Reverse Mobile Phone Number Lookup

Reverse Lookup For Mobile Phones

If you're looking for the owner of a phone number, a search engine query may tell you for free. If the phone number belongs to a business there is a very good chance it's on the Web somewhere, and search engines have indexed it. If it's a residential landline phone number the odds of finding it online are slimmer but still realistic. But if it's a mobile phone number, you are probably not going to find it online free of charge. That doesn't mean you can't find out who is calling from a mobile number - it just costs money.

Reverse mobile phone number lookup services have to collect databases of mobile phone numbers the hard way. In the U.S. and many other countries, mobile phone number data is more highly protected by law than residential or business landline numbers. That's because receiving calls on a mobile phone often costs the recipient money (unless you're on an unlimited-calling plan) while most business and residential number get incoming calls for free. So laws have been passed that forbid mobile phone companies from selling their customer databases to third parties, as the other types of phone companies do. Therefore, reverse mobile lookup services have to collect mobile numbers and the customer data associated with them one number at a time.

They often do it by offering reverse mobile free of charge - one time, and only after you give the company your mobile number, name, address, etc. That's how reverse mobile services get many of their records. Of course, then your personal information is up for sale, too!

Reverse mobile services generally tell you a little bit about a mobile number that you enter at their Web sites, such as the name of the mobile provider that issued the number, and a best guess as to the geographical information of the number's owner. "Yes, the full record is available including the mobile phone owner's name, billing address, etc..." But to get the full report costs around $15. Many reverse mobile lookup services have monthly or annual plans as well, presumably for people who get a lot of crank calls or make a lot of debt collection calls.

Some sources estimate that reverse mobile service providers cover about 80 to 90 percent of all active mobile phone numbers. But we can never know for sure. All we know is there's a significant chance that a reverse mobile lookup will find no results. That's why most reverse mobile services offer a money-back guarantee: if they don't find the information you want, you don't pay.

Some of the better-known reverse mobile lookup services include ReverseMobile.com; CellPhoneRegistry.com; and the reverse mobile lookup subsection of ReverseRecords.org. (Don't let the .org top-level domain name fool you; these guys charge money like the rest.)

Yes, it's quite a bit more expensive than calling your local phone company's directory assistance operator for a landline phone listing. Reverse mobile lookup exists because there is a need in the marketplace. And it costs a lot because a) it's difficult and expensive to gather mobile phone information and b) people really, really want it!

Do you have experience using a reverse mobile phone lookup service? Post your comment or question below...