Reverse cell phone lookup service is free and simple

This post was updated on October 9, 2012

(MoneyWatch) Not long ago I told you a few strategies for performing a reverse e-mail lookup. You can search Facebook, Google, or photo search engines, for example, to locate someone who sent you an e-mail. It's hit or miss, to be sure, but you can sometimes score a direct hit.

Performing a reverse phone search is theoretically much more straightforward -- you enter a phone number in a Web page and learn the person's name and address.

Unfortunately, reverse cell phone lookups remains one of the few kinds of online searches that it's almost impossible to get for free. There are just a few, and what works today for me might not work for you next week.

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That said, the best way to look up someone based on a phone number right now is Facebook. That shouldn't surprise anyone based on the service's spotty privacy record, but in this case it certainly works to your advantage if you're looking up a phone number. Just open Facebook and enter a phone number in the search box at the top of the screen, then press Enter. If that individual has associated their phone number with their Facebook profile, they will appear as the top search result, regardless of their privacy settings and even if you are not friends.

That's great, but what if that person hasn't linked their phone number to their profile, or they don't use Facebook at all? Then it's time to try your luck with a dedicated reverse phone lookup site. When I first wrote this post, I had found a reverse phone lookup site that gave excellent results with both landline and cell phone numbers. Since then, readers have run into problems with the site, and so have I.

In principle, the simply named Phone Lookup is like the Google of phone lookup Web pages -- just enter the phone number you want to reverse engineer and click Lookup.

In my experience, at times, this site is quite good at identifying the personal information of whoever is behind the phone number you enter. Often, though, it will simply announce that the information is unpublished. The site does offer to deliver names and other personal data about the owner of the phone number. I haven't paid the $4.95 fee for a one-time report, and I recommend that you avoid handing over a credit card to Phone Detective as well.

There are other options as well. You can try the reverse phone lookup at Cell Revealer, for example, or the White Pages. None will prove themselves to be magic bullets, though.

If you happen to find a reliable way to perform a reverse cell phone lookup, please pass on your scoop in the comments.

[Lennster]

These comments are filled with cleverly disguised advertisements. Look how they are written. Look how they sound so similar. Read between the lines.

[DaveTheDrawingGuy]

I am looking for a free reverse phone number site. Actually, truly free. So, when I saw this article on CBSnews.com entitled: "Reverse cell phone lookup service is free and simple", I thought hey, now we're getting somewhere. I read that you can go to a site that claims free service, only to find it has the info you want, but guess what? It's not free after all. No kidding. Wow, thanks for the tip, Mr. Johnson.

[Clamdobber]

I typed in "free reverse phone lookup" and found this article.

These are all ads for paid sites (and one guy who goes around beating up people apparently).

Don't waist your time anyone looking here, apparently there aren't any free ones. You'll just click around for hours listening to these ads.

[TonyD1956]

Thanks for the suggestions on here guys.

Went with eVerified.us and it did the trick. The included background checks are what did it for me as well.

Glad I found this site. :)

[Peter_Andrews7]

Just thought I'd chime in with my experience, and many thanks to everyone for all their comments. Yes, a lot of the sites being recommended here aren't working too well or are very hard to navigate, but thankfully I found a gem. Someone recommended Everified.us a few posts ago and it worked like a charm for me.

The unlimited searches was what really did it for me, as all the other sites charge you every single time you do one. And they also include unlimited background checks, criminal history reports and a lot of other people related searches as well.

I definitely recommend Everified.us. Really glad I saw these comments as well.

Peter

[TonyD1956]

Thanks Pete,

Exactly what I was looking for.

[JohnLimas]

I almost lost my wife from a young guy who was sleeping with her every night while working night shift. I tried to trace this guy without any success, until one of my coworker showed me a service that helped me identify that a***, what I did to him is my secret but I'm happy that my wife is not involved with him anymore...


http://click-------reverse-phone-lookup-------now.com/

[Peter_Andrews7]

Hi John, sorry to hear that.

If it ever happens again, you may want to consider going with Everified.us, as they have unlimited searches with their subscription.

That's why I went with them. And again, sorry about your wife man. That must have been horrible. Hope you didn't hurt the other dude too bad.

Peter

[Clamdobber]

... Let me get this straight taliban. Your wife cheats on you, so instead of fixing the problem you beat up some random dude who is just getting laid.

Here's a hint, if your wife is cheating it's not about the guy, it's about your relationship. If your only reaction is to be a bigger dick than I'm sure you already were, guess what tough guy, she's still cheating.

Hopefully next time you're the one who gets his ass kicked, maybe it will knock some sense into you.

[JoshGeltzer]

wel i cant find a free reverse phone look up

[Kunguru]

Search "reverse phone lookup now" on Google

[evedes11]

how?

[oldoc44]

Pure nonsense! CNN needs to pull this story! There are ZERO sites for free that give complete, usable, accurate info on phone numbers.

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