If you’ve found a phone number on a piece of paper or keep receiving calls from unknown numbers, you may wonder who owns the phone number and why they’re contacting you.

Fortunately, there are several ways to find out the owner of a phone number. In this article, we will explore some of the most effective methods to help you uncover the origin of a call or text from an unfamiliar number.

1. Use Search Engines

A web search engine like Google, Bing, or Duckduckgo is one of the best ways to find people online. This can broaden your online research across thousands of sites.

All you need to do is enter the entire phone number into the search field, click search, and see what comes back. If you’re lucky, you might be able to get the owner’s details in one search.

2. Use a Reverse Phone Lookup Service

The most straightforward way to look up someone’s information with a phone number is to use a reverse phone lookup service.

The reverse phone lookup allows you to enter a phone number into a search bar, and then the service searches its database to see if there’s any information associated with that exact number.

There are both free and paid tools you can use. We’d recommend that you start with free tools such as Truecaller, Fast People Search and True People Search. Note that many other tools also claim to offer free reverse phone lookups, but during our test, most of them don’t show you the results until you pay for them.

A free reverse phone lookup can provide you with basic information like a name and address. If you wish to dig deeper into the details, a paid reverse phone lookup might be helpful. We’ve compared the leading reverse phone lookups and below are our top picks:

1. Intelius
2. PeopleFinders 
3. BeenVerified
4. Spokeo
5. Whitepages 

The tools should be able to pull out more comprehensive information on individuals, including:

• First & last names
• Date of birth
• Other phone numbers
• Email addresses
• Current & past addresses
• Social media profiles (including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tinder & More)
• Family members & neighbors
• Education
• Household demographics
• Assets
• Bankruptcies
• Traffic tickets, sex offenses, criminal record
• And more…

Note that most paid people search tools automatically charge you until you cancel the service. To avoid recurring charges, make sure you unsubscribe from the service after you do the searches.

3. Check Social Media

Many people use their phone numbers to sign up for social media accounts. If you have a phone number and want to know who owns it, you can try searching for accounts linked to the phone number on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

One way to find out if a particular phone number has been linked to an account on a social network is to add the phone number to your contact list, then upload your contact list to the network and see if you can find a profile linked to the number you’re looking for.

For example, on Facebook, you need to go to Menu, tap Settings, then scroll down and tap Upload contacts. Turn on Upload contacts, and you’ll be able to review profiles from your synced contacts.

4. Call Back

If you keep getting phone calls from a number you don’t recognize, and you want to know whose phone number it is, you can try calling the number back. If the owner answers, simply ask them who they are and why they keep calling. However, this method can be risky as it may result in more unwanted calls.

5. Use a Private Investigator

If you have exhausted all other options and still can’t find out who owns a phone number, consider hiring a private investigator. Private investigators have access to databases and resources that the general public does not, and they can use these resources to find out who is behind the phone number.

Sum Up

While there does exist a wide variety of information on the web, there is no one site that’s going to deliver all of it to you. Hopefully, after trying these methods, you’ve uncovered some helpful information.