of the person who sent the email. In fact, there is very little the authorities can do without the information contained in the headers.

In your email account, there is usually an option that will allow you to display a message's full header. It is usually an option you can click while you have the offensive email open. But if you have trouble finding it, a simple email to the email provider's customer service department can answer any questions you may have about finding the header. Once you know how to display the header, you can forward an email to the perpetrator's email provider (a customer service department or a dedicated abuse department) with the full email headers intact. Email providers take these complaints very seriously and will respond accordingly.

One very important piece of information contained in the email headers is the IP address. To avoid any confusion, it is important to know that this is not the IP address of the perpetrator in most cases. Ninety percent of the time, it is the IP address of the person's internet service provider's server. Make no mistake, the ISP can use the information in the headers to find out exactly who is bothering you, but they will not give the person's name or any other information to you, a private citizen. In most cases, they won't even provide it to the authorities without a court order. While there are tools available on the internet that will help you analyze the headers in any email you receive, the information will probably not prove useful to you in putting a stop to email harassment without help from the authorities. The best course of action is to save the email and enlist the help of local law enforcement and any other establishment that may be able to help, such as your own and the perpetrator's email providers.

If someone you don't know sends you an email, it is natural to want to know who the person is, even if the email is not spam or unfriendly. Knowing a sender's identity can tell you whether or not you want to reply to the email. Some emails contain the name of the person who sent it, and even if it doesn't, some email programs will tell you the name the email account is registered under and include the information in the same line as the email address. If this information is not available, sometimes you can learn more by looking at the email address itself.

While an email address like catlady@emailprovider.com may not give you a name, the domain name (the word between the @ and the .com part) can give you a clue. Major email providers like yahoo and lycos won't tell you much, but the domain is something unusual like 'rockhounds.com' or 'businessname.com', you can perform a simple Google search for the domain name. This can narrow down the possibilities quite a bit. If someone you don't know is sending you email from a business email address, you can contact the company for more information. It could be that the person had a legitimate reason for contacting you but is unaware of proper email etiquette.

Spam email, on the other hand, can be nearly impossible to trace for the average citizen. Most people choose to simply delete these emails or mark them as spam so that they don't have to deal with them anymore. On the other hand, mysterious or harassing emails warrant more attention and can be quite a headache to track down.

It can be difficult if not impossible to find the owner of an email address if the person has used a false name to register the email account. If someone has chosen to use a bogus name and address to register for an email account with a major provider, you have little power to find the information as a private citizen. In these cases, where someone is harassing you and you need it to stop, it is advisable to enlist the help of a reputable company to find out who is doing the emailing.

There are a few companies on the internet that will allow you to do a reverse email search to find out who the account is registered to. These companies generally charge a small fee per search, or you can register for a membership and conduct as many reverse email searches as you like. However, if you are able to find out the true identity of a harassing emailer, it may not be a good idea to try to handle the problem yourself.

If you can find out who owns an email address through one of these services, you next step should be to report the person to the proper authorities. Be sure to save any harassing emails to use as evidence. Companies that conduct these searches can sometimes help you with the legal process required to put a legal stop to unwanted internet behavior.

Identifying email as spam is actually pretty easy. If there is an email in your inbox from an address you don't recognize, nine times out of ten, it's spam. Spammers often have very unusual email addresses, like fjkli33808@emailprovider.com. These nonsensical email addresses are the result of automated computer programs that sign up for hundreds of email addresses at a time for use in spamming operations. The subject lines in spam emails can range from strings of unrelated words to very apt phrases that bear resemblance to an email search you've recently conducted. While the former is simply annoying, the latter can be a clue that you have spyware in your computer that needs to be removed. If this happens to you, consult your local computer service business for help in getting rid of it.

One particularly vicious type of spam is called phishing email. These emails are designed by dishonest people to look like legitimate communications from email providers, banks, and other establishments with whom you do business. These emails invariably contain a link that will take you to a fake website so you can log into your 'account'. As soon as you log in and use your real user name and password, the spammer has your account information and can use it to take over your online accounts and even get their hands on your money. If you get an email from an establishment where you have an account, it is always best to check with the establishment in person or by phone- not by replying to the email. If you do receive a phishing email, contact the establishment of your email account immediately and let them know so that they can warn other account holders.

Another type of spam is known as the scam email, and you've probably gotten at least one of them. Some people get three or more a day. These emails are from people in foreign countries who say they are trying to get rid of money- usually a bogus inheritance. These are basically foreign money laundering operations, and Americans who have fallen for these scams have ended up losing large amounts of money, being lured to foreign countries to complete the 'transaction'- and a few never even made it home. If you receive one of these emails, you can forward it to the Federal Trade Commission at spam@uce.gov and they will investigate the matter.

What may surprise you is that most of the email spam you receive is governed by the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003. The law is rarely enforced, it prohibits the buying and selling of bulk email addresses (although this still goes on every day), and one clause actually helps spammers verify your email address. The CAN-SPAM Act states that marketing emails must include an opt-out link where you can go to request to be removed from the company's emailing list. But clicking on this unsubscribe link simply confirms that your email address is active and almost guarantees that your email address will be included in the next email address list the company sells.

While spam is certainly a nuisance, there is precious little you can do about it. When you get spam, most email providers have a button you can click to mark the email as spam, and then it will be delivered to your bulk or spam folder instead of your inbox. Some email providers allow you to block unwanted emails altogether so that you don't even have to deal with them in the spam folder. The third option is, of course, to simply delete the unwanted email and chalk it up as one of those annoyances that comes with advancing technology- a matter of taking the bad along with the good.

Everyone knows how to do a reverse phone number search- just enter a mysterious number off your caller id into the google search bar and press enter. You'll know who called you in seconds, especially if it's a business phone number. But with email, it's a bit trickier. There is no central listing of email addresses like phone numbers are listed in a phone book. When you sign up for a phone number and service, you must supply verifiable personal information like your social security number. But with email, you don't have to provide a full name at all, let alone your real name. Even honest people who have no intention of misusing their email account often sign up for accounts using only their initials or a nickname for security reasons.

This is what makes it so difficult to run a reverse email search on your own. You can try typing the email address into Google or another search engine, but unless the person has listed their complete email address on a web page or site, you are unlikely to get any useful information. There are free email search websites that can look up a specific person's email address or look up who owns an email address, but most of the time you're not going to get a lot of valuable information from a free search. There is also the option of going to the main page of the email provider and seeing if the website has an email directory with a reverse search function. While there may be a few of these directories you will find that it is not the most reliable source for finding the information you are looking for.

One sure way to get the information you're looking for is to enlist the help of an internet service that specializes in this kind of cyber- detective work. Navigating the internet isn't the easiest thing to do when you're looking for semi- personal information like the name of an email address owner, but internet investigation companies know where to look- and who to talk to.

The process may be as simple as going to a reverse email search website and paying a small fee to do an advanced search. These internet services have access to special databases and are far more likely to retrieve the information you need than a free search. This type of website typically offers you the option of paying a small fee for a one- time search or paying a slightly higher membership fee for the option to run as many reverse email searches as you like. This second option is probably your best value, as if you need to do one search, chances are you'll need to do more searches in the future. You can think of this minute expense as a type of internet insurance policy to make sure you're never in the dark about who is sending you emails. This can give you peace of mind while you're web surfing, and you'll likely be very happy to have purchased the membership.

While your garden variety spam is a mere nuisance, harassing email can be upsetting and even scary. What makes it even scarier is the fact that the inherent anonymity of the internet makes it pretty difficult to find the identity of the person who is sending you threatening emails. This is not meant to suggest that you should ignore harassing email- on the contrary- you should save the email and promptly report it to the proper authorities. This includes your email provider, the sender's email provider, your local authorities, and anyone else in a position of authority who will listen to you.

A person who is willing to harass you via email is probably comfortable doing so because he or she feels safe from discovery. This person may know the way around the net well enough to use a false IP address and a completely bogus identity with the email provider. Some email providers are beefing up their personal information requirements so that anyone signing up for a new account must list a full name and a valid mailing address before they can get an email account. That said, a person could sign up for an email account using the full name 'Mickey Mouse' and a mailing address picked at random out of the phone book to get past these requirements. The only way to keep people from getting bogus email accounts would be to require verification of all listed information when signing up for an email account- and that would cost the email providers money, so free email accounts would probably become a thing of the past. This scenario could become a reality eventually, thanks to all the people who choose to abuse the email system.

While it is difficult if not impossible to find out on your own who is sending you harassing email, there are services you can turn to for help. Computer specialists and investigators can use tools and knowledge to track down an email abuser that private citizens don't have access to. For example, if you know how to look at the headers on an email, you can get the IP address of the internet provider, which can possibly narrow down the area of the country where the email is coming from- if the person is not using a fake IP. For the person who is receiving the harassing email, that doesn't help much. But people and businesses with the proper authority can trace the IP, contact the owner and get a hold of the records that could identify the person responsible for the harassment. Getting this information can require a court order- something the average citizen would have a hard time getting.

If you're getting harassing email, do not reply to it, and do not delete it. Save the email and contact the authorities listed above. You may get the fastest results by hiring an online detective company that can do a reverse email search and other services- and they can communicate with the proper authorities for you to make sure that the perpetrator is brought to justice.