Looking for reverse phone lookup directories can get complicated. You may start out with a quick internet search, believing it will quickly pop up and you'll have the information you need with minimal effort. Yet what actually comes up is a long list of paid directories which range from less than a buck for one lookup to over fifteen dollars for a long term subscription.

Editing your search to include free reverse phone lookup reveals even more pay services sneaking in claims that they are completely free. They may allow you to enter the number for free and award you with very basic information such as the city or state, but if you want to obtain the useful information such as a name or address you will then be asked to hand over a fee.

Absolutely free reverse phone lookup does not exist. Providers of this data go to great measures and sometimes money to assemble information such as unpublished residential numbers, cellular numbers, and sometimes address histories. These businesses have no purpose to collect this information other than to make it available to consumers for a nominal fee.

Where you go from here depends on how much you really desire to reveal the person connected to that phone number. In the age of identity fraud many people won't just pull up the cheapest site and enter their private information. Finding the most reputable sites is just as crucial as when you purchase tennis shoes or pocketbooks online.

Finding the information you want isn't very hard, once you access a proven lookup directory.

There are many competitive websites all offering different prices and delivering different combinations of data. When you only need to determine the person registered with a strange number calling your home or need to determine exactly who your child is talking with at all hours of the night, you may not have the patience to evaluate different directories.

The quickest solution may be to go with a brand that many people have grown up with and access the web-based version of the yellow pages. There is a sense of safety when you use a common household name that has been used for years. You can look up a phone number and get very basic information here free of charge, including whether the number is a cell phone or home line and a map pinpointing the general location if it is a home or business. You won't get much more than that, especially if you are looking up a cell phone or a residential number that is unpublished.

Be careful at this point because there are links from these pages that offer more detailed information, like registered names and residential addresses, for a fee. These links go to other webpages, so you have left the familiarity of the white pages website so you should verify the security of these services just as with any other. White pages itself is not going to give you much information beyond a general location; you will have to search elsewhere for anything else, especially if you wish to know about a cell phone or unlisted number.

The best way to locate reverse phone lookup websites for basic information is to go to a proven database with a reasonable one time fee paid with a secure payment system. If you only need a one time lookup then it is usually not worth the money to sign up for a more detailed directory. Look for one that offers a single search for a small charge, often just a dollar or two.

Forking over a huge charge for small amounts of information or being asked to secure information by delivering financial information through email or other non-secure methods are flashing warnings of a scam.