Looking for reverse phone lookup directories can get confusing. You may begin with a quick Google search, hoping it will immediately appear and you'll find the information you need with very little effort. Yet what actually appears are various paid websites which range from less than a buck for one lookup to upwards of fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.
Changing your search to indicate free reverse phone lookup brings additional pay services sneaking in claims that they are completely free. They may allow you to type in the number free of charge and deliver very basic information such as the city and state, but in order to get the more substantial details such as a name or address you will once again be requested to pay.
Completely free reverse phone lookup is not possible at this point. Providers of this data put out great measures and even money to assemble information including unpublished home phone numbers, cellular numbers, and even address histories. They have no use for this information other than to pass it on to consumers for a small fee.
Where you go from this point depends on how badly you really desire to identify the person registered to that phone number. In the age of identity fraud most people won't just access the first site they find and hand over their personal information. Finding the most reputable sites is just as necessary as when you buy clothing or handbags online.
Finding the information you need isn't very difficult, once you find a legitimate service.
There are many competing directories all offering different charges and offering different combinations of data. When you only need to know the name registered with a unidentified phone number calling your home or want to identify exactly who your teenager is chatting with in the middle of the night, you probably don't have the patience to compare different websites.
The quickest solution may be to go with a brand that many of us have grown up with and access the web-based version of the white pages. There is a sense of safety with a well known household name that has been trusted for years. You can look up a phone number and get the most basic information here without paying, 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 You won't receive much beyond that, especially if you are searching a cell phone or a landline that is unpublished.
Be careful at this point because there will be links from these pages that offer more detailed information, including names and specific addresses, for a fee. These are links to other sites, so you no longer necessarily have the security of the white pages website so you need to check the security of these services just like any other. White pages itself is not going to deliver much information beyond a general location; you will need to look elsewhere for anything else, especially if you want to know about a cell phone or unlisted number.
The most effective way to locate reverse phone lookup services for basic information is to find a proven service with a small one time charge paid with a secure payment system. If you just want a one time lookup then it is usually not worth the fee to commit to a long term service. Look for one that provides a single lookup for a small price, usually just a dollar or two.
Shelling out a huge fee for small amounts of information or being asked to secure information by delivering card numbers by email or other non-secure methods are clear signals of a scam.