We live in the age of internet and media. Our personal numbers find their way to the database of sales office of banks, tour operators and everyone who thought we were more susceptible to their offers on phone than in person. Every time I hear “You are selected for…” I wish I had not picked up the phone. While I try to ignore the calls from unidentified numbers, every call ignored is laden with guilt of having missed an important call.

Caller ID, also known as caller identification (CID), or more properly calling number identification (CNID) were a great help but this is not enough anymore, particularly when we don’t have the number saved or we have not received a call from that number earlier. A service called reverse telephone directory comes handy in such cases. Also known as greypages, this service has been gaining popularity lately.

Reverse phone lookup allows you to find out the name and address of a person with just a phone number to go on. Printed reverse phone directories were first produced in the United States a few decades back and were particularly used by law enforcement and a few copies placed in the public libraries. These books were produced by the phone companies directly.

In the early 1990s, a new trend developed and reverse telephone lookups started being charged by the business. Today there are a number of sites offering this service for free; these services operator combine a lot of information by purchasing access to subscriber databases of various mobile operators and phone companies.

Methods to Perform

There are various online and offline directories who provide this information. But most of these provide paid services only.

There are certain ways to perform proxy findings through free methods. Here are few tricks:

1. Search Engines

There might be cases where people have exposed their phone number in Web. So if you are lucky, you can find the number along with the details in simple web search through Google, Yahoo or Bing.

2. Social Networks

People share information over Social Networks, and there are heavy chances that one exposes it in Social Networks like Twitter, Facebook, Orkut, MySpace etc. You may just try your luck there too. Go and search in these sites.

3. Call the Number

You may try your luck by just calling the number and make the owner himself reveal the details. It does sound weird to call a number and ask for receiver’s identity, but no hard in trying.

4. Tweet the Number

Twitter is an awesome tool. You never know who is following you if you don’t have protected updates. There might be people who can identify the number and can help you to find the details.

If it is very important to find the details, you may just Tweet it.

5. Call the Online Directory

This can also be tried. Mostly directories don’t provide this service without pay, but your polite request may break the barrier. It is of course worth a try.

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So, the next time you get a call from some unidentified number just go and get a reverse phone check done. Hoping you can do that with ease.

Image Credit : mobilebond.com, columbia.edu