It’s Getting Harder to Find a People Finder - Comments Page 1

I have been using Truepeoplesearch.com for several years. It truly is free unless you want something beyond addresses and phone numbers. It even shows people/relatives that the person may be associated with. I’ve found many lost people for a high school reunion!

Thank you for the article! I have something I have found some success with before and after so many have started trying to trick people into paying for searches. The more information I can provide on some of those sites, the more they will give me and then I use the extra they give me to do another search on their site or another. Hmmm. I think I just caught on why after typing that. Those _____ have been using me to confirm pieces I know and establish more validity. I'm assuming here but just typing it makes me think about it. I'll try the Fast People Search and hopefully not have to jump around from site to site.

The other thing I've heard and believe is that when you are searching any of these sites, they are collecting data and making sure to get a cookie in your browser. If you tend to have the same ip all the time, they might use that as well. To avoid this, I use the Tor Browser. I've used other private browsers as well but find it to be very good at masking. In fact so good that when I'm at some websites they will be in different languages. This could be annoying to some people but I find it a little entertaining. Of course in some cases, I want decent local information so I usually go into a "regular" browser. In "regular" browsers, if I don't want to get advertising for something stupid I'm searching that day, I will go into 'In Private' or 'Incognito' Mode. This is definitely not a sure thing. I also use Ad Blockers. With AdBlockers, I turn them off on sites I know I can trust or on ones that I know get most of their money from ads and if those ads are not too intrusive. Oh, getting into another topic. Will stop here.

I'll likely still use my earlier stated technique if needed for finding someone if it's important. Another way to do it is pick up the phone and call someone that knows them. ha, ha, ha Who would do that?! Just kidding but really there are times I've beat my head trying to find something but know that certain people I know have the information either memorized or quickly at hand. Probably should work smarter not harder but it seems like some kind of achievement these days to find valid information. It's good to find a way to back up the information or validate it if you're sending money to people or anything like that. "Well, you never know. Maybe someone working the 8th Step in their Big Book. LOL " Ok. Zippiing it now!!!

Not double dipping per say. I have an edit but don't see another way to do so. In the last sentence, it should say "9th Step" instead of 8th. Funny when I was typing it, I was recalling a certain president from the past that stated something about a step and was way off and I thought, "Ok. If you're going to pretend you know something in that area to 'relate' to a certain group of people, at least look it up to make sure you're memory is working well. Or, go to a meeting because it appears you haven't a long time or possibly ever. Well, there's a good chance my own advice will be taken by me now. If this is too weirdly off topic I won't be offended if it isn't published. In fact, maybe it will be a good thing. However, will hit "post comment" and let the chips or bits in this case fall where they may! : ) And, yes, I have taken the Nerd qualification test. I was a medium level Nerd. I told my co-workers that in the past and they said, "If you took a nerd questionnaire to see where you rate, you are a Nerd, don't worry!" LOL I thanked them for the compliment and moved on. : ) NOW shutting up!

Thanks for the steer, Bob. I ran a name through FastPeopleSearch and came up with a name, address and phone number for a friend. I had recently tried a lookup via DuckDuckGo and got little useful, just the usual "we have info if you will pay". Part of my issue with the pay-first folks is that you don't know what you are getting until they have the money.
I have bookmarked FastPeopleSearch for future reference.

It has been deeply disappointing and frustrating to see how the former free white-pages phone book (with Operator for local information) has been stripped and privatized and monetized. I haven't even found a free and reliable way to check for a local phone number. And I really have no good and consistent way to verify an unknown phone number that shows up on my phone or answering machine.

I have given up on any site that tries to walk me through "steps" and flashing lights and progress bars; they all want my money before showing me anything valuable, and it is clear they want to harvest my personal info to sell to others.

Will try your suggestions. Thanks for revisiting this topic.

I do a lot of genealogy research that involves finding descendants (ie, living persons). My favorite go-to site the past five years is familytreenow.com. It lists most living people, their aliases, possible relatives, possible associates, known addresses (including current and sometimes back 30+ years), phone numbers (past and current, including cell #s) and sometimes email addresses--all FREE! There is a small ad on the page for more paid information, but I have never had to use it. I have used it to find classmates lost for 40+ years. The only people who are hard to find on this site are the Amish, who are practically invisible in today's electronic, data-driven society; which, of course, is what they prefer.

Yes, good info.
But how do you get off these lists....??

May not be possible, if this data is culled (or curated as some like to say) from public records...

No more privacy now.

FastPeopleSearch does NOT work for people with a
non-US IP.

Besides needing a US IP for FastPeopleSearch, (at least for me) using a VPN with US server also doesn't work.

There may be good legal reasons for not allowing non-US users, but it's a royal pain-in-the-you-know-what

In an age when privacy is a fading concept, I am glad.

Oh dear. For kicks I looked myself up in FastPeopleSearch, and I know none of people/relatives I'm supposedly associated with. These names are totally unfamiliar to me. Bob, is there any legitimate service that gets you unlisted from these directories and other commercial web databases?

Tried Fast People Search - found lots of people, but the information provided is sketchy, wrong phone numbers, wrong addresses (current), wrong marital status, wrong life status - so I'd take what I find there with a couple grains of salt. That said it did have a lot of useful information as well. Just verify.

You can add Truthfinder to list of Co's to avoid as they also charge you $$ for info

Phone Validator played the same searching game, and wanted $1.00 for 7 days, then a monthly subscription.

From Canada FastPeopleSearch says "access denied" ...

"...there is something sleazy about many of the people-finder sites..." In this new digital era, peepin' Toms and snooping on others have become acceptable behaviors... and where our civil-liberty and privacy concerns have been forced to the back of the bus.

without the use of carets it would have read:
"...there is something sleazy about many of the people-finder sites..." : Would this similar to prosecuting a bullet for manslaughter? In this new digital era, peepin' Toms and snooping on others have become acceptable behaviors... and where our civil-liberty and privacy concerns have been forced to the back of the bus.

Do you think that Phone Validator would be a good aide to report spam callers? I think that this may be important to some people.

People Search Now https://www.peoplesearchnow.com/, True People Search https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/

The only thing Phone Validator got right about my own phone number is it's a cell number. Everything else was wrong. Actually, I am quite happy about that!