How to Figure Out Who a Phone Number Belongs To

There are many instances where you may need to match a phone number to a real person’s name. Maybe you got a text message from an unknown number. Perhaps you saw a call from an unlisted contact appear repeatedly on your partner’s home screen. Whatever the case, here are some of the best ways to nail the person’s name behind a number and find out how or why they’re calling.

How to determine if a real number is involved

There are tons of apps and online services that can give you a secondary phone number, e.g Google Voice and Text Free. Some of these add a small note at the end of text messages, e.g. B. “This message was sent with [app name]”, but not all. If the person is using a throwaway number or a third-party app to contact you, it’s harder to figure out who they are, but you could point out if their motivation is shady. Your first task is to determine if they do.

Step one here is to save the number as something like “Mystery Caller”. If you have an iPhone, open a text thread with your new contact. If you get a chance to use iMessage instead of texting them, they’re using a real iCloud account, which is a solid signal that this is their real number. Just being able to text them doesn’t automatically mean you’re dealing with someone using a third-party messaging service. You could just have an android.

We’ll get to your reverse lookup options in a moment. Some reverse lookups can tell you if the person is using a real phone number supported by a cell phone provider, but this is becoming increasingly difficult due to the proliferation of these services and the different terms used to describe cell phone numbers, prepaid numbers, and the like. delicate. If you’re feeling brave, block your number with the tried-and-true *67 and then call the person. In some cases, a third party will play audio that says something like “Hello. Please enter your name after the tone and Google Voice will try to connect you.” If you don’t hear something like this after a ring or two, it could be a signal that the person is using their real number.

How to look up a phone number backwards

There are many reverse phone number lookup websites on the internet that you can use to find out about your mystery contact. You may have to pay money here. White pages provides reverse phone lookup, for example. I just entered my real phone number and it correctly showed my hometown where the number is registered and found that it is a number associated with a mobile phone. When I clicked the button to show the owner’s name, I was prompted to pay $9.99 for a single report or $2.50 per month for regular access to reports.

I then entered a phone number that I know is a Google Voice number. It didn’t show me any location data (although the area code a third party user can select is in Manhattan) and it identified this as a “landline”. If you receive SMS from an unknown number that comes back as a landline number, you can assume that it is a third-party app.

More detailed searches, such as Intelius, can give you a lot of information about someone for a fee, but doesn’t always return results for third-party apps. If your contact uses their real phone number, you can get information by typically paying around $1 for a one-time report (although Intelius may charge a service fee of around $3.99).

Use the apps you already have

This is where it gets fun. Using reverse lookup tools is effective in many cases, but there are other methods as well, especially if you don’t want to pay, don’t trust these sites, or don’t get any hits. Social media is a great tool here.

We have already told you that You can use Snapchat to find out who is calling or texting you by saving the person’s number and then going to your friend suggestions where you’ll see them at the bottom of the list (if they have a Snap). If you use Snapchat, note that it will automatically fill in yours contact name for them, so you may see them as a “mystery caller”. If you look at their username, you can find out who they are. (This also applies to Clubhouse and Signal. You’ll see their contact name, not their real name, but at least you’ll know they’re contacting you using the number they use for their social networks.)

Instagram Second hand to suggest people whose number you have saved, but it’s not that reliable anymore. TikTok is good because it suggests you follow people who are in your contacts and you can click on their profile (with profile view option disabled) to see if you recognize them, but be careful here. TikTok has also started reverse-suggesting contacts, meaning your target might get a suggestion to follow them she. TikTok shows users why each suggested episode is shown. You’ll notice that some of your suggestions say “From your contacts.” In some cases, the suggestion is, “You’re in their contacts.” For example, if you’re looking for someone who hit your friend or significant other, you could give yourself away that way.

Finally the GOAT: CashApp. You can enter a phone number in CashApp and it will show the associated account if the person has one. If they have one, you won’t see your contact name, as in most cases people have their real names (or initials) on finance-related apps.