How To Find Who’s Behind A Phone Number

Posted by hasnain shah alam on December 9th, 2020

Defining Reverse Phone Lookup

Reverse phone lookup is defined as the process of finding the name of the unidentified person who is calling through the telephone. In previous times when the facility of computers and smartphones wasn’t made available, people usually looked up the phone directories. Reverse phone directories were published and were mostly utilised by security and law enforcement agencies. Sometimes also called the cross directories, these printed phone books had yellow and white pages. However, this practice has gone obsolete with the advent of digitisation. 

Now, the yellow and white pages have all been digitised. Instead of utilising the old-school method of manually searching up a phone number, you can simply type the digits into the vast databases of these applications, and get instant results. Additionally, due to the simplicity of this approach, the digital age also provides more detailed results. 

You can uncover the identity of the person to whom the number is registered, along with finding relevant information about the state/city in which the number is operated. As a result, now you can invest less time to gather more details.  

Why Do People Look Up Phone Numbers?

There are a plethora of factors that lead people to find who is behind the call, rather than answering the phone call. According to many expert solicitors and private investigators, this mostly happens due to fear, a scam, or money-related concern, and in some circumstances, it’s also due to love.

Let’s dive a little deep into these three factors:

Fear Or Anger: It’s quite unfortunate that there is a vast majority of people who get harassed and bullied over the phone. These bullies and harassers don’t use private numbers anymore, mainly because nobody would pick that up. Instead, they call through regular phone numbers. So, if a person wants to know who is tormenting them, they must first find out the owner of that number. They can only get the police involved once they’re sure about all the personal details of the other person, which includes name and address. 

Additionally, as the police department in the United Kingdom is preoccupied with intense cases, they fail to prioritize your complaints, especially if they feel that there is no evidence of a threat involved. Taking this into account, it is essential to find out all the details of the individual, before getting the law enforcement authorities involved. 

Love and Relationships: This is the strongest factor that causes people to look up numbers. Unfortunately, cheating has become a very common practice in society today, and this is why people are most curious about who is calling. When people have a history of mistrust and other relationship issues, one of the partners- or sometimes both, will frequently try to check the phone of their significant other. If they regularly see unknown numbers appearing, they will have all the reasons to be suspicious, and so, they will look up the number. 

Money: This majorly happens when people are trying to dodge someone they owe money to. Sometimes when people borrow big sums of money from others, and due to bad luck, they end up in a position when they’re unable to pay it off, the only solution they see is to disappear. They stop attending calls, change numbers, and all these tactics trigger the other person to try calling from new numbers. This is when the need for looking up numbers arises. Reverse phone number searches return you with the suspect’s name, area of residence, as well as other relevant details. As a result, the debt collection agency can send warning letters to the accurate address. 

Reverse Phone Lookup Procedure

When you’re searching for information and trying to work out the reverse phone lookup, take care of two important areas. Firstly, know that information can be taken from any number, but you need to have an affordable and inexpensive database that also should be updated. 

The information you can take:

• Name of the city and the postal code of the area

• Judging the city by the first three digits of the phone number

• The telecom company that owns that number

• See if the phone number is cell phone, landline, or has other purposes

• The start date of working for this number

There are various tools that the local calling guide will provide you. These tools will help you in testing this out. 

The second important thing to look for is the information of the name and address behind the particular number. This information can be complex at times.

Where Does The Data Come From?

This mostly depends on which type of phone is in use. We all use three types of phones mostly: the landline, cellphones, and the VOIP (telephones that require internet, which is usually provided by the cable provider).

Starting with landlines, the names and addresses are very easy to find. Note that when you call a phone directory to provide a name and city for someone, the operator immediately provides you with the phone number against that information. Similarly, when you’re going the other way around, that is by providing a number to ask for a name and address, the process is equally immediate. 

For VOIP (voice over IP), you won’t find these companies integrated with directories mostly. The chances are bright if the subscriber had asked to enable their called ID.

In the case of Mobile phones, the case gets fairly difficult. This is because there is no directory assistance for cell phones and so, data has to be fetched from various places. Generally, firms that provide reverse phone lookups for cell phones get this information in bulk from a plethora of sources where information is stored. 

However, if you are dealing with a sensitive case, it is better to let the professionals handle it for you. A private investigation firm can carry out an in-depth investigation in a discrete manner. Schedule a consultation session with Private Investigations UK to discuss all the relevant details regarding your case.