Reverse Phone Search

Ed Opperman asked:


Every successful private investigator has a tool box. On TV you’ll see a PI using a gun, lock picking tools and disguises. In real life it’s a bit less glamorous but also a whole lot more legal.

In real life an investigator will handle a telephone handset a million times more than he will ever handle a firearm. So in this series of articles we will examine the tools every PI must have in order to conduct successful telephone investigations. Reverse phone number databases, telephone trap lines and blind lines or caller ID spoof cards are all tools every investigator should have.

Reverse Phone Number Databases:

Before you can use the phone you need a phone number. Or you may already have a number but need to know the customer name and address of that number. This is where the telephone number data base comes into effect.

Every investigator should have access to databases that will return a customer name and address (CNA) from a non published or unlisted phone number. These database services will also have information on telephone numbers. They may be able to provide you with an unlisted phone number from a just a name or just an address. They also may be able to supply you with a cellular or wireless number from just a name or address.

Today on the Internet there are literally thousands of companies that offer this service. Some of these companies will only provide the information to lawyers, licensed private investigators , collection agencies or other licensed businesses with a legitimate need for this information. Other companies do not, all they require is a valid credit card. You submit your order and the information is returned via email a few minutes later.

Not all of these services are the same and not all have access to the same information. Some will have up to date information and some will have old outdated data. So do your research and homework first and try to establish a long term working relationship with your information broker.

There are also other ways to obtain reverse phone number information. You can call the number and using a pretext, perhaps in conjunction with a caller ID spoof card, and trick the person that answers into revealing their information. Likewise you might email the target or snail mail the physical address with a pretext and include a trap line number. When the subject calls the trap number their information will be revealed through automatic number identification even if they have caller ID blocked.

Obviously you can use your imagination and apply a reverse phone number search to many routine investigations such as skip tracing, current employment locates and infidelity investigations.

Our next article in this series will examine caller ID spoof cards and their use in routine investigations.

Before hiring a private investigation service be sure to perform your due diligence. Make sure the PI is considered an expert in telephone investigations. Check to see if they offer a variety of telephone investigative services such as reverse phone searches, trap lines, caller Id and even cell phone forensics.

You want to put your investigation into the hands of an expert in every area of telephone investigations.

Be careful of instant online searches that promise the world for a one time low fee. This is impossible. If it seems too good to be true it’s never going to be real. Its going to be a scam.



Caffeinated Content

Sam Lockwood asked:


rse phone search does exactly as the name implies. One simply keys in the number you’re inquiring about and before you know it, you’re provide with the details as to who owns that specific number, All in all, this is a great feature with many uses.

It would be fair to say that the leading reasons for people wanting to do reverse phone searchers, is to verify a caller’s identity, to inquire as to who owns a specific number of a call they missed and furthermore, to run a personal check on some of the numbers which have been dialled or received on a spouse or partner’s phone if there is any suspicion of cheating.

It has only been in very recent times that more and more database are becoming available and this alone has made reverse look-ups possible

Many companies have set up online businesses in recent times purely for the sake of performing reverse look-ups. Of course, being able to retrieve information regarding not only cell phone numbers, but also unlisted numbers, has meant that these companies maintain phenomenal databases of information.

Admittedly, in most cases there is a charge involved for performing a reverse look-up but considering the charge is miniscule, everyone can afford it. Alternatively, there are also other possible ways of getting this information for free.

The easiest method of doing this is via Google. Simply enter the number you want to trace into the search box, not forgetting to encase it within quotation marks. Hitting the search button will return pages of results.

In the owner of the number has used the number online on a webpage or even as part of a profile, a Google search is sure to locate it. When it does, you can then use some of that information in order to dig up further details relating to the owner.

As a rule of thumb, paid services provide both employment history and address history in addition to name and current address so if Google has let you down, you may want to consider a paid service.

The chances are, if you’ve not had much success with Google, you’ll be looking for a suitable paid service. If this is the case, be sure to use a company that only charges a single sign-up fee after which you’re entitled to unlimited searches.

While having the ability to conduct reverse phone searches may not seem essential, when one considers the extremely low cost of such a service, the feature becomes a valuable addition to your other resources.

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