How to Find Information About Someone by Their Phone Number

Half a century ago, getting to know someone for whatever reason took significant legwork. It usually meant asking around from mutually known friends or associates or visiting a local government agency, whether it is the county clerk’s office or the DMV. Even then, there was no guarantee of gaining useful information.

However, in today’s connected world, learning more about an individual is far easier, thanks to the internet and digital data aggregation. In fact, a simple phone number can help you gather an incredible amount of details while sitting right at your desk and without speaking to anyone.

Reverse Phone Number Lookup: What Is It and How Can It Help?

A reverse number search allows you to extract a variety of information about an individual using a phone number.

What you can discover will, of course, depend on the platform or tool you use. It can range from a basic name and address to more intimate or personal information, like age, marital status, work background, and financial details. Some platforms may even dig into offenses and criminal records.

But is it legal to obtain this type of information? As long as it is publicly available, there is no law preventing you from accessing it. A lot of this data is disclosed voluntarily by their owners at some point in time. Some are made available by federal and state authorities, and the internet has only made them easily discoverable.

Having said that, considering ethical boundaries is important when intruding into someone’s personal life. Without a justifiable reason, you must never violate an individual’s privacy. Therefore, assessing your requirements and avoiding unnecessary or excessive data access is crucial.

Ensuring business and personal safety is certainly a legitimate reason to learn more about a person. For example, you may receive a suspicious phone call at work or a threatening call at home. In such situations, you can reverse search the relevant contact number to identify the caller and their motives.

Sometimes, you may want to know about someone for business purposes. Let’s say you are tasked with building lead lists or updating an old client database. You can opt for a reverse phone number search in these instances, as long as you are not overly intrusive.

Also read: 10 Best Call Blocking Apps for Android Smartphones

How Can You Find Someone’s Information by Their Phone Number?

Uncovering personal data linked to a contact number can be effortless with the right tools. Here are the top ones to use.

1. Search Engines

These platforms are in the business of providing search services, which makes them an obvious choice for a reverse number lookup. How do search engines work? To put it simply, they index published web pages and use advanced algorithms to match search queries with the indexed content.

To find information using them, open a popular search engine, type in the number, and click the search button. For best results, we recommend you use Google, Bing, Yahoo!, or a similarly well-known platform.

• Pros: These tools are free to use and you can access them via desktop and mobile devices. They also work at lightning speed, generating search results in under a second.
• Cons: Algorithms identify and prioritize results based on what they think is relevant to your search query. However, what they deem a good match might not fit what you are after. As a result, you could end up wasting time going through large volumes of irrelevant content.

Moreover, accessing the pages these platforms list may not always be easy. Some could be guarded by a paywall, while others may require you to sign up. In addition, certain helpful pages might not even turn up on the SERPs due to technical glitches.

2. Social Media

According to studies, more than one in ten internet users frequent networking sites. Clearly, the popularity of these platforms doesn’t need further evidence.

Social media has created opportunities to network and connect, both socially and professionally. So, Facebook, LinkedIn, and similar sites could be the perfect places to find someone’s personal information with a reverse number lookup.

• Pros: Networking platforms offer their search services free of charge, although you may need to sign up to access some of the content.
• Cons: Not all related content will get captured in their search results. For example, private profiles, comments, and messages are typically excluded by their search algorithms. Moreover, similar to search engines, you will need to go through multiple search results to extract useful information.

Also read: Understanding Public Records and People-Finder Websites

3. Reverse Number Lookup Platforms

These reverse lookup services aggregate large volumes of data, allowing you to search US phone numbers and find information about their owners. Popular sites to use include:

• Nuwber

Nuwber is a people search engine with 325 million phone numbers of US citizens that pulls results from the broadest range of data sources. Whether you need to know who the number is registered under or just want more details about the caller, reverse search the phone number on Nuwber.

• Instant Checkmate

This platform can uncover an impressive amount of data, from criminal records to sex offender information. It is also available as a mobile app for Android devices.

• Spokeo

Using 12 billion records from thousands of sources, Spokeo caters to 22 million users each month.

• Intelius

This site has an A rating from the Better Business Bureau and deploys a proprietary data search engine to discover relevant information.

• Pros: These platforms can save you substantial time by summarizing all the important information in a concise report. They also verify and update their records regularly to ensure accuracy and relevance.
• Cons: The amount of information you can find will vary between platforms. Moreover, many reverse search sites will require a payment before giving you access to their reports.

4. Caller ID Apps

There are a variety of caller ID solutions—from Truecaller to CallApp—for Android and Apple devices. These apps are typically designed to identify callers based on user-generated databases.

• Pros: In addition to providing search facilities, caller ID apps can let you know who is calling whenever you receive a call from an unsaved number. They are usually available for use without a payment, although you can access additional features with a paid subscription.
• Cons: The information these apps can provide is often limited to a partial name or nickname, depending on how other users have saved the number on their phones.

To Summarize

Thanks to digital data, there are a number of ways now for you to learn more about an individual using their phone number. Based on what you intend to uncover, you can use search engines, social media, reverse number lookup services, caller ID apps, or a combination of these tools for your information needs.