Looking for reverse phone lookup services can get confusing. You may start out with a simple Google search, hoping it will immediately appear and you'll find the information you need with minimal work. Yet what actually appears is a series of paid directories which vary from less than a buck for one number search to over fifteen dollars for a service subscription.

Changing your search to include free reverse phone lookup brings additional pay sites hiding behind claims to be free. They may allow you to enter the number without mention of a fee and deliver very useless information such as the city and state, but if you need to get the more substantial information like a name or address you will then be requested to hand over a fee.

Totally free reverse phone lookup does not exist. Providers of this data put out great measures and sometimes money to compile information like unpublished residential numbers, cell phone numbers, and even address histories. These businesses have no use for this information other than to pass it on to buyers for a small charge.

how you proceed from here depends on how badly you really need to identify the name connected to that phone number. In the age of identity fraud many people won't just pick the first site they find and enter their private information. Finding the most trustworthy sites is just as important as when you purchase clothing or pocketbooks through the web.

Getting the information you need isn't very hard, once you access a reputable lookup directory.

There are a growing number of competitive directories all offering different prices and offering different combinations of data. When you only need to determine the name registered with a unidentified number calling your home or want to know exactly who your teenager is talking with at all hours of the night, you may not have the desire to compare different services.

The easiest solution may be to go with a name that many of us have grown up with and access the web-based version of the yellow pages. There is a sense of legitimacy when you use a common household name that has been around for years. You can look up a phone number and get the most basic information here without a fee, including whether the number is a cell phone or landline and a map indicating the general location of a home or business. You won't get much beyond that, especially if you are researching a cell phone or a residential number that is unpublished.

Be aware at this point because there will be links on these pages that offer more information, including registered names and residential addresses, for a charge. These links lead to different sites, so you no longer necessarily have the security of the yellow pages website so you need to verify the legitimacy of these services just like any other. White pages itself is not going to deliver much information besides a general location; you will have to look elsewhere for more, especially if you want to know about a cell phone or unpublished number.

The best way to find reverse phone lookup websites for basic information is to find a proven database with a small one time charge accepted with a secure payment system. If you just want a one time lookup then it is obviously not worth the fee to commit to a long term service. Find one that delivers a single lookup for a small fee, usually just a dollar or two.

Paying a huge fee for small amounts of information or being asked to pay by delivering personal information by email or other non-secure methods are flashing warnings of a scam.