Sad News About People Finders - Comments Page 1

Bob asks "Do you know of a truly free people-finder service?"

Yes I do.

Get to know your neighbors. Join a club, a church.

Volunteer, you will bet more back than you ever give.

Smile and say "Hallo" to everyone you come across.

All the things mentioned in this article concern me, I suppose because I am older I value my privacy.

And as for getting past the road blocks by giving false information!!!!!

Sorry folks, this just scares me.

Thanks for the warning Bob. Years ago, when mobile phones were becoming popular and new Facebook add-ons were being created, I was regularly filling in forms or completing on-line questionnaires in order to gain useful information. Only to find out that either a mobile number, or some sort of payment, was required, hidden at the end of the long process. A nasty way of gathering funds for them that I found abhorrent. Sad to see that it still continues

Thanks for this Bob. I've found the same challenges. However, SpyDialer.com appears to still provide some useful free information. Also, MelissaData, offers a free Address Verify Lookup page. (the rest of their services are paid) It will tell you a fair amount about someone once you plug an address in.

Glad you mentioned these sites. Been using them since1997 and , as you describe have become problematic but really sleazy in my humble opinion. Back in the day I used Switchboard.com and Spokeo.com with great success but they too have fallen into the world of greed and sleaze. Hope someone revives a bit of integrity and usefulness back into a search site.

From what I read in your article Bob. There is no free name/address and etc look up any more on the internet. Is that correct or not.

From the title of your article I thought you were referring to peoplefinders.com. They're my first choice, followed by zabasearch.com. For phone number or address I will then follow up with whitepages.com.
But, as you say, they all are providing less and less free information.

I am afraid that, if I mention my favorite service, then someone might have it taken down. Still, I wish there were ways to trace whereabouts of people who decided to live in "glass houses." In other words, people who decided in various capacities to work for the public before moving to some other station in life (i.e. another job, retirement, etc).

The link for Social Security Administration Death Index goes to this, which is not free.
https://www.genealogybank.com/explore/ssdi/all

Good article Bob. Family Tree Now.com is still
free and does a pretty good job.

I used whitepages periodically for years to find out who was calling me from unrecognized numbers on my landline. A year or so ago WP started phasing out the "free" part - calling me a "heavy user" who had to subscribe if I used their services more than once a month. No thanks, for all the reasons cited above.

At least for IDing unknown / suspicious phone numbers, you might think that the phone companies (who assign the numbers) would find it in their best interests to collectively supply the information free. Or maybe it isn't in their best interests - they make money from every spam call dialed.

In short, I know of no free spot right now to find out who is calling.

A friend all of a sudden stopped answering emails and I could not get her by telephone, no one answered. So I went looking for her son on-line/ While many sites had the word FREE they weren't and they promised more information than I wanted, all I wanted was a telephone number. I looked up my friend whose address and telephone number I had and surprisingly it had as her relative her son (I knew his name) and his address!!!! Still could not get his phone number, even with that information for free on line. I hung up and called the telephone operator, not only did she get me the telephone number but she dialed it for me for FREE!!!!!!!!! Bring back the delivered White Pages.

Same experience here. (Wondering if the "big guys" buy up the "little (free) guys" as soon as they show up, now. Greed.) On the other hand, I've tried checking multiple sites: they sometimes show different 'free' info before asking for $$$. Not everything I'm interested in, but more than what I started with.

Some years ago phone companies started charging for "Information Calls", saying that was to encourage us to look up numbers on-line for free as that was cheaper for them to service than human operators. Now they are charging for that service as well.

I can't help but think about ATM machines which were originally a free service designed to replace more expensive teller interactions for banks.

Then there is my daily newspaper subscription which used to be cheaper than the newsstand but now includes a "delivery charge". And if I suspend my subscription when I'm on vacation, I am only refunded the delivery charge, not the cost of the undelivered paper.

I see a theme here, and I don't like it.

Google or Facebook could easily provide this information as a free service, which would put many of these paid search sites out of business. The resources of those huge companies would make it an easy task. It would also produce a lot of good will for whoever provides the service, at a time when it's sorely needed. Come to think of it, Microsoft, Apple and others might want to beat Google to the punch on this one.

My wife searched for long lost relatives and all she came up with was five people who turned out to be wackos and mooches.

Be absolutely sure you want to do something like that.

The LDS site FamilySearch/FamilyTree is totally free. But it is a family history (genealogy) site and does not provide contact information. You can email a person by going through the website, which relays your question to a specific person you designate. Some do provide their email, but you will not find them directly any other way. It is a privacy and security issue. Intended only for family history research. Not living.

The only place to access the Social Security Death Index free, to my knowledge, is thru the familysearch.org website.

Spokeo.com gives a fair amt of general info for free, but you have to pay for more details.

I have found that peoplesearchnow.com has been one of the most helpful lately.

Bob,
DexPages is free and offers White and Yellow page phone listings that are printable. It's here:
http://www.dexpages.com