Searching for reverse phone lookup services can become confusing. You may begin with a quick internet search, believing it will immediately pop up and you'll discover the information you need with minimal work. Yet what actually appears is a series of paid services which vary from under a dollar for one lookup to over fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.

Changing your search to specify free reverse phone lookup delivers even more pay directories advertising claims to be free. They may allow you to enter the number free of charge and award you with very basic information such as the city or state, but in order to see the important information like a name or address you will once again be prompted to hand over a fee.

Completely free reverse phone lookup is not possible at this point. Providers of this information put out great efforts and sometimes money to compile information such as unlisted landline numbers, cellular numbers, and sometimes address histories. These businesses have no purpose to collect this information other than to pass it on to consumers for a small fee.

how you proceed from here depends on how badly you really need to identify the name connected to that phone number. In the age of identity theft most people won't just access the first site they find and enter their personal information. Finding the most trustworthy sites is just as important as when you purchase clothing or purses through the web.

Getting the information you need isn't very difficult, once you access a legitimate service.

There are many competing websites all offering different charges and offering different combinations of information. When you simply need to determine the person connected to a particular phone number calling your home or want to know exactly who your child is talking with in the middle of the night, you may not have the patience to rate different directories.

The quickest 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 safety with a common popular name that has been around for years. You can look up a phone number and get the most basic information here without paying, including if the number is a cell phone or landline and a map indicating the general location of a home or business. You won't get much beyond that, especially if you are searching a cell phone or a landline that is unlisted.

Be careful at this point because there will be links on these pages that will deliver more information, like registered names and residential addresses, for a charge. These links go to other sites, so you no longer necessarily have the familiarity of the white pages website so you must ensure the security of these websites just as you would with any other. Yellow pages itself is not going to deliver much information beyond a general location; you will need to look elsewhere for more, especially if you need to research a cell phone or unlisted number.

The easiest way to locate reverse phone lookup directories for basic information is to go to a reputable service with a nominal one time charge collected with a secure payment system. If you just want a one time number search then it is probably not worth the money to commit to a more detailed service. Find one that delivers a single lookup for a minor price, usually just a buck or two.

Forking over a large charge for small amounts of information or being asked to pay by delivering personal information through email or other non-secure forms are flashing signals of a scam.