One effective way to protect yourself from malicious individuals online is to learn to conduct a reverse email trace. Knowledge of this will help you against cyber stalkers, fraudsters, and other types of online harassment; and, the best thing is, given the right tools, it's actually very easy to do.

Free reverse email trace services are actually offered online. However, since the applications and tools have been existent for the past 20 years, it is not uncommon to end up with outdated and obsolete ones that cannot effectively locate individuals. There are newer versions available from trusted service providers which can accurately give you information regarding persons who seem to be stalking or putting your online credibility at risk.

All you have to do is provide an email address and the service provider will give you essential details such as the name, address, phone number, occupation, type of computer, operating system used, browser used, actual geographic location, actual header and links to online activities of the person plaguing your email.

During the infant stages of the internet, it is considerably safe to disclose email addresses as well as some personal data even to individuals you do not know in the real world. However, the cyber world changes drastically at such a fast rate in which individuals have found a way to take advantage of those who may not be as technological or computer savvy.

Several people have lost fortunes, given away material possessions and had their computers hacked while others even go as far as receiving threats and being personally stalked. Because privacy is a key element that needs to be protected online, you should know how to shield your personal information.

Through reverse email trace, you may now provide the same scenario to dishonest individuals lurking on the Web by getting information from them. This way, they will be forced to end any threatening activity targeting you and your computer. Some tools aim to locate the source IP address through the email headers. All you need to do is copy the full email headers into a provided box then submit. The service provider will instantly analyze and give you results based on a developed system and set of instructions from several email programs and email services.

Some tools may consider all available mail servers and clients that it processes as reliable and honest. Some will also not attempt to trace forged email headers which are usually present in most malicious data and spam. You can find several tools from an excellent source which will effectively analyze mail servers and clients and give you some ideas whether or not you can trust them. There are several professionals and Web sites online offering these useful tools to locate and trace unscrupulous senders' IP addresses plus other information. While there are sites that offer foolproof methods, there are some that are very detailed and in-depth when it comes to their searches.

You can improve your privacy online by using or giving out your email address only during private correspondence. Avoid disclosing details in public areas like chat rooms, instant messengers and other social peer exchange sites. If you keep all your details in a secure place, it will be impossible for anybody to get a hold of them.