Reverse Phone Search
How to Find Someone with an Unlisted Phone Number
Table of Contents
These days it is hard to believe that anyone could keep anything private from the internet. But there are those who still have unlisted phone numbers, and if you need to contact them, you need to know how to find someone with an unlisted phone number.
What is an Unlisted Phone Number?
An unlisted phone number is one that is intentionally not listed in phone books or online phone directories. An unlisted phone number may be removed from directories by request of the owner, or an oversight by the listing company. With cell phones, there are various reasons why a phone number may be unlisted. It could be a new line that has not yet been included in the phone carrier’s system. The reason many people ask that their number be unlisted is to avoid calls from telemarketers and spammers. However, even unlisted phone numbers can make their way into available lists online.
There is also a Do Not Call Registry set up by the federal government to add your phone number so that legitimate salespeople cannot call you, or they may incur steep fines per call.
Difference Between Unlisted and Unpublished Phone Numbers
Often people will use the terms unlisted and unpublished interchangeably, but they are different. An unpublished phone number means it won’t be listed in a phone book or online directory like the white pages. An unlisted phone number will also be removed from directory assistance or a 411 service. The most significant difference between the two is that an unpublished phone number is still available by calling directory assistance or using an online 411 service. An unlisted number is not.
However, be forewarned that phone companies sometimes sell unlisted and unpublished phone number lists, so even though you may have requested an unlisted or an unpublished phone number, there is no guarantee that yours isn’t out there to find easily. Additionally, if you had your number unlisted after it was already published, individual and private investigators can access old directories and find it before it was unlisted.
Reasons for Finding Someone with an Unlisted Phone Number
There are various reasons why you might want to run an unlisted phone number lookup to track down someone with an unlisted phone number. Some of the most common are:
- To find an old love or classmate.
- Locate a stalker or scam caller to report them.
- Find a long-lost family member.
- Find out who keeps calling late at night and hanging up.
- Track down an unknown caller from your phone bill.
- Unmask a suspicious caller ID owner.
Regardless of why you want to perform an unlisted number lookup, you can find people whose phone numbers are unlisted much easier than you might think.
Reverse Phone Lookup
If you have someone’s phone number but can’t locate their name, you need to perform a reverse phone lookup. Even if the caller’s phone number is unlisted, you should be able to get their name and address from this type of service. There are free reverse phone lookups and paid services. For more information than just their name and address, you may have to pay a small fee.
Some of these services go way beyond just the person’s name and phone number, offering a complete background report with criminal records, court cases, marriages, divorces, social media profiles, dark web information, bankruptcies, email accounts, family and relatives, vehicle information and much more. You can find out a lot about someone, even someone with an unlisted phone number, using an unlisted phone number lookup service.
How to Get an Unlisted Phone Number
There are two different ways you can look up an unlisted phone number. The first is if you have the phone number but not the person’s name or address. The second way is if you don’t have their phone number but do have some information on them, such as their name, email address, username, or other information. The method for performing an unlisted phone number lookup will vary depending on your situation.
Method 1: You Have the Person’s Unlisted Phone Number
The first thing you should always try is to enter the person’s unlisted phone number into a search engine like Google, Bing, or MSN and see what comes up. You might get lucky on the first try. If not, read on.
If some stuff comes up, even if it’s a business, click on it. Perhaps that number is a person’s cell phone that is linked to their business. You can also use an app to perform a reverse lookup or unblock a person’s name from their phone number.
If that fails, try one of the free or paid reverse lookup phone services to see how much you can get on their number.
Try the Google phonebook service by typing phonebook:xxx-xxx-xxxx into a Google search bar. Replace the “x” with the person’s unlisted phone number. Again, you might score big with this one.
Method 2: You Do Not Have the Person’s Unlisted Phone Number
If you do not have a person’s unlisted phone number but have their name or other information, you can still perform an unlisted number lookup. The steps to try are:
- Gather as much information about the person as you can: name, age, date of birth, employer, address, school, relatives, and other details. Now you have something to start with.
- Enter the person’s name into Google or your favorite search engine. Now type in their name and some of the information you gathered, such as their employer or school. This should help narrow the results and perhaps lead you to their unlisted phone number. Put quotation marks around each piece of information when searching.
- If a web search yields you nothing, you can track down someone’s unlisted phone number through social media. Check their profiles on LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, and Twitter, and see what comes up. You may have to send them a friend request to gain access to their full profiles.
- Consider using a paid service that offers reverse lookups where you can enter the person’s name, email address, or other information and see a ton of information about them. Depending on what you need the information for, this can quickly solve your problem because these services delve deeply into all types of public records. Typically, someone will provide their phone number, and it will be linked to something.
If the person is not a stranger, you can always hit up your Facebook friends to see if anyone online knows how to get in touch with your unlisted caller.
As a last resort, if you desperately need to find someone with an unlisted number, you could consider hiring a private investigator to find it for you. They have proven techniques that most people would never think of to use when searching for difficult or impossible to find information.
The Bottom Line
Gone are the days of privacy, and just about any information can be found online about anyone. If you need to perform an unlisted phone number lookup, there are dozens of legitimate ways to do so, and you just might find exactly what you are looking for quickly.