Pretty graphics and shiny buttons do a good job of telling me the quick and dirty info on an e-mail message, like who it’s from, but I’m a meat and potatoes/text and IP addresses kind of guy, so I was happy to find out that you can easily check the source information on an e-mail message in Mozilla Thunderbird with a few simple clicks.
Here’s how:
First, click on the e-mail in question, so it shows up in your preview window (usually located on the bottom).
Now, highlight all the test in the message…
…and go to View>Message Source in the top toolbar. (you can also hit Ctrl+U, if you like keystrokes better)
Poof! Up comes a text file with all the numbers! Now you can geek out ’till your heart’s desire!
~Andrew
Tags: Check your E-mail Source, Mozilla Thunderbird E-mail Source, thunderbird
Hi Andrew,
This is really useful to all, particularly the fraudulent mails masquerading as from banks! An easier method to identify such mails is just passing the mouse cursor without clicking of course, over the contact link(with bank name). The true id will be shown in the pop up.
Is it not easier to click:- Other Actions>View Source (Eudora)
Or Block>cntrl+u
I also check the url by passing the cursor over the contact link.
Maurie Rose
Why the step “Now, highlight all the test in the message…”? I do this a lot and never highlight anything. Also, I prefer “View Source With”, just a preference from the old days.
Really enjoyed this tip! There are lots of times when I would really like to know the source of an email. Thanks, Andrew!
Quicker, easier to just do Ctrl F3
CTRL F3 does not work in my version of Thunderbird (7.0.1). CTRL U is the shortcut.
Cool mail tip…Also you can view the source of a message in hotmail, just right click on it and select view source.
I got this far on my own. How do I turn this info into a geographic location?
I’m selling something on Craig’s List. I keep getting “Is this still available?”. When I reply (and they see my email address)they want me to ship it and get paid through PayPal.Obviously a scam. If I can tell it did not originate locally I could ignore it and not give up my email address.