Hotmail/Gmail/AOL/etc.. do an OK job of detecting bulk mail senders but whats the best way to find where the mail originated from. To much info in the source email, what do I look for.

Any easy way to find out where these damn emails originated from that come to me with v1agirira and cilaisisisis, etc.. they are running out of words to use that make any sense..

I'm wondering if these guys do something like this. Lets first assume that my name is JohnDoe so my email would be JohnDoe<at>Hotmail<dot>com (Typed it that way so people don't spam whoever this guy is - if it is a real address at all) Well I (JohnDoe) would get my email saying it is to: JohnDots2342<at>AOL<dot>com or to: John243king<at>msn<dot>com.

I noticed back in the day my emails would show my email address, and tons of other innocent peoples names but similar to mine, assuming these junk/spam email senders send tons of different emails, each one with a batch of names in an alphabetical bunch to cover all there recipients in a somewhat organized fashion. Well lately my emails will show the to: name, similar to mine, but thats all. I assume they set up tons of email addresses lets say 1 address for every general name. They then set the preference within that general name to forward a copy of the email to a list of others with that same general name maybe with a few revisions, and do the same for those revised general names, until they have a system set up so big that they just email their original spam/junk mail to the original few general names they made.. and from there.. the forwarding preferences within Gmail/Hotmail/AOL/etc.. do all the work for them continuously forwarding copies to each of their forwarding addresses, thus making this 1 email that ends up going to a few thousand emails, really looks like it went to 10 recipients, and those ten forwarded it to 10 people making it 100, and those 100 forward to 10 people making it 1000, and so on.

Though this seems time consuming to set up all these somewhat legit email accounts... is it a way they can bypass these junk mail filters, or does Hotmail/Gmail/etc still see that this email has gone through so many routes.. though each forwarded copy could have a new added signature at the bottom from the new origin.

Either way. what is the best step to take. It isn't taking up my in-box so much. But What If I still want to find the origin. Or What would you do. just report it. I don't want to ask how to take revenge since most ways would probably be illegal. Like spamming them back... what do they say.. 2 wrongs don't make a right!!!

Anyways... any suggestions as to what to do. Like I said.. It is controlled. So I don't need to change my email address at all. I just recently took all filters off my email account just to see how many junk mails I get.. only a couple a day... not so bad I think. But these people need to be stopped.

I'm sure the best way is to just get all these pathetic people that actually follow up and respond to these junk emails are the reason these guys keep doing this. These guys must be making some money or getting something out of this.. and if we all just stoped responding to them then they would see its a waste of time.. so how do we teach all these dumb*ss's that these emails are just a waste of time. Anyways.. what would you do..

and mainly.. when I right click on the email, and open the properties, and look at the source, what should I look for to find the closest thing to the originating email. Or would my system of forwarded-forwarded-forwarded emails, maybe make it hard. Does the source still have the originating message or something... traceroutes... anyone have a clue?