Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can become complicated. You may start out with a quick Google search, hoping it will quickly pop up and you'll have the information you need with very little work. Yet what actually comes up are various paid directories which range from under a dollar for one number search to upwards of fifteen dollars for a service subscription.
Editing your search to specify free reverse phone lookup brings even more pay directories sneaking in claims that they are completely free. They may allow you to enter the number for free and give very useless information such as the city and state, but if you need to get the useful details such as a name or address you will once again be asked to hand over a fee.
Totally free reverse phone lookup is not possible at this point. Providers of this data go to great efforts and even money to collect information like unpublished landline numbers, cell phone numbers, and sometimes address histories. These businesses have no purpose to collect this information other than to pass it on to you for a small fee.
Where you go from here depends on how badly you really want to reveal the person behind that phone number. In the age of identity theft most people won't just access the first site they find and hand over their personal information. Finding the most trustworthy services is just as important as when you buy clothing or purses online.
Retrieving the information you desire isn't very difficult, once you access a legitimate source.
There are a growing number of competing directories all offering different charges and delivering different combinations of data. When you only want to determine the person registered with a unidentified number calling your home or wish to know exactly who your teenager is chatting with at all hours of the night, you probably don't have the time to evaluate different services.
The most effective solution may be to go with a name that many people have grown up with and use the web-based version of the white pages. There is a sense of legitimacy when you use a common popular name that has been used for years. You can search a phone number and get very basic information here for free, including whether the number is a cell phone or home line and a map indicating the general location if it is a home or business. You won't find much beyond that, especially if you are researching a cell phone or a home phone number that is unpublished.
Be alert at this point because there will be links on these pages that promise more detailed information, like names and specific addresses, for a fee. These links lead to other sites, so you have left the familiarity of the yellow pages website so you should ensure the security of these databases just like any other. White pages itself is not going to give you much information beyond a general location; you will have to look elsewhere for anything else, especially if you need to know about a cell phone or unpublished number.
The easiest way to locate reverse phone lookup services for basic needs is to find a reputable database with a reasonable one time charge paid with a secure payment system. If you just want a one time lookup then it is obviously not worth the money to sign up for a unlimited service. Find one that offers a one time lookup for a low fee, usually just a dollar or two.
Forking over a huge charge for very limited information or being asked to secure information by delivering financial information through email or other non-secure forms are obvious signals of a scam.