Free Reverse Cellular Phone Lookup

If you’re receiving strange calls from an unknown number, you may be best advised to use a free reverse cellular phone lookup and see who that mysterious person on the other end of the line is. If they are calling from a landline, you can usually find ways to discover their location, but the situation is complicated if they happen to be calling from a cell phone.

Free Reverse Cellular Phone Lookup

There are many reverse phone number lookup services out there — particularly online — but many of these cost money. It can be difficult to find one that will provide this service free of charge. Moreover, the account holder’s name is usually blocked from being displayed on caller ID if they are calling from a cell phone, a distinct difference from a regular landline.

In this way, even if you can track down their location, you cannot know for certain whether they are calling from that area. After all, they could be roaming, using a New Jersey area code while dialing in California.

Where to Look Up Phone Numbers: Call Trace

It’s typically not free, but you can do what is called a Call Trace from just about any phone, even mobile handsets. If you do not subscribe to the caller ID function on your cell phone, this is a necessary step in order to get the person’s phone number, unless you want to wait until you get your monthly bill in the mail (and even then, you may discover that the number is blocked).

To perform a Call Trace, dial *57 immediately after hanging up on the unknown caller. This prompts the telephone company to record the caller’s number, but this number may or may not be provided to you immediately: you may need to sign an authorization form before the number is released to law enforcement for further investigation. Bear in mind that the charges associated with a Call Trace can vary quite widely from service provider to service provider, being absolutely free with some network operators (like Telus)and as much as $5 per trace with others.

Some Online Resources to Consider

Here are a few websites that you may want to look into when considering a free reverse cellular phone lookup.

• myTELUS: For a reverse lookup, simply fill in the appropriate field with the number (xxx-xxx-xxxx) and they will give you whatever information is available, including the name and address of the caller. This usually does not work with cell phones, unfortunately, though they can tell you where the cell phone is registered and which service provider (Rogers Wireless, Bell Mobility, etc.). myTELUS is a Canadian website, though it also seems to work for American numbers.

• SearchDetective: When you try a reverse cell phone number lookup on this site, you are redirected to the Intelius website. Information is quite scarce, however, only telling you that the name is “available” and giving you the location (city) where the number is registered. A more in-depth report seems to cost $14.95.

• ReversePhoneDirectory: Check out ReversePhoneDirectory for three ways to look up the caller. The first redirects you to Intelius (like SearchDetective), whereas the second sends you to PeopleFinder. The third is a more conventional lookup where you provide the name, city, and state, and they do their best to give you the phone number.

[tag]free,cell-phone,reverse[/tag]