How to find someone by their cell phone number

When was the last time you opened a phone book? Those clunky things went out with phone booths. As with physical media, the white and yellow pages have moved to the internet. If it exists, there’s a website for it, right?

You may want to look up a friend or family member. Perhaps you had a number and lost it. You may want to do a reverse number lookup to find the party behind that unknown number. Tap or click here to stop annoying robocalls.

Regardless of your reasons, cell phone directories are out there if you know where to look. Also, the more information you start with, the more accurate your results will be. Here are some ways to find someone’s cell phone number without breaking out the big books.

1. Use a people search site/people finder tool

People search sites have been around for a while. They provide information on more than just phone numbers. You can find all sorts of public records on a person without having much to go on.

True People Search is a free site where you can search by name, phone number or address. ZabaSearch works similarly, except you can’t search for someone by address. As with most “free” services, you’ll eventually hit a paywall and have to cough up at least an email address to get more details. You may also be redirected to a site that requires registration or payment.

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BeenVerified starts as a free site, but you’ll quickly realize that you need to sign up to get any information. Membership costs depend on your choice of subscription.

If you don’t like the idea of your info held by people search sites, you can have it removed. Tap or click here to delete yourself from people search sites.

2. Try a reverse number search

If you want to stick with a site designed to find people’s cell phone numbers, you have some choices. Spy Dialer boasts “billions of phone numbers” and lets you search by phone, name, address or email. ZLOOKUP and USPhonebook are free reverse phone number search sites that give results for people and businesses.

3. Social media may have what you’re looking for

If you can find the person on social media or are already connected, check their profile to see their phone number. Some people don’t provide this information, but you might get lucky.

RELATED: 6 tricks to finding anyone on social media

When you upload your contacts to a social media platform, you are usually provided with a list of those people’s profiles. That’s another place to check. Facebook requires you to enter your phone number for two-factor authentication, though you can make this data private. Tap or click here to see how.

4. Did you try Googling it?

Back to the basics. Try typing in a person’s name and any other information you may have into Google and see what comes up. You can do the same with a phone number. You will likely get hit with countless similar names and numbers, but the more info you provide, the easier it will be to narrow things down.

But be careful when doing a Google search for businesses. Sometimes the results presented are malicious. A recent example was when people searched for Home Depot through Google. The top result was a malicious ad. Tap or click here for details on this devious scheme.

As you've probably figured out already, it's not easy to find the owner of a cell number that called you, nor to find the number of someone you'd like to call. A simple, searchable "online version of the yellow pages" just doesn't really exist like we'd like it to. Fortunately, there are tools and services that can help find the owner of a cell phone number or dig up someone's personal or business numbers.

Cell phone lookup services are available in two forms: a) find a number by searching for some other information you know about the caller, or b) look up someone's number to see who owns it, called a reverse number search.

Below is a comprehensive look at the best ways to use the internet to find phone number information.

If someone is spamming you, consider blocking their phone number. To prevent someone from finding your number when you make a call, learn how to hide your number with *67.

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People Search Engines: Best for Reverse Phone Lookups

What We Like

• Best way to track the owner of a number.

• Find cell number by name, or vice versa.

• Includes lots of other identifiable information.

What We Don't Like

• Some services cost money to find numbers.

• Information is sometimes outdated, so numbers are no longer active.

8 Best People Search Engines for Finding Anyone

The best way to find cell phone numbers online is with a people finder tool. These websites gather lots of information about the person, which might include not only their number but also their full name, address, email, job history, relatives, etc.

Most of these websites let you search by whatever information you already know. For example, you can find who owns the phone number (if you know the number) or which numbers belong to the person (if all you know is their name, email, username, or address).

Some of these sites can even be used to find relatives and neighbors, meaning you could ultimately find someone's brother's phone number, for example, if all you know as a starting point is his sister's name.

One great (and free) example is TruePeopleSearch. For a fee, you can get lots of other personal details with BeenVerified or TruthFinder.

Try your best to make a people finder tool your first choice when looking up phone number information. Most of them employ techniques like web searches, social media profiles, reverse username tactics, and other methods.

02

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Social Media: Track a Number and Other Personal Information

What We Like

• One-stop source for lots of other detail about the person.

• Ideal for cell phone tracking because of the massive user base.

What We Don't Like

• Usually no search function just for finding numbers.

There are hundreds of millions of people active on various social media sites all over the world. Many people use these websites to share information with each other, and yes, that does often include phone numbers. Simply type the person's name into the site's search function and see what comes back.

Some people might have their social media profile set to private or might require you to connect with them on the service before you can view personal details like their phone number. However, others are wide open, and their phone number and other details might be entirely public.

Depending on the platform, you might be able to search for a number using the person's name and find who owns a phone number if you don't know their name, all at no charge.

LinkedIn and Facebook are two examples. Learn how to find people on Facebook if you're looking for someone's number there.

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Web Search Engine: Find Cell Phone Numbers Across Multiple Sites

What We Like

• Mobile phone search is performed across multiple sites at once.

• Lets you add accompanying data for better results.

What We Don't Like

• Many results are auto-populated and don't include valuable information.

10 Best Web Search Tricks Everyone Should Know

A reverse phone number lookup with a web search engine like Google is another useful way to track cell numbers. This is the best way to search the web as a whole to see which cell phone directories have that number listed.

If the number is posted on a blog, website, public job profile, people search engine that's not listed above, etc., it will show up here. From there, you can do some more digging on that specific site to learn whose number it is and maybe even find their email and other contact information like a physical address.

Using a search engine to research phone numbers works for not only cell numbers, but also landlines and toll-free numbers. For example, you can find an 800 number by searching "800 number" <company>, or look up a company's number with a search such as "contact us" XYZ (for XYZ's support number).

Try adding other relevant details to the search to help narrow down the results. A simple search should be enough since phone numbers are unique to each owner, but if you also know where the person lives, where they work or went to school, what the company name is, the person's first or last name, etc., it could help locate the correct information.

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Use a Site Built for Finding Cell Phone Number Information

What We Like

• They focus solely on finding phone numbers.

• Very straightforward and easy to use.

• Most are completely free.

What We Don't Like

• Usually have less information than other sites.

• Most don't show cell numbers, only landlines.

The search engine method above is useful for looking up cell phone numbers when you're not sure where exactly to search. However, if you didn't have luck with that method, there are sites made specifically for finding phone numbers and digging up who owns a number.

While most number lookup services focus on landlines, these have been confirmed to work when you're looking up a name associated with the number, or for doing the opposite (locating a number from the person's name):

• Spy Dialer: See the owner's name and where the area code is from. You can also hear the person's voicemail message.
• NumLookup: View the person's name and which carrier the number currently belongs to. It can also make calls and send texts to the number, and might even link to their social media accounts and list other details like their age, address, household members, etc.
• USPhonebook: Simple website that lets you find a number by name and find a name by a cell number search. It also lists possible relatives.
• InfoTracer: Not free, but queries over half a billion mobile numbers to match a name with the cell phone number. It also includes lots of other personal details after you pay.

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Find a Cell Number With Just a Username

What We Like

• A great choice if social media searching doesn't work.

• Can dig up multiple sites on the same person with one search.

What We Don't Like

• Isn't as guaranteed as other lookup techniques.

Much like brands, most individuals use the same username all over the web, so knowing it can help you find all the other sites where they have a profile. This is a great jumping-off point to eventually finding their cell phone number.

Instant Username Search is a neat free service that identifies where a particular username has been registered. Search for a username, and use the links that say Taken to visit each site, which will hopefully ultimately lead you to the person's phone number!

Some examples of the dozens of sites it supports includes Instagram, YouTube, Medium, Patreon, Facebook, and Reddit.

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