Reverse Number Look Up: How to Find Out Who Called You

So you notice a missed call from someone who is not in your phone book-the unfamiliar number (with an unusual area code) appears on your cell phone's "recent calls" list. How do you find out who called you?

The easiest way is to type the whole number, with dashes, into Google or another search engine. For example, you would type 212-555-1212 into Google if that were the number on your caller ID.

From there, you would see a variety of listings for webpages that have that number along with a similar region block of other numbers in that area code. Example:

212-555-1212

212-555-1213

212-555-1214

And so forth. These web sites are designed to generate business for "reverse number look-up" services. You will likely see at the top or bottom of the webpage an ad saying the owner information for the phone number is available-for a fee, naturally.

These services charge from $10 to $30 or more for "instant access" to the phone number's information-which may include the owner's name, place of residence or business address, how long they have been a customer with the phone company, and other statistics.

Is this legal? Well, it is definitely a gray area-I would not say any of these companies are terribly legitimate because they "source" their information in different ways (the ways in which they obtain phone ownership information may not be legal) but I doubt you would be sent to prison for simply ordering an information report from one of these companies.

Once you have placed your order, the details of the number will be sent to you, generally via e-mail. I recommend you do not sign up for any "unlimited" services-after all, how many numbers do you plan on looking up in a single year? Just this one, right?

Also, before paying for a reverse number lookup service, you need to be pretty curious-if someone simply called you once or twice and then hung up, it could simply be an innocent case of them getting the wrong number.

If, however, someone is repeatedly calling from an unusual number or leaving cryptic voicemails, you should definitely consider finding out who is behind the calls-and what their motivations are. If you confront the caller with their true identity, it will likely cause them to stop. (Of course, if you suspect your life is in danger, don't play around with reverse number services-write down the phone number and go straight to the police with it. Stalking is a real phenomenon in our information age, sadly.)

With that said, for $10 or $15, reverse number services can certainly take the mystery out of an unusual call. Most services will charge you, regardless of whether they have any information for the number on file, so beware of this and choose a reverse number service that appears reputable-or at least popular.