Looking for reverse phone lookup services can get complicated. You may begin with a simple internet search, hoping it will immediately pop up and you'll have the information you desire with very little work. Yet what actually comes up is a series of paid services which range from under a dollar for one lookup to upwards of fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.
Changing your search to specify free reverse phone lookup reveals additional pay directories sneaking in claims that they are completely free. They may allow you to type in the number free of charge and give very nominal information such as the city or state, but in order to obtain the important details such as a name or address you will once again be asked 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 compile information including unlisted home phone numbers, cellular numbers, and sometimes address histories. They have no use for this information other than to make it available to buyers for a minor charge.
whether you move forward from this point depends on how much you really desire to find out the name connected to that phone number. In the age of identity theft most people won't just pick the cheapest site and reveal their personal information. Finding the most reputable directories is just as important as when you buy clothing or purses over the internet.
Retrieving the information you want isn't very hard, once you locate a reputable source.
There are a growing number of competing directories all offering different fees and delivering different combinations of information. When you only want to know the person registered with a unidentified phone 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 desire to rate different websites.
The easiest answer may be to go with a brand that many people have grown up with and use the online version of the white pages. There is a sense of safety when you use a well known household name that has been trusted for years. You can look up a phone number and get very basic information here without a fee, including if 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 more than that, especially if you are looking up a cell phone or a home phone number that is unlisted.
Be aware at this point because there are links from these pages that promise more detailed information, like registered names and residential addresses, for a charge. These are links to other sites, so you no longer necessarily have the familiarity of the yellow pages website so you should ensure the legitimacy of these websites just as with any other. White pages itself is not going to deliver much information other than a general location; you will have to look elsewhere for anything else, especially if you wish to know about a cell phone or unlisted number.
The best way to access reverse phone lookup websites for basic information is to go to a proven database with a reasonable one time fee accepted through a secure payment system. If you just want a one time lookup then it is obviously not worth the fee to sign up for a long term directory. Locate one that offers a one time lookup for a small price, usually just a dollar or two.
Shelling out a large fee for small amounts of information or being asked to pay by delivering card numbers through email or other non-secure forms are clear signals of a scam.