Reverse phone number lookups have become a popular method of finding the identities behind unknown numbers. You might need to check the number of a person whom you have recently met online. If you are a small business owner, you might use reverse phone lookups to compile addresses of your clients for follow-up mail campaigns. Basically, everyone - from suspicious spouses to bounty hunters uses reverse phone searches nowadays to help in their business.

The question most people have on their minds, though is what is the most effective way to track down phone numbers and how to avoid scams? In the rest of this article we shed some light on this and other issues of concern.

The first and most important question on everyone's mind is whether an absolutely free reverse phone lookup service exists somewhere on the Internet.

The answer is "No". That’s the long and short of it.

The famous White Pages directory can be used to trace published landline numbers free of charge but if the number belongs to a cell phone or is unlisted, then this directory won't help you. And we all know that most people use mobile phones to make over 80% of their everyday calls.

Cell phone numbers aren''t collected in a central directory and major providers like Sprint and Verizon don't publish a free or paid directory for the wireless numbers they service for privacy reasons. (Refer to "The Truth About Wireless Phones And The National Do-Not-Call List" by FCC below)

Some free cell phone lookup websites do exist, but they offer only limited information about a number. These sites "decode" cell phone numbers to help you determine the issuing location, carrier, and other publicly available information, but the actual name and address of the registered user of that mobile phone number won't be available.

Yet, there are hundreds of web sites that advertise "free" and information packed reverse phone lookups for any U.S. number. This shouldn't come as a surprise. Online businesses have long known the power and magic of the word "FREE" - it is only human to click on anything that has this word attached to it. So, no wonder that after you land on one of these "free" sites, you will soon discover the fine print or will simply be redirected straight to the checkout page.

There is no national cell phone directory and cell phone searches are not free, period.

What about paid cell phone directories?

These services use various public and private sources and deep web crawl techniques to acquire cell phone records and compile them into huge databases for you to search. While there are many such services online, not all of them are created equal. First, there is no directory that can find 100% of cell phone numbers simply because they are non-published. The currency and, thus, accuracy of data also varies. We provide the most current data available because we use several databases, not just one, so you stand a better chance to find the most reliable information on almost any phone number.

The next most common question people have is about real time cell phone location tracing and private number ("private caller") call tracing.

To keep a long story short, we do not provide the real-time location tracing of cell phones. And nobody has this technology except emergency services like 911. So, all those advertisements about free location tracing are either false or they imply something else.

The first thing they may be talking about is a type of Family Locator plans that have recently been introduced by most cell phone providers. Another option is to use a cell phone spy software or some other type of cell phone spyware that can be installed on the mobile phone to trace its owners activity. Clearly, both methods require either physical access to the phone (e.g. in order to install spyware) or some control over the person's cell phone plan in the case of Family Locator. (You may wish to refer to the reference below for more information about cell phone location tracking software)

Finally, the private number (no number) calls. This question is as common as the one about free phone searches.

There are cases when people receive harassing or threatening calls and they need to track them down because police and phone companies are usually of little help in these situations.

The first thing you should try is using code *69 right after the call. This may work in some instances and you will either hear the last number that called you or the last number will be automatically redialed for you. This rarely works for "Private Caller" calls, though.

The next thing to do is to log onto your cell phone account online and check the call history -the private number may come out. Just check it against the exact time of the call in question.

The final trick on our list is to forward unanswered private calls to a toll-free number instead of voice mail. Caller ID cannot be blocked to toll-free numbers. You can use TrapCall - a service that employs conditional call forwarding to unblock "Restricted", "Blocked" and other private mask calls. Visit their web site for more information.

References:
1. "The Truth About Wireless Phones And The National Do-Not-Call List", FCC 2008: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/truthaboutcellphones.html
2. "Cell Phone GPS Tracking", GPS for Today, 2009 :
http://www.gpsfortoday.com/cell-phone-gps-tracking