Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can become confusing. You may begin with a simple internet search, believing it will immediately appear and you'll discover the information you require with very little effort. Yet what actually comes up is a long list of paid services which range from less than a buck for one lookup to upwards of fifteen dollars for a service subscription.
Changing your search to indicate free reverse phone lookup brings even more pay sites advertising claims that they are completely free. They sometimes allow you to enter the number for free and give very basic information such as the city and state, but if you want to get the more substantial information such as a name or address you will once again be requested to hand over a fee.
Absolutely free reverse phone lookup does not exist. Providers of this information put out great measures and even money to assemble information like unlisted landline numbers, cell phone numbers, and sometimes address histories. These businesses have no purpose to collect this information other than to make it available to consumers for a small charge.
how you proceed from here depends on how much you really want to find out the name behind that phone number. In the age of identity fraud most people won't just pick the first site they find and enter their private information. Finding the most trustworthy directories is just as crucial as when you purchase tennis shoes or pocketbooks through the web.
Finding the information you need isn't very difficult, once you find a proven service.
There are many competitive websites all with different charges and offering different combinations of information. When you only need to identify the name behind a particular number calling your home or wish to determine exactly who your teenager is chatting with at all hours of the night, you may not have the time to evaluate different services.
The easiest answer may be to go with a name that many of us have grown up with and access the web-based version of the white pages. There is a sense of safety when you use a common popular name that has been around for years. You can search a phone number and get very 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 You won't find much beyond that, especially if you are searching a cell phone or a home phone number that is unpublished.
Be alert at this point because there are links from these pages that promise more detailed information, like names and desired addresses, for a charge. These links go to different webpages, so you have left the familiarity of the yellow pages website so you should verify the security of these websites just like any other. White pages itself is not going to reveal much information beyond a general location; you will have to look elsewhere for more, especially if you want to know about a cell phone or unlisted number.
The most effective way to find reverse phone lookup directories for basic information is to find a proven database with a nominal one time fee paid through a secure payment system. If you just want a one time lookup then it is usually not worth the money to sign up for a long term directory. Find one that offers a one time lookup for a minor charge, often just a buck or two.
Shelling out a large fee for small amounts of information or being asked to secure information by sending financial information through email or other non-secure forms are obvious signals of a scam.