Looking for reverse phone lookup services can become confusing. You may start out with a simple Google search, hoping it will automatically appear and you'll discover the information you desire with very little effort. Yet what actually comes up is a long list of paid directories which range from less than a buck for one number search to upwards of fifteen dollars for a service subscription.
Revising your search to specify free reverse phone lookup reveals additional pay services hiding behind claims that they are completely 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 and state, but if you need to obtain the useful information such as a name or address you will then be asked 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 even money to compile information like unlisted home phone numbers, cell phone numbers, and even address histories. They have no purpose to collect this information other than to make it available to you for a minor fee.
how you proceed from here depends on how badly you really need to find out the person connected to that phone number. In the age of identity theft most people won't just access the cheapest site and enter their personal information. Finding the most trustworthy directories is just as important as when you buy clothing or pocketbooks online.
Getting the information you want isn't very hard, once you find a legitimate service.
There are a growing number of competing services all with different prices and delivering different combinations of information. When you simply want to determine the name connected to a unidentified phone number calling your home or need to identify exactly who your child is talking with at all hours of the night, you probably don't have the patience to compare different services.
The quickest answer may be to go with a name that many people have grown up with and use the online version of the yellow pages. There is a sense of security with a common popular name that has been trusted for years. You can search 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 of a home or business. You won't find much beyond that, especially if you are searching a cell phone or a home phone number that is unpublished.
Be alert at this point because there will be links on these pages that offer more detailed information, including names and desired addresses, for a charge. These links go to different webpages, so you have left the familiarity of the white pages website so you need to check the legitimacy of these services just as with any other. Yellow pages itself is not going to deliver much information besides a general location; you will need to look elsewhere for more, especially if you wish to know about a cell phone or unlisted number.
The easiest way to locate reverse phone lookup websites for basic information is to go to a reputable directory with a small one time fee paid with a secure payment system. If you only need a one time lookup then it is obviously not worth the fee to commit to a more detailed service. Find one that offers a one time search for a small charge, usually just a dollar or two.
Forking over a huge fee for very limited information or being asked to secure information by sending card numbers through email or other non-secure methods are clear signs of a scam.