Phone numbers are a little similar fingerprints; they tin reveal a lot most a person, for instance, their proper noun or where they live. If yous received a call from a number you don't recognize, the following resources tin can help y'all identify the caller before you lot ring them back.

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

  1. If someone added their number to the National Do Not Phone call Registry or had it removed from a site like WhitePages, it volition exist difficult to trace that phone number.
  2. Information technology'southward almost incommunicable to find out the identity of the person backside a mobile telephone number for free. Though with Due north American numbers, you can at to the lowest degree find where the number was registered.
  3. Moreover, many "gratuitous" services will try to sell yous their service, fifty-fifty if information technology is possible to detect the data for free elsewhere.
  4. Some countries, including the UK and Australia, have restricted the contrary lookup of phone numbers. And then if you're trying to find a number from these countries, you're out of luck.
  5. Phone numbers can go out of service or change owners. Since it can accept some time for a service to catch up on these changes, yous can never fully rely on the information you find online.

With those restrictions in mind, allow's look at the all-time strategies to check for the origin or possessor of a phone number.

ane. Google

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

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

Your Google search did not corporeality to much, then what next?

Bonus: Notice Out Where the Phone Number Is From

Before you can choose the best service to identify the possessor of a phone number, permit's narrow it downwards to a specific location beginning. Y'all can skip this step if you recognize the land and area code. For automatic location lookup, y'all tin also skip ahead and try the outset online tool listed below.

By and large, a N American telephone number consists of 10 digits. The beginning three digits represent the expanse lawmaking, meaning you tin use these numbers to narrow down the location of the number. An like shooting fish in a barrel mode to practice this is to blazon the three digits followed by the phrase "surface area lawmaking" into a Google search.

It'southward a piffling more complicated if you've received a call from an international number. You should see a much longer number, including a state code, which can be anywhere from one (eastward.g. +i for USA and Canada) to iii (eastward.g. +506 for Republic of costa rica) digits long.

Simply as outlined to a higher place, head over to Google, type in the number with the phrase "country code", and you'll get an instant answer. To find out more about the number's location within a country, you'll demand to learn more than about how their telephone numbers work.

For instance, area codes in Federal republic of germany mostly start with a zero and can exist iii to v digits long, such every bit 030 for Berlin or 0711 for Stuttgart. In a long distance phone call from Germany (country code +49), yet, the number should testify up as +49-711-xxxxxx, i.e. omitting the zero from the area code.

Now that you accept a better idea of where the telephone number is from, choose a service that covers this location.

2. Whitepages

Location: North America

Whitepages is one of the well-nigh established online services to find people and phone numbers in the US. Use this website to do a contrary lookup for North American landline and mobile numbers. Just enter the number in the Phone search field and hit Enter.

If Whitepages does non take an entry, information technology will give you some basic details nearly the number, such as its location and spam or fraud risk.

Note: Whitepages offers monthly subscription packages for users located in the United States. Premium users volition proceeds access to additional information, like mobile phone numbers and total address history. This is 1 of the more trustworthy services you'll run into when trying to look upward a phone number online.

3. WhoCallsMe

Location: International, just primarily Northward America

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

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

4. Searchbug

Location: N America

This tool tin can apace assistance you wait up the location of North American phone numbers. Just type in the phone number, hit Search, and await for Searchbug's information on this number.

If they can't notice a public record for this number, you lot'll at to the lowest degree learn whether this is a toll-gratis, landline, or mobile number and possibly where the caller is located.

Note: Searchbug will attempt to charge you for boosted information, similar the full name of the owner of the phone number, though you might be able to find it for costless online.

5. NumberVille

Location: International

This site is similar to Searchbug, but it works with international numbers, too. It appears to offer more information for free, including electric current and by addresses associated with a phone number; nosotros suspect it pulls this data from Whitepages

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

Notation: NumberVille will log and publicly brandish your IP accost, then y'all meliorate employ a VPN if you desire to stay bearding.

six. NumLookup

Location: International

NumLookup builds on direct 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 phone call to identify the owner's name. For us, this didn't work with numbers from Canada, USA, or Germany, but the service correctly identified the number's location.

Annotation: NumLookup displays a public list of recent phone number searches. While our numbers didn't show upward in that listing, yours may.

vii. SpyDialer

Location: The states only

SpyDialer will actually call the number you enter to record voicemail or verify the line is active. This is the only services that managed to place the owner of the phone number we used for testing.

Where other services claimed the data wasn't available, SpyDialer actually had the correct proper name on record.

Did You Manage to Identify the Telephone Number?

Information technology'south not easy to find the owner of a telephone number, including their proper noun and location. But hopefully, y'all accept a better idea of who's given yous an unsolicited call. If yous're notwithstanding looking for results, effort one of these reverse telephone lookup sites.

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

How to Finish Annoying Telemarketers & Robocalls From Calling You

Are you tired of existence called by prerecorded messages and robots? Here's why that happens and what yous can do to stop them.

Read Adjacent

About The Author

Tina Sieber (842 Manufactures Published)

While completing a PhD, Tina started writing about consumer engineering science in 2006 and never stopped. Now also an editor and SEO, you can find her on Twitter or hiking a nearby trail.

More From Tina Sieber