We all take email for granted as a convenient way to stay in touch. Unfortunately, the anonymity of email also makes them the modern day equivalent of a poison pen letter, wherein an anonymous writer sends letters making abusive or malicious statements about the recipient. At worse, such emails can even be threatening or menacing. Is there anything we can do to protect ourselves if we are confronted with such a situation?

Fortunately, there is. Although senders of email believe they can remain anonymous, in fact there are ways to discover their identities by doing a reverse email search in a website that provides such a service. A reverse email search site allows you to learn the name and other information about the owner of a particular email address by searching a database.

Although many sites offer reverse email search services for free, they charge subscription fees if you want more detailed search results and deeper searches that also cover public records. But if you don’t need to go that far and you just want to do a simple email search, here are some tips on how you can do so for free.

First, you can log-in to the website of the email service that the email sender uses. These sites usually provide a search function that will allow you to type in an e-mail address in order to get basic registration information.

Second, you can avail of the free reverse search services already mentioned. These sites will provide you with information such as the email user’s name, his Internet service provider (ISP), general geographic location and Internet protocol address.

Third, you can try a people search website. There are four types of such sites, which all have their own specialization: phone directories, business information, online obituaries and free people search sites which focus on particular categories of people (i.e. military men and women, doctors, lost friends and relatives).

If all else fails, you can try and contact the owner of a particular domain and request information on the owner of a particular email. But you should realize that this is unlikely to work simply because domain owners would naturally protect the privacy of those who avail of their services. Even the police and Federal agents need to get a court order before they can request and get such information. So unless you have an urgent and compelling reason to ask for the information, you are unlikely to get it.

Another weakness of free email search service sites is that they only rely on the information provided in the registration forms. And, of course, when you sign up for free email you don’t have to provide genuine information. You can use an alias and provide a fake address. Even if you have no intention of using your email for malicious purposes you may sign up using a nickname simply to protect your privacy.

This is why if you really need information on the holder of a particular email address urgently, you may need to avail of a paid reverse email search service. These services would provide you with more detailed information and can even generate search reports covering such information as membership in media networking sites, purchases at online retailers and even whether or not this person has ever filed for bankruptcy. If you’re genuinely concerned for your safety, the small fee you pay to avail of such services may be the one of the best investments you have ever made.