When reporting email you have received from other eBay users, it is important that you include the complete message header. By sending the complete header, we will be able to trace the pathway of the email you received back to the sender.

A header will look like a string of characters similar to the example provided below. This information can usually be found by using the "properties" or "option" function of your email programme.

Example of Headers

Return-Path: (sender email address)

Received: from mail-pacbell.net (mail-gw5.pacbell.net [206.13.28.23]) by ixmail9.ix.netcom.com (8.8.7-s-4/8.8.7/[NETCOM v1.01]) with ESMTP id; for (recipient email address); Mon, 22 Mar 2002 06:34:48 -0800 (PST)
From: (sender email address)
Received: from 207.214.211.69 (ppp-207-214-211-69.sntc01.pacbell.net [207.214.211.69]) by mail- gw5.pacbell.net (8.8.8/8.7.1) with SMTP id GAA15251; Mon, 22 Mar 2002 06:34:28 -0800 (PST)
Message-ID: (36F5D668@pacbell.net)
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2002 06:34:32 +0100
Reply-To: (sender email address)
X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.03-PBI-N303 (Macintosh; I; 68K) MIME-Version: 1.0
To: (recipients' email address)
Subject: TITLE OF EMAIL
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

If you are unable to find the complete headers by using the "properties" or "options" function, you may be able to use your email programme's help files to locate the headers. Since every email programme is different, we are unable to provide instructions for each email programme. More information on how to locate headers using a number of different email programs can be found at spamcop.net and haltabuse.org.

Related Help topics

• Unsolicited Commercial Email (Spam): Overview
• Unwelcome Email: Overview