how do i find someone's true address and name from their email address?

Hello poohbear28-ga,

There is no central listing of all email addresses matched with names
and addresses.  Moreover, it is possible that the person (or
organization) who uses a particular e-mail address has been careful to
shield his or her (or its) name and address from public view. 
However, there are several places where one may be able to obtain the
name, and sometimes the address, associated with an email address.

First of all, you can search for the email address on various search
engines (Google, AllTheWeb, etc.), to see if the name and street
address are posted with it.  For instance, you can search for the
email address (in quotation marks) on Google, and then in Google
Groups.

On some search engines, you can also do a search for all occurrences
of the user name in the ISP's domain.  On Google, the search would be
in this form: username site:isp.com .

In addition, there are specialty search engines that include a reverse
email lookup.

Addresses.com
http://www.addresses.com/

"Reverse Email"
InfoSpace
http://infospace.com/_1_300313__info/revemail.htm

Bigfoot also appears to have a reverse email lookup, though it is not
advertised on the site itself.  You can link to it on the following
page.  (Please note: The IAF [Internet Address Finder] reverse email
lookup is not currently working.)

"The Ulimate Email Directory"
The Ultimates
http://www.theultimates.com/email/

Finally, you might be interested in the answer to a similar question,
from someone who does this work routinely.

"Q: finding information about someone when I only know their email
address"
Google Answers
http://answers.google.com/answers/main?cmd=threadview&id=118794

I hope that this information is helpful.

- justaskscott-ga


Search terms used on Google Answers:

reverse email
reverse e-mail

Search terms used (in various combinations) on Google:

"reverse email"
"reverse e-mail"
reverse
email
e-mail
infospace
"addresses.com"
"internet address finder"
iaf
icq

---

Clarification of Answer by justaskscott-ga on 16 Mar 2003 09:28 PST

I am sorry that you did not like my answer.  For future reference,
please note that you can request an answer clarification before rating
an answer.  That way, you can get more information, which will perhaps
lead you to award a higher rating.

"How do I rate an answer?" ["Please remember that you cannot revise
your rating.  Therefore, you should only rate an answer after you have
completed the 'Answer Clarification' process and are satisfied with
the researcher's work."]
Google Answers
http://answers.google.com/answers/faq.html#ratequestion

None of these were really helpful