In the Age of Extensive Cyber Crime Reverse Directory Should be Used by Everybody
There are several reverse phone number lookup resources available on the internet to find the identity of the person or company calling your phone. In an age of identity theft, it is important to know if a caller is who he says he is – or to narrow down who a caller is before calling back a missed call who didn’t leave a voicemail. Unlisted home numbers generally won’t appear in the lists generated by these search engines for phone numbers, but a little dectective work in one of the many reverse directory utilities can yield information about most other numbers.
Whitepages is one of the most popular reverse phone lookup websites. Whitepages identifies the city and state of the caller and whether the phone number is residential, commericial or a mobile number for free, but charges $1.99 for the name registered with the number. It is probably most useful for those missed calls from an unrecognized area code – a quick visit to Whitepages and the searcher will remember that he only knows one person in that city.
FreeCellSearch, another reverse lookup clearinghouse of phone numbers, will provide the registered name and, for some numbers, the address associated with the phone number, but does not provide this information for mobile numbers. This utility is especially useful if someone wishes to identify what sort of business is calling, or whether the person who has called has honestly identified him or herself. It can also be useful when avoiding calls from a company with multiple phone numbers, or to figure out who the number you’ve written down without a name belongs to.
800 Notes is a user generated storehouse of phone numbers that begin with an 800-series area code such as 866, 800 or 888. Users who receive phone calls from these toll free numbers enter the company information into the database and identify the company and, sometimes, the purpose of the call, which can be useful when a company uses different phone numbers for different departments such as sales versus collections. Since users are also able to enter comments about the calls, it’s a good resource to find out if the number that has called is legitimate, and what other peoples’ experience with the callers has been. It can make the difference between an incident of identity theft when a person calls pretending to be a trusted financial institution and a little guarded skepticism.
If all else fails, phone companies also offer reverse phone number lookup services with a simple call to 411. Most phone companies charge for this service, though, and some charge whether or not the number is listed or in the company’s database. Exhausting free and internet options with clear charges before trying the phone company can save money, even if a brief phone call to a lookup service may be the fastest way to find a phone number’s identity away from a computer or a Smartphone. Unknown callers and phone numbers without names don’t have remain obscured; there are many ways to track down companies and individuals with a few minutes on Google and some keystrokes and possibly a phone call.