How to Find a Listing by a Telephone Number

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Perhaps you need a listing of information (such as the name and address) for a person, business or organization, but all you have is a cell phone or land line number. Fortunately, there are resources, from reverse directories to search engines, that you can use to find more information, such as a name or address, for that phone number. Most of these resources are free.

Look it up in a reverse directory. A reverse directory (also called a criss-cross directory) lists information by name, address, phone number and other identifiers. Your local library maintains reverse directories for your region, often going back a decade or more. Ask your reference librarian to help you locate these directories. Look up a phone number by its prefix (the first three digits, such as 303).

Read More: How to Remove the Phone Number From Reverse Phone Books

Use 411.com for a reverse U.S. phone number search. 411.com offers free phone number lookups, also called reverse number searches, that searches U.S. published phone listings by a person's name or business. Go to 411.com, press the "Reverse Phone" tab at the top of the page, enter the phone number, and press the "Search" button.

Use Canada411.ca for a reverse Canada phone number search. Canada411.ca searches published Canada phone listings by a person's name or business. Go to Canada411.ca. On the left side of the screen, go to the "Find a Person" or "Find a Business" box, and underneath the box press the "Reverse Lookup" tab, enter the phone number, and press the "Find" button.

Conduct a reverse number search. There are various free search engines, such as Pipl, that offer reverse phone number searches. Go to Pipl.com, press the "Phone" link, enter the number and press the "Search" button. The results display as links to websites, blogs, and other online documents where that number appears. To find information (such as a name or address) associated with that number, you'll need to review the online content. For example, if the number appears in a website, click that link and review its content for a name, address or other information relevant to that phone number.

Locate a name for a cell phone or unpublished number. The Phone Subscriber Name Base (see References) looks up subscriber names for both cell phone numbers and unpublished land line numbers for $14.95 (no fee if no name is found).

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