Reverse Phone Search Tips
Reverse phone search tips
You have a phone number in your possession but you have no name to go with it, so you no idea who it belongs to. Perhaps strange phone numbers have been showing up on your phone bill. Maybe somebody called you about an exciting new business opportunity or investment scheme but you smell a rat, you suspect it might be a scam.
It's been really bugging you to find out whose numbers they are. In this era of identity theft and stalking, you must find out, to protect yourself and your family.
There are a couple different techniques to test a number to find out who it is.
- call the number while pretending to be somebody else
- Go to your public library and look it up in a criss-cross directory
- Make friends with somebody in the phone company or fool somebody into giving you the information.
- Look it up online.
Call
Simple and straight forward. You might want to electronically disguise your voice if possible. The problem with this is not everybody is comfortable with acting and it's possible your number can be traced back to you. Most people have Caller ID these days.
Criss-cross directory
These are normally very expensive to buy, but your public library should have a copy, except this would probably only work for local numbers and might be up-to-date. The library is not going to have a directory for every state. Whereas many nameless phone numbers are out of town or in another state.
Become an insider
The classic approach used by the TV private investigators such as Magnum PI was to have a friend who works for the phone company. This actually works, but if you're like most people, you don't personally know anyone who works for the phone company. Even if you did, realistically, you probably would not be able to get his or her help every week.
Internet search
Online search is very effective, but it normally takes time and work. However, many online services who specialize in finding this information have become available. Some are free, but like anything else, you get what you pay for. Professional paid services are very inexpensive and much more reliable for finding high quality information. You're much better off going with a paid database service for the small fee.