Reverse Phone Search: How You Can Find Out Who's Hiding Behind Any Phone Number?

Got a phone number but don't know who it is? Maybe you've seen strange numbers showing up on your teenager's cell phone bill. Or maybe you picked up a number to call about an investment - but you suspect a scam. Or maybe you found a mysterious number in your wife or husband's things. For dozens of reasons, we find ourselves with a telephone number - but no name. You're itching to find out who it is. Not just for curiosity's sake. The safety of your family or the security of your bank account could be at stake. You need a way to discover just whose phone number you have. There's good news. You've got options. I'm a professional writer and researcher. I've discovered four different ways you can find out who's hiding behind any phone number. You can: - Call, pretending to be someone else - Look it up in a published crisscross directory - Befriend (or trick) someone at the phone company - Go online and search Let's see what's involved with each approach and discover when they work best...

Call the Number It's the simplest thing you can do. Pick up the phone and call. But pretend to be someone else to avoid recognition. When they answer, ask for a person with an unusual name not likely to be there. Say something like "Hello, is Lilly Becky there? No? Are you absolutely sure? Well, who am I talking to then?" Be a little forceful. Even sound angry, as if you think they're lying to you. This approach can rattle the other person and make them reveal their identity. Avoid this one if you're not comfortable acting. And make sure you don't call from a number that can be traced back to you! Look in a Crisscross Directory Crisscross Directories have been around since the late 1800s. They're like phone directories. But they organize their listings by phone number, or street address, instead of name. These directories are still available in print form even though most of the information is also now available by computer. Such cross-references are primarily designed for business use. Usually, sales departments rely on them to conduct direct marketing, build lists of sales leads and gather business intelligence.

The drawback is that they're expensive - costing in the hundreds of dollars or more. Still, you can usually find copies in your library, especially for the local area you live in. If you're looking beyond your own town, you probably won't be able to use the free version in the library. Get an Inside Connection Having a buddy on the inside of the phone company was classic approach for TV detectives. If you recall the Rockford Files or Mannix or any other old private eye show, they were forever pulling over to a pay phone and calling their friend, Ginger or Susie or Maggie, at the telephone company. The friend would dutifully give them whatever information the PI needed to pursue the case. Interestingly, this method actually works - even if it's a little on the shady side. If you know someone at the phone company, you can probably talk them into helping. Unfortunately, they probably won't help you once a week like on the TV shows. At some point your friend's better judgment will take over. You'll be left with nothing but numbers again. (Makes you wonder, doesn't it, just what the detective had that you don't) 21st Century Answers - The Internet Search Solution

When it comes to finding out who's hiding behind a phone number, the best way I've found is online search. Yet, search takes time. And not finding what you want quickly gets very frustrating. To help, a number of businesses exist to make reverse phone searching quicker and easier. These businesses have already found the best sources for reverse phone searching. They take you directly to the databases that have the information you need. You can find out names, addresses, and much more, starting with just a phone number. Some of these Reverse Phone Lookup services are free. The better ones cost a little. Quality always does, in my experience. If, in your case, it's not that important to get accurate information fast, then give the free services a shot. They're mostly supported by pay for performance advertising, like Adsense, which doesn't earn them much. That means the free services rarely have the money to invest either in buying data access or in creating more usable interfaces. In my case, as a professional, getting quality information quickly is important. I pay the small fee and get reliable information. But, even if I didn't write for a living and were just casually looking up phone numbers from time to time, I'd still go with a paid database service. The cost is minimal. Often a small, one-time fee covers one to three years or even longer. If I only looked up a number once or twice a year, it would still be worth it in time saved. Final Word As important as it can be, finding out personal information with just a phone number used to be nearly impossible. Today it can be quick and easy. I've found four approaches that work, but one proved the simplest and most effective. It's using a quality, reverse-phone-search service online. In a future article I'll talk about some of the reasons reverse phone search can be so important in these times. You might be surprised to hear how it not only can satisfy curiosity, it could even save your life.

Background Checks: How They Can Help Better Protect Your Small Business?

Against Crime If you run a small business, you've got a lot of worries. Besides all the normal concerns like competition and pricing and location and customer service... now security has become increasingly important. You face the threat of theft, fraud, embezzlement, scams... the list seems almost endless. When you're in business, you can run up against... - Suppliers who provide shoddy goods that you don't discover until after you've paid for them - Customers whose orders you promptly fill but who wiggle out of paying - Employees who rob you of everything from supplies and equipment to cash and services. The Federation of Small Business - a British business group reported that over half (58%) of all small businesses in the UK suffered at least one crime during a recent two year period. They concluded: "Crime, and the fear of crime, can directly impact on day to day business activities. It can damage a business image, resulting in the loss of existing customers and deterioration in the quality and range of services offered by the business, which will limit turnover (profits) and restrict business development."

When you run a small business, it's up to you to look out for your company. But how? Background Search Services on the Web Provide an Economical Answer Many of the problems that small businesses face in trying to deter crime can be helped with information available on the Internet. You can use 21st Century technology to get the better of the crooks and thieves and scam artists. But if you're not familiar with whats available, you may not realize all the important things you can find out with a good background checking service. It used to be expensive to check into someone's background to see if they were hiding anything. You had to hire a private detective or pay big bucks to an investigative agency. Not today - not with Internet databases so readily available to us. Some of the services are free. However, a business will benefit most from the more in-depth background checking services. These higher quality services usually charge a fee to subscribe, but it's smaller than you'd expect - especially considering the volumes and usefulness of the information they provide.

A year of service is often less than what you'd pay to bring in lunch for a staff meeting. Plus, the paid services are kept more up-to-date and are typically faster and easier to use. Sometimes referred to as Internet Detective sites, or Personal Search sites, the website based services give you the low-down on all kinds of formerly-hidden information. Here are the types of things you can and should be looking into for the protection of your business... Criminal Background Checks Any time your business is dealing with someone you don't know, you should run a quick check to see if they have any history of criminal activity. It's very simple to find out about: - Criminal Records - FBI Records - Prison Records - Sex Offender Status You have access to their entire criminal history if there is one. With violence in the workplace such a major issue, a simple criminal check can be a very effective way to avoid problems before they happen. Background Check for Employment (Pre-Employment Screening) If you've got a small business, you should be pre-screening each person you consider hiring. No matter how professional, or how harmless, they appear.

A small print shop franchise in Florida hired an especially friendly fellow as their bookkeeper after the owner got too busy to handle it himself. The new employee didn't offer much in the way of references but he sounded like he knew what he was doing and - big plus - he agreed to work cheap. The owner figured he would save money hiring the guy. He figured wrong. The bookkeeper drained more than a hundred thousand dollars out of the company before they found him out. Turned out he'd previously been charged with embezzlement. Something a criminal background check would have quickly turned up. Background Check Existing Employees - Make it a Condition of Employment You shouldn't check only new hires. Over time, employees can develop habits and get involved in activities you'd never suspect. So you should regularly check on existing employees. Note: this is something you should get legal advice for - but generally if it's a condition of employment and you let them know in writing, it's not invading privacy. You entrust employees with company funds or materials that can be stolen, or negotiating and purchasing power that can be abused.

Keeping an eye on existing employees is just being prudent. Too many small business owners think of their company as an extension of their family. They don't want to think ill of the people they give jobs to. Truth is, most employees are trustworthy. They just want to do a good job and get paid fairly - but they see you as the boss, not their daddy. Even in real families, the black sheep will have absolutely no conscience about turning your good will to their good fortune. Don't be so kindly that you end up getting taken for everything you own. Background Check Each Company or Individual You Do Business With You should investigate every supplier or contractor who serves your business. If the possibility of harm exists, then you need to know if someone you're in business with is likely to harm you. You can check credit, check backgrounds of the owners and managers, check the company itself for any past criminal or questionable activity. Also check customers if your dealings with them permit. Most non-retail businesses will have the opportunity to look at their customer's backgrounds for any warning signs.

Don't get left without payment for your products or services when a quick look up on the computer can resolve questions. Check both suppliers and customers out. It's just good business. Real Estate Business Transactions Are Often Easy Targets for Crime Real Estate often involves significant investment, both initially and over time. Whether you're a landlord or a tenant, you need to check out those with whom you're doing business. Using a background check service, you can: - Check Credit and determine if Social Security Numbers provided are valid - Check Tenants for past problems or criminal activity - Check Landlords for tenant actions against them or other legal problems Charity and Other Community Support Businesses frequently get called on to support their community. Charitable organizations often solicit donations, many times in sizable amounts. Before you give money freely to anyone, be sure they're legitimate by running a background check on their organization and the principals involved. Otherwise the help you think you're providing could turn around and hurt your business. Final Word Running a small business is more of a challenge today than ever before. Use online database search services to help you protect your business and keep you, your customers and your employees more secure.

People Search: How to Quickly and Easily Find Someone?

You Lost Track Of Recently my wife's sister got curious about what had happened to her first husband after they split. That marriage had ended badly and they hadn't been in contact for nearly thirty years. She tried searching for her ex-husband's name on Google and Yahoo but didn't get any hits. Knowing I do research online in my work as a professional writer, she asked if I could find out anything. I write for business and technical publications, so I use a number of high-priced databases for in-depth research. But I suggested she try a simpler alternative - a solution I use myself when I want to find someone quickly and easily. I recommended she try one of the people search database services. Even the better ones cost so little, they're practically free. Most offer a trial period. I gave her the name of one to try. She was dubious. She's not very comfortable using her computer for much more than email. Her stab at the search engines had already left her flustered. Now she was going to have to "sign up for something and learn something completely new...

oh my goodness," was the way she put it. Yet, later the same day I suggested it, she emailed back excitedly. In just minutes, she'd found out all kinds of information about her ex. It turned out that he'd done something of a turnaround after they'd broken up. Their divorce resulted from fights over his serious drinking problem. After they broke up, though, he'd eventually gone back to med school, gotten his MD and become an orthopedic surgeon. He'd even been instrumental in developing some sort of device used by other surgeons in his field. Unfortunately, the poor fellow had passed, but at least my sister-in-law found comfort in knowing that things had worked out for him after all. She remarked that even though their relationship ended in the worst imaginable way, it had started from a good point. She said she hadnt really wanted to contact him. She just wanted to know what had happened to him. Sometimes all we want is just to satisfy our curiosity about what happened to someone we've lost track of.

Most of us have an old friend or acquaintance we still wonder about. A Better Way to Find People I suspect that's what makes people searching so hot. As many as half a million times a month, someone searches on Google alone, looking for a way to find a lost person. Whether it's someone from the past with whom we've lost touch, or someone we met last weekend and yearn to see again, were always searching for others. Unfortunately, most general searches fail. Just like Googling failed for my sister-in-law. The information is out there, somewhere. But being forced to sift through so many unrelated results makes it nearly impossible. That's why I recommended she use a people search service - sometimes they're called Internet Detective services. They pull all the information spread across thousands of servers and combine it into people-specific search databases. Then when you drop in a name or an address or a phone number, whatever bit of information you have, you get instant gratification.

Up pops the latest scoop about your person. Thats totally unlike the cold mechanical response a Google or Yahoo gives: Results 1 - 10 of about 55,100,000 for joe smith. (0.06 seconds) You can almost hear the search engine yawn. By the way - most searchers don't know this - search engine results don't actually extend beyond about a thousand entries. Even when the search engine results page says they found millions and millions of hits, they don't actually bother to dig it up and give you access to all of it. They're really just estimating from their own database tables. Even they know it's a waste of time. Yawn, yawn, yawn On the other hand, it's exciting when you do a person search on a dedicated database. You find what you're looking for in seconds. Plus, you not only get current information, often you get historical data too. You find not only where the person is now but also where they lived or worked before that and before that and before that. You can sort of see your old friend's life laid bare. (Now what in heaven's name was George doing in Poughkeepsie, New York, in winter. He always hated the cold) Sometime you find a person's life didn't turn out the way you'd have thought.

That's when the Criminal Check part of the service can help you find out what prison they ended up in! When You Choose a Personal Search Service, Here's What to Look For If you decide to try out a personal search database, here are the things I've found important to consider during a review 1. Free versus Paid I've been disappointed by the free services. Their main concern seems to be to try and get you to click on some of the pay-per-click ads they're displaying - so they can make a little money. 2. Speed You want a service that responds quickly. Make sure you try it out. A fun test is to do a search on yourself. You get to check speed and accuracy! 3. Proprietary Database If a service compiles their own database, they must be fairly successful. It's costly to build and maintain. Such well-funded providers are much more likely to stay around. From a usability standpoint, it's better too. You get a single interface that you can quickly learn. And I've never seen a free service that has its own database. Most of the free services I've checked out are really just link farms - they just point you at some public or government database. 4. Training and Support Be sure you can easily learn to use any service you choose. Actually, you'll find the better services are intuitive - how to search will make sense as soon as you look at it. But better services will also provide extra, in-depth searching. If you ever need the extra, it might require you dig into it a bit before you can fully use it. Just make sure your service has easy, accessible ways to learn, like tutorials. And don't ignore support. Sooner or later you'll have questions or there will be something you need help to get resolved. It's best if they offer free, live support. Final Word Join the millions using the web to track down old friends and new friends. But make it easier on yourself by using a People Search service rather than a general search engine. Have fun finding out exactly what did become of your old friend (or even your old, not-so-friendly ex)