Looking for reverse phone lookup services can become confusing. You may begin with a quick internet search, assuming it will immediately pop up and you'll discover the information you need with minimal work. Yet what actually appears are various paid directories which vary from under a dollar for one lookup to upwards of fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.
Revising your search to indicate free reverse phone lookup brings even more pay sites hiding behind claims that they are completely free. They sometimes allow you to type in the number free of charge and deliver very basic information such as the city and state, but if you need to see the more substantial information like a name or address you will once again be asked to pay.
Absolutely free reverse phone lookup does not exist. Providers of this data put out great measures and sometimes money to assemble information such as unpublished home phone numbers, cell phone numbers, and sometimes address histories. These businesses have no purpose to collect this information other than to deliver it to you for a small charge.
how you proceed from here depends on how badly you really desire to find out the name behind that phone number. In the age of identity fraud many people won't just pull up the cheapest site and enter their personal information. Finding the most reputable directories is just as important as when you shop for clothing or handbags through the web.
Finding the information you want isn't very difficult, once you access a reputable source.
There are a growing number of competing websites all offering different prices and offering different combinations of information. When you simply want to determine the person connected to a strange number calling your home or need to identify exactly who your teenager is chatting with at all hours of the night, you probably don't have the desire to compare different services.
The most effective solution may be to go with a brand that many of us have grown up with and use the online version of the white pages. There is a sense of legitimacy when you use a common popular name that has been around for years. You can look up a phone number and get very basic information here without paying, including whether the number is a cell phone or home line and a map indicating the general location of a home or business. You won't find much beyond that, especially if you are looking up a cell phone or a home phone number that is unpublished.
Be careful at this point because there are links on these pages that will deliver more detailed information, including names and specific addresses, for a fee. These links go to other sites, so you no longer necessarily have the familiarity of the white pages website so you need to ensure the security of these databases just as with any other. White pages itself is not going to give you much information beyond a general location; you will have to search elsewhere for more, especially if you wish to know about a cell phone or unlisted number.
The easiest way to access reverse phone lookup directories for basic information is to go to a proven database with a small one time charge accepted through a secure payment system. If you just want a one time lookup then it is usually not worth the charge to sign up for a unlimited directory. Find one that delivers a single search for a small charge, usually just a dollar or two.
Paying a huge charge for small amounts of information or being asked to secure information by delivering card numbers through email or other non-secure methods are clear signals of a scam.