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Perform Reverse Phone Lookup Online

Spooked by an unknown number calling your cell phone? Put your mind at ease by learning how to do a reverse phone lookup.

Most of us are familiar with looking up a person’s name or a company name and address, in order to find their telephone number. We can do this in a paper directory or an online directory, such as White Pages.

But what if you have a phone number and need to find out which individual or company it belongs to? This is when you need a Reverse Phone Lookup. You can enter the phone number you have and the site will return details of who owns that number, their name and address.

Why would I need a Reverse Phone lookup?

If you are like me, and you receive a call from a number on your cell phone that you do not recognize, you may be suspicious. Who is calling you, and why? Is it you ex-wife demanding money? Is a telesales company wanting to waste your life with a thousand irritating questions? Is it someone trying to sell you double-glazing? You can perform a reverse phone lookup to find out the identity of that mystery caller.

Free Reverse Phone Lookup Services

There are many free Reverse Phone Lookup services on the Internet which have access to public databases but these can be limited and inaccurate in the information they provide.

You can find out a lot of information by using a basic Google search. If you want to find an exact match phone number don’t forget to use quotation marks around your number e.g. “529 1928”. If this number exist in any web page, forum, or blog you may well find it this way. Boardtracker.com searches message boards which Google does not have on its database and is another good place to search. You can also search all the major social networks such as MySpace and FaceBook.

The first three numbers of a USA phone number are the area code, for example 614 is Ohio. There are many free services which will provide the state or general area of the call. If you need more detailed information you may have to pay.

Paid Reverse Phone Lookup Services

Some more sophisticated services, such as PhoneDectective.com, provide a ‘teaser’ of information which includes the location of the number on a Google map. In order to get more detailed information, the phone owner’s name and address, household members and other personal information, you have to pay.

Prices will vary depending on the site but, as an example, PhoneDetective charges $14.95 for the full report on a single number and $39.95 for details on that number and a year’s worth of basic reverse phone lookups. Beware! This does not mean you can get a full report on every number for this price, only the initial number you searched for. All other results will be the basic location and you will have to pay another $14.95 for the full details of any additional numbers.

These paid services have legal access to private company databases of the phone companies, which are regularly updated to keep them accurate.

Do Reverse Phone Lookups work for Cell phone Numbers?

Cell phone numbers are tricky as they are not tied to a location and can be changed easily and quickly by replacing a SIM card. Legitimate business users will encourage people to find their cell phone numbers and will include them in their web sites and databases, but private individuals (especially those with something to hide) will make a point of keeping their cell phone numbers private, and change them frequently. So, sometimes cell phones can be traced and sometimes not.

Are these Services Legal?

In the USA these services are legal but you should not abuse the information you receive by using it for marketing or sales calls or harassment, which could leave you open to legal action. If you use them for purely personal use, such as finding lost contacts, complaining about annoying marketing calls, finding out unknown numbers, or spying on your cheating husband or wife, boyfriend or girlfriend, you are unlikely to have any problems.

International Reverse Phone Lookups

If the information you need is for an International number there are services available too, including SearchPeopleDirectory.com. These will pinpoint the location of the town and country of the number but you will have to subscribe to a professional service to get the details of private individuals.

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