Free Reverse Cell Phone Lookup Misleading Or Outright Scam?

Is there a FREE reverse cell phone or unlisted phone look up service?

Many places online advertise “FREE cell phone look up services”, but in actuality the only really beneficial no-cost directories to be found are of land line phone numbers. Why is this? Because for a very long time, land line numbers have been openly published. The phone companies consider cell phone numbers to be private and are reluctant to release those numbers. Also, your cell phone bill is usually based on time used. Knowing that their customers don’t want to waste usage time, the cell phone companies refuse to publicly provide cell phone numbers.

So, you won’t get much useful information from these “FREE” services if you’re looking for unlisted or cell phone number information. You can get some very general information from some of them, but not the name and address of the owner of the number.

Recently I desperately needed to put an end to some obscene phone calls from a sicko unknown caller. For about a couple of weeks, I had been receiving calls from a no ID number. When I answered the phone, the caller said nothing but started panting and making sexual grunts and sounds. I found these calls frustrating, annoying and a little scary. The frequency of the irksome calls began to escalate on a daily basis.

Finally, I did call the police who told me that there wasn’t much they could do since no actual crime had been committed. The police did tell me that I could call my phone provider and give them the exact time of the call or calls and that my phone provider would probably give me the originating phone number. This information did help somewhat, but since the calls were coming from a cell phone, I still didn’t know who was making the aggravating calls.

Armed with the cell phone number of the persistent culprit caller, I fired up the old PC and began to search the Net for the elusive “Free Cell Phone Lookup Service”.

Googling for a “Free reverse cell phone look up service” is a maddening counterproductive activity, that is if you’re looking for real information like the identity and address of an obscene caller. Here a click, there a click, everywhere a click, click… I clicked every “FREE” Cell Phone Lookup Service that I could find only to discover a dead end with each subsequent frenzied click of the mouse. Basically, I got a large dose of the Online Runaround, something almost everyone has probably experienced at one time or the other. Every so-called FREE service that I tried eventually led me to a paid service costing from $4.95 up to $14.95.

Some free cell phone lookup websites do exist, but they offer only limited information about a number. These sites "decode" cell phone numbers to help you determine the issuing location, carrier, and other publicly available information.

In general, you'll be able to find out whether the number belongs to a cell or a land line, what mobile service provides the number, and which city and state the cell phone number comes from without ever paying... but the actual name and address of the registered user of that cell phone number won't be available (unless you get extremely lucky). I wasn’t lucky!

After a couple hours, I finally got the message, the only way I was going to put a stop to the stinking phone calls was to use a premium paid cell phone lookup service. Paid reverse Cell phone directories are created manually by large companies who collect the information from various services. The process of compiling and creating these databases is very expensive and time-consuming which is why there is a charge for the information. I guess they have to pay their bills too!

A word of caution… A large number of sites have popped up on the Internet offering cell phone lookups for a fee. Considering the limitations of these services, the fees can be very steep. Some companies actually have tried to "skip" the process of building cell phone databases. These services just give you a list of services that sell these lookups and disappear when you ask for a refund. That money will just disappear, and you'll be back to your search... so why not go "straight to a proven source" from the beginning?

There are a number of reputable Reverse Cell Phone Lookup Services online that offer a money back guarantee service. The best services give customers free search assistance and are backed by a 100% no-quibble, no-strings attached guarantee. You’re either satisfied or you’re not…and if you’re not, then you don’t pay. Period!

After checking with Phone Reverse Lookup Review and http://ConsumbersGuide.Org, I used Reverse Phone Detective with very satisfactory results. Considered the Grand Daddy in reverse cell phone search, their website has the largest phone directory in the U.S with approximately one billion records. I gave Reverse Phone Detective a whirl and bingo, bingo, bingo; they found the cell phone caller name and address. Additionally, they found his race, age, marital status, civil records, and criminal records.

This was really more information that I was looking for, but now I had the information I needed to confidently put a stop to the annoying phone calls. I called the guy up right from the phone he had been calling me, he evidently recognized my caller ID because I never heard from him again. If he had answered my call, I could have told him that I have completed an investigation and that I now know who he is, to stop calling my number, or I will take immediate legal action. Knowledge is power isn’t it?

While free cell phone lookup services may be appropriate if you're only looking for very general information (like the phone issuing location), you won't find much information that will help you if your object is to identify the psycho who is calling you repeatedly. If you're serious about determining who is calling you, then use a premium paid service.

In conclusion, there are some “Free Cell Phone Lookup Services” on the Net, however these services provide only limited general information. For the most part, their claims are misleading if you want to find the accurate cell phone owner information. There are rare instances where you might actually get the owner’s name and address, but as a usual course of events you will be directed to a paid premium site for that pertinent information.