Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can get complicated. You may start out with a quick Google search, believing it will automatically appear and you'll discover the information you need with very little effort. Yet what actually comes up are various paid services which range from under a dollar for one lookup to upwards of fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.
Revising your search to include free reverse phone lookup brings additional pay sites hiding behind claims to be free. They may allow you to enter the number without mention of a fee and award you with very basic information such as the city or state, but in order to see the more substantial information like a name or address you will once again be prompted to pay.
Completely free reverse phone lookup does not exist. Providers of this data go to great efforts and even money to assemble information like unpublished landline numbers, cellular numbers, and even address histories. These businesses have no use for this information other than to deliver it to you for a nominal fee.
Where you go from this point depends on how badly you really want to reveal the person connected to that phone number. In the age of identity fraud many people won't just pull up the first site they find and enter their private information. Finding the most trustworthy directories is just as important as when you buy clothing or purses over the internet.
Finding the information you want isn't very hard, once you access a legitimate service.
There are a growing number of competitive websites all with different prices and delivering different combinations of information. When you only want to know the name behind a particular phone number calling your home or want to determine exactly who your child is chatting with in the middle of the night, you probably don't have the patience to evaluate different services.
The quickest solution may be to go with a brand that many people have grown up with and use the online version of the yellow pages. There is a sense of legitimacy when you use a well known popular name that has been trusted for years. You can search a phone number and get the most basic information here for free, including if the number is a cell phone or landline 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 You won't find much more than that, especially if you are searching a cell phone or a residential number that is unpublished.
Be aware at this point because there are links from these pages that offer more detailed information, such as registered names and desired addresses, for a fee. These links lead to other webpages, so you no longer necessarily have the security of the yellow pages website so you need to check the security of these websites just as with any other. Yellow 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 need to know about a cell phone or unpublished number.
The most effective way to access reverse phone lookup directories for basic information is to go to a reputable service with a reasonable one time charge paid with a secure payment system. If you only need a one time lookup then it is probably not worth the money to sign up for a more detailed directory. Look for one that offers a one time lookup for a minor price, usually just a buck or two.
Paying a high fee for very limited information or being asked to pay by sending personal information through email or other non-secure forms are obvious signs of a scam.