Do Reverse Cell Phone Directories Exist?

Copyright (c) 2011 Sandra Tiffany

What is a Reverse Cell Phone Search? It's basically an "Online Caller ID" report which provides information, when available, associated with cell phone information such as: unlisted, non-published, residential, business, Internet and pager numbers and if available the owners name, address, phone company and more.

There are many on line ads that report to have "free" or paid cell phone directories such as: Intelius.com, websearch.about.com, ussearch.com, dexknows.com, phonebooks.com, thecellsnoop.com and many more. When you click on any of these sites you will discover NONE of them offer reverse cell phone directories but they do offer other services. I clicked on Intelius and they advertise "on line caller ID" and that is not a reverse directory. A "free" phone tracker service does the same service as caller ID too. While logged into one of these "free" services, I typed in a cell phone number and was given the service provided name with carrier details, the owners name and other details.

There are two main types of reverse cell phone directories that are available online, free ones and those that require that you sign up as a member and pay a subscription fee.

Unfortunately, there isn't a free reverse cell phone directory that exists that gives you accurate results. The free service is really not worth the time because cellular phone numbers are not public record. This means that you can perform a basic search for free but you will only be provided the name of the carrier and the issuing location of the phone number. You will not receive any additional information about the cell phone's owner. If you receive a call from an unknown number and they didn't leave a message and you are curious to know where the call originated from, then the free search is perfect. However, if you want more than generic information, be prepared to pay to receive the search results.

Free reverse phone directories are only available for landline phones. Landline phones are considered a matter of public record and unless the owner has requested an unlisted telephone, you can find out the name and address of anyone using their telephone number. However, since cell phone numbers are private, they are considered the intellectual property of the owner.

Reversed wireless directories simply do not exist but there are some paid services that can on a case by case basis provide some information. It would be impossible for any carrier to make available all of the names and numbers of their customers. The telephone directory would become too large to reasonably manage because it would contain information from literally millions of different records. And this information would have to be compiled manually. The free reverse directories provide an option for you to request the owner's private information for a fee. The fee is to gain access to the cell phone provider's records.

In conclusion don't fall for any online advertisement claiming to offer reverse cell phone directories.


------

Sandra Tiffany has spent a great deal of reserach time on this topic. She has written many articles and blogs about reverse cell phone directories. On her site you will find books, articles, CD's and "The Deal of the Day." The pages on the site include Reverse Cell Phone Directory, Reverse Phone Lookup, Phone number lookup, advertisers, and Reverse look up detailed articles.

http://www.reverse-cell-phone-directory.info