Which People Finder Sites are Legit?

Toll Booths on the Information Highway

The phrase "information wants to be free" dates back to a hackers conference in the 1980s. The idea was that people should be able to access online information freely, without roadblocks or toll booths. Information might want to be free, but more and more, the people who gather, compile and present that information want to get paid. Almost every resource I included in those previous articles is now out of business or it costs money to get useful information.

But there are still some lookup services that are both truly free and useful. One example is voter registration records. In case you didn’t know, the information you supply when you register to vote is public information, and about half of U.S. states make that information available to interested parties. Colorado’s voter rolls, for example, are updated several times per year. Colorado's Arapahoe County publishes voter lists that include name, address, gender, county, political party affiliation, birth year, and active/inactive voter status.

Other States whose voter rolls are available include Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. Search online for "Registered voters in {your state}" and you'll probably find a source. You will almost certainly find some deceased persons listed in these voter records. That’s bad for vote integrity, but possibly helpful for genealogy searchers.

If you're looking for information on a relative, or you're interested in genealogy, see my article Here's How: Genealogy Research Online. I've also found that online obituaries, typically printed in funeral home and local newspaper websites, can reveal information about people, their location, and their relatives. I’ve used some of these resources to trace my roots as far back as 1640, when an ancestor of my father came from Holland to a Dutch settlement on Manhattan Island. Does that qualify me as a “Native New Yorker”?

For years, my favorite site for looking up names, addresses and phone numbers was WhitePages. The site lets you search by name & city, and can do reverse searches to see who is associated with an address or phone number. Some lookups are still free, but more often than not, I get partial information, with a link to "View Full Report." To get past that roadblock, you have to pay $12, or sign up for a subscription that costs $6/month (for mobile & landline numbers, addresses, and reverse phone lookups), or $33/month (for mobile & landline numbers, addresses, criminal history, and public records).

Other people-finder sites operate similarly, providing teasers, incomplete hits on search criteria intended to get your hopes up that yes, it could be your long-lost brother, and then hit you up for money. Before you run off to 411.com or Switchboard.com, those are also owned by WhitePages, and work the same way. Read the offers very carefully; nearly all contain “gotchas” that commit you to subscribing to an ongoing monthly charge on your credit/debit card. They all promise you can “cancel at any time” and even offer “100% satisfaction” guarantees. But I have not tested those assurances.

One people search site that DOES provide free lookups by name, phone or address is FastPeopleSearch. This site's public records data is updated regularly, and in addition to names, it includes landline, mobile, business and residential phone numbers, as well as information for addresses (past and present). In some cases, you can also find relatives and neighbors for people all across the USA. Enter a name (and optionally the city and state) and you'll get a list of possible hits with address and phone numbers. You also can enter a phone number or address to find the person associated with it. FastPeopleSearch does offer paid Background Reports, which promise to dig up Arrest Records, Marriage & Divorce Records, Criminal Records Data, Property Records, Bankruptcies, Judgments, and Liens.

By the way, property records and court filings (for marriage, divorce and bankruptcy) are kept on file by local municipalities, and many of them are available online. Check with your town or county clerk to see if they are searchable.

Promises, Promises...

As I warned at the opening of this article, there is something sleazy about many of the people-finder sites I found in the course of researching this article. They make unnecessary noise about “connecting to federal, state, and local databases,” “establishing a secure connection,” “searching billions of records,” and so on, while displaying graphics that indicate a search is in progress.

Spyfly promises to help you "View information about yourself, friends, family, and associates that Google can't show you." After presenting you with the initial search results, which tell you very little, Spyfly hits you up for three dollars. It's only three bucks; let’s get that report, shall we? Oh wait, the $3 fee is just for a 7-day trial, and you'll be on the hook for a $29.97/month subscription. How about “no?”

BeenVerified is another site that offers to help you "Search People & Public Records." They promise to "cross-check billions of data points and dozens of data sources" and "in a few minutes" you'll have access to all the public data they can find. But it’s a game. You have to endure screen after screen and several wasted minutes viewing fake progress bars, spinning circles, and dubious testimonials before they hit you with the sales pitch. And it turns out you can't even pay to view a report, they want you to sign up for a Membership that costs $26.89/month. And you know how hard those things are to cancel. No thanks, again.

Truthfinder, Intelius, Spokeo, PeopleLooker and PeopleFinders all lead you down the same road. Your search returns minimal information, followed by a pitch to pay for a report.

In closing, I’ll mention one related free phone lookup service that I use regularly. Phone Validator can tell you if a phone number is mobile, landline, toll-free or VOIP. It also shows the phone company associated with that number. You may find this useful when deciding if you should send a text message or make a voice call.

Do you know of a truly free people-finder service? Your thoughts on this topic are welcome. Post your comment or question below…