Is Free Reverse Cell Phone Number Lookup A Scam? Must Read Before Try

For the past several days, a guy was calling me around 9:30 AM - right around the market open. However, after I picked the phone, all I heard was the background music and nobody talks. After I hang up, a few minutes later, the guy called me back, again with the same loud background music. I looked at the caller ID, it just says an unknown caller. I hang up again, he called back.... this pattern repeated for two days until yesterday I couldn't take it anymore.

I am a stock analyst, my most busy hour is right at the market open. I cannot take my eyes off the charts or getting interrupted.

After called my phone provider and told them about the time of the calls, they kindly provided me the caller's number but didn't provider further information about the caller.

I went to whitepages.com , there is a button called "reverse phone lookup", I put the phone number in, yes, the search is free, but the result is not what I want, it only tells me the number is wireless caller from AT&T at location of NYC, NY, that's not helping me much.

I wanted to get more information, the website said current name and address are available, that's great! I clicked the link, it connected my search to Ussearch.com , however, if I want to see the information, I need to pay $14.95. It also has a Premium Confirmation Service with $4.95 extra charge. The website said this service will confirm phone connection & current addresses in this report against public utilities. I don't want to pay for it. Is Ussearch legitimate? I don't know, I had some bad experience with Ussearch in the past when I made people search. So I kept looking for other free reverse cell lookups.

Next, I typed "phone number", Google search instantly took me to Phonenumber.com. At Phonenumber.com, I put the cell phone number in, this site also connected me to Ussearch.com, it's so weird.

I went to infospace.com, I made many business searches at this site in the past, it also has a search by phone feature, I put the cell number in, it too connected my reverse lookup to Intelius.com.

At Intelius Phone Lookup section, it said they found the Owner Name and Address, but the price is $14.95 if I want to look at the search result. I don't want to pay for it, I have time to find a FREE cell phone number lookup service.

I went to Google.com and did a "reverse lookup wireless search", Addresses.com comes up on the top and said "FREE cell phone search". The ad leads me to Addresses.com. I put the cell phone number in the search box, guess what, again, this website is connected to Intelius.com, it is using exactly the same page as I went from infospace.com.

I went back to Google, I did another FREE cell phone reverse lookup search, this time, I noticed CellPhoneDirectory.com is the top sponsor and with exact "free cell phone number search" on its title. I went to cellphonedirectory.com, put the cell phone number in, what a surprise, this website also took me to Intelius.com!

As I I keep searching for "free cell phone reverse lookup", Searchdetective.net is on top of the search. I went to their website, I put the cell phone number in, guess what, once again, this website leads me to Intelius.com!

Oh, boy, is there any other cellphone search sites not associated with Ussearch.com or Intelius.com?

I turned to Yahoo.com and search the same phase. Anywho.com comes up on top of the search on "free cell phone number lookup", the site is powered by AT&T, I put the cell phone number in, it said "We searched for xxx xxx xxxx, however, we could not find any listings to display.", that's an honest answer. AnyWho.com won't offer reverse cell phone number lookup as they advertised, it is so ironic from the biggest wireless phone provider.

Next, I found cell-phone-numbers.com, they offer cell phone number search, but it is at the cost of $65 per search for name and address info alone. Ouch, I left the site immediately.

Then I went to freecellphonelookups.com , this site is on top of every free cellphone lookup search, it is also connected to another paid search website, nothing is free there too.

After I wasted hours and hours in search of FREE cell phone lookup, I finally gave up. I concluded there is no such a thing as free cell phone reverse search service, free cell phone lookup is a scam.

I went straight to Ussearch.com, paid them $15 and thought I could see the name and address, bummer, they don't have it, again got burned.

It's so disappointing, again, I went back to search engine, this time I put "reverse phone lookup review", website PhoneReverseLookupReview.com showed up.

At Phone Reverse Lookup Review , they had many reverse cell phone lookup service providers reviewed and rated by accuracy and reliability.

From what I read, majority of the reverse cell lookup websites are powered by either Ussearch.com or Intelius.com , so if you cannot find anything at Intelius.com or Ussearch.com, you have to look at other sites NOT affiliated with Intelius or Ussearch.

Phone Reverse Lookup Review have done tests and made comparisons on about 50 cell phone reverse lookup providers. They ranked Reverse Phone Detective as one of the top three picks, click the link to see its full reviews. Intelius, Ussearch, and many others were also reviewed. I could search and compare results across different providers right off their website.

Reverse Phone Detective charges $14.95 per search and $39 unlimited search. From my further reading on Reverse Phone Detective from many other reviews (such as ConsumersGuide.Org, Wireless-Providers.net, etc), I see /phonereverselookupreview.com/#reversephonedetective"> Reverse Phone Detective is a very reputable company, some other sites called it the GrandDaddy in reverse cellphone search, their website said they've the largest phone directory in the U.S. with like one billion records. They have 100% money back guarantee policy. I paid $39/year unlimited search plan. I gave it a try, bingo! The good news is, they found the cell phone caller name and address, The bad news is I got even MORE information beyond the name and address about him.

It is so interesting to see so much perosnal and private information you can find through a regular phone number at the right place. Not only you can find his name and address, you can also find his race, age, marriage status, civil records, and criminal records.

My conclusion: there is NO such a thing as free cell phone look up if you want to find the accurate cell phone owner information. FREE cell phone lookup claims are misleading, phone search results can vary signficantly from provider to provider. At all sites I checked, the cheapest price for one time search is around $15, and unlimited search price is around $39. There is no free cell phone directory on Internet, at least not yet. Use with caution when you are trying to make a "free" reverse cell phone lookup.

Good luck!

After did some more reading, I think I should add some more information for these have experienced the similar situtation.

How to identify if the calls are obscene or harassing? Often times the harassing or obscene calls will show the phone number as unlisted, unpublished, non published, anonymous or private. I have seen private, these are unlisted numbers, I've not seen unpublished yet.

What is the difference between the phone number
labels of unlisted, unpublished, non published, private or anonymous? All the above labels essentially mean the same thing. Continuous, Secretive, Obscene or harassing phone calls can be very scary and stressful. Even if calls are not threatening they can be of great inconvenience. However there are various options available to you to put an end to these calls. In most cases, simply uncloaking the individual is enough to bring your problems to swift and successful resolutions.

What type of phone calls are generally considered to be harassing?

When someone calls and uses obscene or threatening language.
When someone calls repeatedly and hangs up.
When someone calls and breathes heavy or remains silent to intimidate you.

How often do I have to get these calls to consider it as harassment?

Generally any unwelcome call is harassing however your telephone company or law enforcement will not take any action unless calls are frequent. If caller threatens you with specific threats of bodily harm to yourself or your family then the phone company or law enforcement will take prompt action.

What options do I have when I get harassing calls?

The first thing to do is to call your phone company. Different phone companies have different policies on whether you should call the phone company or the police first. Some phone companies may ask you to call the phone company's local office and explain the problem. Other phone companies may require that you to file a formal complaint with local police before they will deal with the matter. You should contact your local phone company and find out what their policy is in matters of harassing calls. If the threats are serious and your life or property is threatened or if the obscene phone calls are very frequent then you should call your local police immediately and file a report and provide all details and information. You should also note down dates and times of calls and if the caller sounded male or female and describe his/her voice. If caller said anything or if there was any background noise then note down what the caller said and other details on the background noise. If any phone number was displayed on your caller ID you should note that down too.

What does it mean when sometimes my phone rings and there is no one on the line?

Often when you receive frequent hang ups on your phone line it could be that someone is checking to see if you are home or its simply harassment. It could also be calls from telemarketers who use computers for "predictive dialing" to call consumers where the computer dials many phone numbers in a short period of time. When anyone answers, the computer finds a sales representative who is not occupied at that time and connects the call. If all sales reps are busy then consumer may hear only silence. These type of calls are called "abandoned calls." If you are receiving many abandoned calls in a day, you can call the annoyance department of your local phone company. If these repeated calls are from a malicious individual who is harassing you rather than a telemarketer, the phone company will generally report the number to law enforcement.

What options do I have to stop other kinds of unwanted calls?

To avoid unwanted calls you can use many services offered by your phone company. Call Screen (*60): Your phone can be programmed to reject calls from selected numbers with a service called Call Screen (Phone companies might use different names). Instead of ringing on your line, these calls are routed to a recording that tells the caller you will not take the call. With Call Screen, you can also program your telephone to reject calls from the number of last person who called. This allows you to block calls even if you do not know the phone number. Most phone companies charge a monthly fee for this service. However Call Screen is not a foolproof way to stop unwelcome calls. A determined caller can move to a different phone number to bypass the block. Also, Call Screen does not work on long distance calls from outside your service area. You can also use Priority Ringing: You can assign a special ring to calls from up to 10 numbers - calls you are most likely to want to answer. The rest can be routed to voice mail. There are ways callers can get around Priority Ringing when it is used as a screening tool. Harasser can switch phone lines and avoid the distinctive ring. You can try Call Return (*69): This service allows you to call back the number of last person who called, even if you are unable to answer the phone. Some people suggest that Call Return can be used to stop harassing callers by allowing you to call the harasser back without knowing their phone number. Use caution with this method of discouraging harassing callers, however, as it could actually aggravate the problem. This service is paid on a per-use basis. You can use Caller ID to identify the caller if they are not blocking their number or use a service offered by most phone companies called Privacy Manager. It works with Caller ID to identify incoming calls that have no telephone numbers. Calls identified as "anonymous," unavailable," out of area" or "private" must identify themselves in order to complete the call. Before your phone rings, a recorded message instructs the caller to unblock the call, enter a code number (like inbound call blocking devices mentioned above), or record their name. When your phone rings, you can choose to accept or reject the call, send it to voice mail, or send a special message to telemarketers instructing them to put you on their "do not call" list.