Telephone numbers are a piffling like fingerprints; they can reveal a lot about a person, for example, their proper name or where they live. If yous received a phone call from a number you don't recognize, the following resource can assist you identify the caller before you ring them back.

Several online tools let you reverse lookup and possibly identify who a telephone number is registered to. Unfortunately, you'll probably run into several limitations with whatsoever phone number identification:

  1. If someone added their number to the National Do Not Call Registry or had it removed from a site like WhitePages, information technology will exist difficult to trace that phone number.
  2. It's nearly impossible to observe out the identity of the person behind a mobile phone number for free. Though with N American numbers, you tin can at least find where the number was registered.
  3. Moreover, many "free" services volition try to sell you their service, even if it is possible to find the information for free elsewhere.
  4. Some countries, including the UK and Commonwealth of australia, accept restricted the opposite lookup of phone numbers. So if you're trying to find a number from these countries, you lot're out of luck.
  5. Phone numbers tin can get out of service or modify owners. Since it can take some fourth dimension for a service to take hold of upward on these changes, y'all can never fully rely on the information you notice online.

With those restrictions in mind, let'south look at the best strategies to cheque for the origin or owner of a telephone number.

1. Google

Searching for a phone number on Google.

This is the creature strength method of identifying a telephone number, but it's quick, easy, and completely free. If the call is from an official or otherwise public source, a search engine like Google or DuckDuckGo might come up up with every terminal detail about the location and owner of the phone number.

The screenshot below, for example, shows the Google outcome when searching for the number of the National Do Not Call Registry.

Your Google search did not corporeality to much, so what side by side?

Bonus: Find Out Where the Phone Number Is From

Before you lot can cull the all-time service to place the owner of a phone number, let'southward narrow it down to a specific location first. You lot can skip this step if you recognize the country and area code. For automatic location lookup, yous tin can also skip ahead and try the beginning online tool listed below.

Generally, a Due north American telephone number consists of x digits. The first three digits stand for the surface area lawmaking, significant y'all tin use these numbers to narrow down the location of the number. An easy way to practice this is to type the three digits followed by the phrase "area code" into a Google search.

Searching for the area code of a phone number on Google.

It's a picayune more complicated if you've received a call from an international number. Yous should run across a much longer number, including a country code, which can be anywhere from one (e.thou. +ane for U.s.a. and Canada) to three (due east.chiliad. +506 for Costa rica) digits long.

Just as outlined above, head over to Google, type in the number with the phrase "country code", and you'll go an instant reply. To notice out more about the number'due south location within a land, y'all'll demand to acquire more than about how their phone numbers piece of work.

For example, area codes in Germany generally start with a nada and can exist three to five digits long, such as 030 for Berlin or 0711 for Stuttgart. In a long distance phone call from Germany (country code +49), however, the number should bear witness upwardly equally +49-711-xxxxxx, i.e. omitting the zilch from the area lawmaking.

At present that yous accept a amend idea of where the phone number is from, cull a service that covers this location.

2. Whitepages

Whitepages Phone Number Lookup offers people search, reverse phone and address looking

Location: North America

Whitepages is one of the most established online services to find people and phone numbers in the Us. Use this website to do a reverse lookup for N American landline and mobile numbers. Simply enter the number in the Phone search field and hit Enter.

If Whitepages does non have an entry, it will give yous some basic details about the number, such equally its location and spam or fraud hazard.

Note: Whitepages offers monthly subscription packages for users located in the U.s.. Premium users will gain access to additional information, like mobile phone numbers and full address history. This is one of the more trustworthy services you'll encounter when trying to look upward a phone number online.

3. WhoCallsMe

WhoCallsMe Reverse Phone Lookup

Location: International, just primarily N America

Practise y'all suspect that you're receiving unsolicited calls from a scammer, telemarketer, or a pollster? Then this is the service you should endeavour. Enter the number in the search field and hit Search.

WhoCallsMe volition tell you everything it knows about this number, including its location and any reports information technology has collected from other users. In one case yous've entered a number, you lot can contribute to the service's database by leaving your own notes nigh the caller.

4. Searchbug

Searchbug Names Numbers Now

Location: North America

This tool tin quickly assistance you look upwards the location of North American phone numbers. Only type in the phone number, hitting Search, and wait for Searchbug's data on this number.

If they tin't find a public tape for this number, y'all'll at least learn whether this is a toll-gratis, landline, or mobile number and perhaps where the caller is located.

Note: Searchbug will try to charge y'all for boosted information, like the full proper noun of the possessor of the phone number, though you lot might be able to observe information technology for free online.

5. NumberVille

Search international phone numbers and find the owner and location.

Location: International

This site is similar to Searchbug, just information technology works with international numbers, as well. It appears to offer more than information for free, including current and past addresses associated with a phone number; we suspect it pulls this data from Whitepages

We also had the impression it was more up-to-engagement than its competitors, such as ReversePhoneLookup or SpyDialer.

Note: NumberVille volition log and publicly brandish your IP address, then you improve use a VPN if y'all want to stay anonymous.

vi. NumLookup

Location: International

NumLookup builds on straight partnerships with telecom companies around the world, including AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile. Each time someone enters a phone number, they make a realtime API call to identify the owner'southward name. For the states, this didn't work with numbers from Canada, U.s.a., or Germany, but the service correctly identified the number'due south location.

Note: NumLookup displays a public list of recent telephone number searches. While our numbers didn't show up in that list, yours may.

7. SpyDialer

SpyDialer results of a reverse phone number lookup

Location: Us only

SpyDialer volition really phone call the number you enter to record voicemail or verify the line is active. This is the simply services that managed to identify the owner of the phone number we used for testing.

Where other services claimed the information wasn't bachelor, SpyDialer actually had the correct proper noun on record.

Did Yous Manage to Identify the Phone Number?

It'south not piece of cake to discover the possessor of a phone number, including their name and location. Only hopefully, you have a better idea of who's given yous an unsolicited call. If you're still looking for results, endeavour one of these reverse phone lookup sites.

Have you been on the receiving end of spam calls? Larn how to block those unwanted calls one time and for all.

How to Stop Annoying Telemarketers & Robocalls From Calling You lot

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