Lost email

[#1]

I got an email on my mobile phone today and it has disappeared, it is not in the deleted box.  Usually I get a copy on my laptop but this particular one didn't come through even though I downloaded them before it disappeared off my phone.  Does anyone know if I can get a copy of the email, I have tried webmail but its not on there.

[#2]

Could it have contained malware / been spam and removed by security software?

[#3]

I don't know, it came in whilst I was out, was still there when I got home and vanished later, strange it didn't come in on the laptop, they usually do

[#4]

In principle, if you are using IMAP you would need to delete the email then empty the Deleted Items folder.  That should remove your email from your device, the email server and every other device once they can 'see' the email server.

If you use POP3 and don't elect to keep a copy of messages on the server then only the device that collected the email will see it.  But you would still need to double-delete, first from the Inbox then from the Deleted Items folder.

 Or could it be that what you remember as an email was actually a text message?