What part is the "Header" in an email

[Janus 28]

When notifying Pay pal (for example) of fake emails I have known them (Paypal) to ask for the header to be forwarded on. What part is the header?

Thanks

[hagrid 10]

Have a read here

 

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/outlook-help/view-e-mail-message-headers-HA001230300.aspx

[Janus 28]

Thanks.

It was just that email address did not look right. I`m still not sure.

[email protected]

[hitchhiker 10]

The header information I think you're referring to is usually the extra hidden information attached to an email you receive.

 

This is the information relating to things like spam score, sender, route, type of content, return path MIME version, domain signature, etc.

 

As this information can easily be spoofed, it's used by, for example, spam filters and alike to help spot spam

 

EDIT: In Outlook, right click the message title in the inbox and select 'Message options' then you'll see the message headers

[Janus 28]

Thanks. I don’t have Outlook set up, I just use Yahoo. I accessed the header via “Options” on the mail page. Apparently, stuff in the header can be changed by the sender to disguise the origin according to the MS link.

[andysm 18]

Thanks.

It was just that email address did not look right. I`m still not sure.

[email protected]

 

That is a valid paypal email address used for marketing purposes. Be aware that the automated spoof checker that paypal provides often flags valid paypal emails as phishing emails even when they are geniune.

[hitchhiker 10]

When you're looking at an email address within an email header, yes, they can be spoofed- or in other words, they don't necessarily come from the email address they say they have come from.

 

However, you can tell that the email address you were looking at is a genuine PayPal address as they own the domain and the 'e.' part is just a sub domain

 

Thanks.

It was just that email address did not look right. I`m still not sure.

[email protected]

[dosxuk 10]

This is where the headers come into play - with them Paypal can decide if the person who sent the email was actually them, or someone pretending to be [email protected]

 

Never trust an email based on the sender's address - anyone can send an email with any From address that they wish with just a few clicks.