Reverse phone lookup is a relatively fresh technology that helps those who do not feel like talking to strangers when an unknown number is calling to check who it is. If you are a millennial, you should be familiar with that anxious feeling of “Who is that?”, “Why are they calling me?”, “Is it so difficult to send an SMS first?”. This attitude is rooted in the fact that many people born at the end of the ’80s and the beginning of the ’90s were the first generation to spend so much time at the PC and switch to online and text communication.
The point is that when someone texts or calls you online, you always know who that person is and can decide whether you want to reply. When an unknown number tries to contact you via your mobile phone, there is no such opportunity. However, is that completely true? Reverse number lookup is the tech that can solve this problem!
What Is Reverse Number Lookup?
Reverse number lookup is a pretty simple way to check who the owner of any chosen phone number is. It is called “reverse” because, unlike the regular search where you provide the name to get the number, you do it vice versa – give the number to get the name. For instance, if an unknown number is calling you, a reverse phone number search can help you with:
- revealing who the phone number belongs to;
- checking the number owner’s registration address;
- reviewing if the number is associated with any known scam or marketing program.
You may wonder why it is so important to know all these things. Well, if you are asking this question, you are not getting a lot of such calls. Everyone who sees an unknown number on the screen of their phone a couple of times a day is familiar with the feeling we mentioned.
So, how does it work? Phone number lookup services gather information online from all possible sources, like phone directories, address databases, reference websites, forums, etc. Of course, they are not too helpful if a person does not have an online presence at all, but nowadays, it is highly unlikely.
What Services to Use
There are lots of tools, sites, and applications offering services to find or identify a person by their phone number. Here are some options you can turn to if you need to do that.
GEOfinder
GEOfinder is an online platform that allows you to find out who a phone number belongs to completely anonymously. You are not required to provide any of your personal data apart from your e-mail during registration. The procedure is as straightforward as possible, making it an attractive service for everyone, no matter their technical proficiency. To identify the caller with GEOfinder, you need to follow only a couple of simple steps.
- Access the official website, enter the number you want to track, and click “Find”.
- Register with the service by entering your e-mail and paying for the subscription plan.
- Use the credentials you get to your e-mail to log into your online userspace.
- Find “reverse phone lookup” on the menu and paste the number you want to identify.
The service will take some time to analyze the information available on the internet and provide you with all the data it was able to find.
Truecaller
Truecaller is a number detector that can be installed on an iPhone or Android. Its directory is regularly updated, and it also uses available online community resources to check whether other people have ever received calls from the same number and what their comments are about it.
Truecaller has a basic free version with limited functionality and ads that pop up from time to time. If you want a better user experience, you need to purchase a premium version. Remember this, because you can often come across attractive headings about a “100% free app for finding people”, although this is not completely true. Only the basic version is free, which may still be enough if you only need to check one number at the very moment and never use it again.
Yellow Pages
Yellow Pages is a service available in many countries. In its essence, it is a huge online database of phone numbers, individual and business names, and addresses. Of course, people can extract their data from Yellow Pages, just as in the past, it was possible to remove your phone number from phone directories. However, many people simply do not know about Yellow Pages or do not bother contacting them to ask for their data to be excluded. Thus, if you know that Yellow Pages exist in your country, it may be worth trying to do the reverse phone number search there.
Important Things to Note
There are some important points that you might find useful about the services we mentioned above:
- GEOfinder has a $1, 1-day trial that can be claimed from the customer support;
- Yellow Pages are free, but the data you get from there can be less accurate;
- Truecaller apps can be downloaded from the official stores;
- GEOfinder offers other services, like location tracking, e-mail security check, and search for a lost device, which are included in the same package as the reverse phone lookup;
- GEOfinder operates worldwide.
Of course, if you know some other reliable titles, you are more than free to try them. However, be ready for the functionality to be more or less the same as the ones we listed here, and in many cases, worse in one way or another. For this article, we have chosen the 3 most reliable and recommended ones.
Conclusion
Nothing is wrong with you if you do not want to reply to an unknown caller. Do not hesitate to use phone number lookup services like GEOfinder that will help you to identify them. It is all about your comfort and, in some cases, even your safety. Phone scams happen very often and everywhere, and the best protection is to block the number before you hear the person on the other end of the line. Yes, most of the phone trackers and identifiers are not free, but when your safety is at stake, does it actually matter?
