In this article, we show you how to view full email header and body information in the Thunderbird email client. This can help you detect phishing scams such as the “on this day I hacked your OS” email. These steps will work on shared hosting as well as managed VPS with cPanel and other hosting plans.
View Full Header and Body Information
To change the view for all emails within Thunderbird:
- Open Thunderbird.
- Click the menu button in the upper-right corner.
- To see full email headers, click View, Headers, and All.
- To view email bodies in plain text, click View, Message Body as, and Plain Text.
Now, you can view the entire alleged path (because this information can be spoofed) from the sender to you within the email headers.
You’ll also see entire markup – Markdown, HTML, etc. – in the email body. For example, you’ll see *Hello !* or <b>Hello !</b> instead of Hello !
Page Source
- To view an individual email’s full header and body text info without modifying Thunderbird preferences:
- To the right of the Reply and Forward buttons, click More.
- Click View Source.
This will open a new window with in-depth information you could use to decipher the true origin of an email to determine whether whether it’s legitimate.
Improve your email authentication and use secure settings for better protection.
