Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can become confusing. You may start out with a quick Google search, assuming it will quickly pop up and you'll discover the information you require with very little effort. Yet what actually comes up are various paid services which vary from under a dollar for one lookup to upwards of fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.
Editing your search to include free reverse phone lookup brings even more pay services sneaking in claims to be free. They sometimes allow you to enter the number free of charge and deliver very basic information such as the city or state, but if you need to get the more substantial details like a name or address you will once again be asked to pay.
Absolutely free reverse phone lookup is not possible at this point. Providers of this information put out great efforts and even money to collect information such as unpublished landline numbers, cellular numbers, and even address histories. These businesses have no purpose to collect this information other than to deliver it to consumers for a nominal fee.
whether you move forward from here depends on how much you really want to reveal the name connected to that phone number. In the age of identity theft many people won't just pull up the first site they find and hand over their credit card information. Finding the most trustworthy sites is just as necessary as when you buy clothing or pocketbooks over the internet.
Finding the information you need isn't very hard, once you access a legitimate service.
There are many competing services all with different prices and delivering different combinations of data. When you simply want to know the name behind a particular number calling your home or need to determine exactly who your child is talking with in the middle of the night, you probably don't have the desire to compare different directories.
The most effective answer may be to go with a brand that many of us have grown up with and access the online version of the yellow pages. There is a sense of legitimacy with a well known popular name that has been around for years. You can search a phone number and get the most basic information here without paying, including whether the number is a cell phone or residential line and a map pinpointing the general location of a home or business. You won't get much beyond that, especially if you are looking up a cell phone or a residential number that is unlisted.
Be aware at this point because there are links on these pages that promise more information, such as names and residential addresses, for a charge. These links lead to different sites, so you have left the familiarity of the white pages website so you must verify the reputation of these websites just as with any other. Yellow pages itself is not going to reveal much information besides a general location; you will need to look elsewhere for anything else, especially if you need to research a cell phone or unlisted number.
The most effective way to locate reverse phone lookup directories for basic needs is to find a proven database with a reasonable one time fee paid with a secure payment system. If you just want a one time number search then it is probably not worth the charge to sign up for a unlimited service. Locate one that provides a single search for a low price, usually just a dollar or two.
Forking over a huge fee for small amounts of information or being asked to secure information by sending financial information by email or other non-secure methods are obvious signals of a scam.