I'm hoping someone here is familiar with AOL email because I am not. I am trying to investigate a situation where an AOL member claims to have forwarded another AOL member an email she sent to certain people 11 seconds ago. She includes a header that looks like this:

-------Original Message-------
From: user#1@aol.com
Date: 09/20/05 1:42:03
To: user#2

Note that user#2 was NOT followed by aol.com. And yes the subject line was missing. Also the above header was multi-coloured.

My questions are:

Is the above header real or modified?

Is it possible for AOL headers to contain the time received in seconds?

If it is a fake, does anyone know what a typical header looks like? (Is it the same as a standard email handled in say - Outlook Express?) Can this header be changed through AOL email settings?

Can emails be tracked by AOL email (without plug-ins or other add-on software) right to the second?

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Note that I think I know the answers to most of these questions but I want someone in the know to tell me. Thanks!

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AOL can track an email that is sent to another AOL user and also the time that it is read. Messages sent to people outside of AOL cannot be tracked by them. I haven't used AOL in years but there used to be information somewhere about headers in their Help Section.

Most mail messages (outside of AOL) have headers that show the originating IP address and where it's been routed to & thru to it's destination.

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No matter where you go, there you are...

I meant to answer this a while to go and it slipped my mind.

Mail to an AOL user from an AOL user is delivered almost instantantly and does not have the standard ESMTP headers. External EMail to or from an AOL user follow the standard ESTMP protocol standards and can take upwards of 15 minutes or more to be delivered.

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I'd rather speak my mind because it hurts too much to bite my tongue.

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