Searching for reverse phone lookup directories can become confusing. You may start out with a simple internet search, believing it will quickly pop up and you'll find the information you desire with very little effort. Yet what actually comes up are various paid services which vary from less than a buck for one number search to upwards of fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.

Changing your search to specify free reverse phone lookup delivers additional pay directories hiding behind claims that they are completely free. They sometimes allow you to type in the number without mention of a fee and give very useless information such as the city and state, but in order to get the useful details such as a name or address you will then be asked to pay.

Absolutely free reverse phone lookup does not exist. Providers of this data put out great measures and even money to collect information like unpublished landline numbers, cellular numbers, and sometimes address histories. These businesses have no use for this information other than to pass it on to buyers for a small fee.

whether you move forward from this point depends on how badly you really desire to find out the person connected to that phone number. In the age of identity theft most people won't just pick the first site they find and enter their private information. Finding the most reputable sites is just as important as when you buy tennis shoes or handbags online.

Getting the information you want isn't very difficult, once you locate a reputable lookup directory.

There are a growing number of competitive directories all with different fees and offering different combinations of information. When you only want to know the name behind a unidentified phone number calling your home or wish to know exactly who your child is talking with at all hours of the night, you probably don't have the desire to rate different directories.

The easiest solution may be to go with a name 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 common household name that has been trusted for years. You can look up a phone number and get very basic information here for free, including if the number is a cell phone or residential 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 will be links from these pages that promise more detailed information, like names and specific addresses, for a fee. These are links to other webpages, so you no longer necessarily have the familiarity of the yellow pages website so you must check the legitimacy of these databases just like any other. Yellow pages itself is not going to give you much information other than a general location; you will have to search elsewhere for anything else, especially if you wish to know about a cell phone or unpublished number.

The easiest way to locate reverse phone lookup directories for basic needs is to find a trustworthy service with a nominal one time charge paid with a secure payment system. If you only need a one time number search then it is obviously not worth the fee to commit to a unlimited directory. Locate one that offers a one time lookup for a minor price, usually just a dollar or two.

Paying a large charge for very limited information or being asked to secure information by sending card numbers through email or other non-secure methods are obvious signals of a scam.