# How can I find someone's current email address knowing only their old one?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [July 7, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912 "2004-07-07T03:17:20Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@PaulFitzroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulFitzroy)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2004, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912/1 "2004-07-07T03:17:20Z")
Title says it all. Is there a search engine allowing for this kind of detective work? This person has changed his email, but I don’t know what it is now. I don’t know anyone who might know it, and it’s been 4 years since we’ve spoken. What should I do?
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### Author:  [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2004, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912/2 "2004-07-07T03:21:54Z")
Nope.
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### Author:  [@PaulFitzroy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PaulFitzroy)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2004, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912/3 "2004-07-07T04:00:38Z")
Encouraging.
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### Author:  [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2004, 4:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912/4 "2004-07-07T04:47:28Z")
Unfortunately, unless you have some other information, like a first and last name or a current telephone number, to plug into a telephone/email directory type search engine, you’re pretty much out of luck. About your only hope is if they do still occassionally check their old address (assuming the account is still active), or they contact you. You could _try_ plugging the old email address into Google or some other search engines and see if it comes up with anything useful; perhaps they have a website you might reach them via.
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### Author:  [@nikianntaylor.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikianntaylor.com)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2004, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912/5 "2004-07-07T05:02:51Z")
I’ve been writing an article about this subject. Here’s a couple of websites:
[http://www.cis.fu-berlin.de/~rober/emailfaq.html](http://www.cis.fu-berlin.de/~rober/emailfaq.html)
[http://www-unix.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/addresses.html](http://www-unix.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/addresses.html)
Niki
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### Author:  [@nikianntaylor.com](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nikianntaylor.com)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2004, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912/6 "2004-07-07T05:04:49Z")
Try these
[http://www-unix.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/addresses.html](http://www-unix.umbc.edu/~korenman/wmst/addresses.html)
[http://www.cis.fu-berlin.de/~rober/emailfaq.html](http://www.cis.fu-berlin.de/~rober/emailfaq.html)
Niki
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### Author:  [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2004, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912/7 "2004-07-07T14:27:42Z")
Try emailing to the old address. They might have set a forwarding account.
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### Author:  [@robcaro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robcaro)
#### Post date: [July 7, 2004, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-i-find-someones-current-email-address-knowing-only-their-old-one/253912/8 "2004-07-07T14:58:45Z")
Snail mail still works, doesn’t it? Well, they usually will forward snail mail to a new address. Try it to see if you can reach your friend.