If you're reading this then chances are that you have a little problem in dealing with calls coming from a number unknown to you. With landline phones its a lot easier to block incoming calls from unwanted numbers, and its also a lot smoother to find listings for such numbers, but when it comes to the cell phone - the difficulty of such a task of attempting to figure out a mysterious caller is greatly magnified, and considering that the majority of the world owns and uses cellulars, the problem just gets a lot worse.
What to do if its a landline number
If the incoming call is indeed coming from a landline, its a simple matter of investigating the number in the white pages or even yellow pages. If that doesn't work then you can also attempt to do this online with an actual phone number directory. Again, if this does not work, try doing a refined search of the number in a search engine such as yahoo or Google and see what comes up.
What to do if its a cellular number
If by this point you are still at wits end, you may wish to try using a reverse phone number lookup directory, which doesn't guarantee results, but have been known to be successful in helping people track down a number unknown to them. Usually what happens with these is you take the strange phone number that you have and enter it into a search field. Once you do a search, different types of results may be returned based on this number.
What to expect
In most cases you can find out at least a name of the owner that the cell belongs to, and sometimes other detailed information, some of which may or may not include address, state, service provider, and other kinds of data. Now, there are free lookups, but prepare yourself to get unsatisfactory results back, as is often the case. An actual service that you pay for is more than likely to have a much larger database of cell numbers, so going with such a directory would no doubt increase your odds of getting information.
Are reverse phone number lookups expensive?
In most cases they are not. The directories that are paid services act as compilers of phone information for people who are in need, and so in order to collect such data, they too have their dues to pay.
The great thing about these is they are generally very cheap, and most of these types of information providers will only charge you a one time activation fee at the start, and then allow you to use the directory unlimited for the rest of the year. The fees with these organizations are usually non reoccurring, so if you forget about them - they won't continue to charge you year after year.
What happens if I don't find the person I'm looking for?
Most of these services will allow you a refund if you cannot locate the owner of the unknown number. In some cases these services have also been known to work with their customers to track down the number to ensure that they are satisfied.
Regardless, make sure that if you decide to use such a service that they clearly state whether or not there is a money back guarantee or not, and what the details of such a return are.
Are these legal?
Yes, and in fact people use reverse lookups every day. They originally started out exclusively used for law enforcement purposes or emergency response teams, but in recent years have been made widely available to the public.
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