How can I receive a (spam) email from an unknown email address?

Question

When you receive an email, most email programs will display the sender as a name (chosen by the sender) and hide the actual email address behind it. Spam emails often abuse this by sending mails from something like 'Microsoft ([email protected])' so the name looks legit but the email address shows the fraud.

Today I received an email that my mail program (Thunderbird) said was from 'account manager (info)' so there was no actual email address visible. If I click reply Thunderbird complains that there is no valid email address.

How can I receive an email where my mail program doesn't appear to know where it is from?

Answer 1

The "sender" block of an email is actually a few different fields. The display sender can be anything, as you state.

The sending email account is a field that is shown in the header of the email that doesn't normally get displayed to the user. If you look at the header, you will find the info.

Headers can be confusing, but you can use a Header parser, like https://toolbox.googleapps.com/apps/messageheader/ to help you make sense of it.

Answer 2

I know a few websites and platforms offer to send a "one-way" email.

This is a great article that summarizes most of them. Are those the kind of services you are looking for?

I guess another option is simply editing the header of the data.