Most people get phone calls that have no caller identification information/name attached to them. Often times you might get a person's 1st name and telephone number, but not know their surname when you're talking to someone else about them. Looking up a telephone number to get a name for it is simple, though.

Looking up a telephone number without a name is called a ?reverse phone lookup.? You can do it for free and simply online and find out the name attached to the number most of the time. Just go to WhitePages.com and use their free reverse telephone number lookup.

Google can also help you find the name behind the numbers. Just put the number into Google, but make sure to put quotations around it and don't use any dashes or parenthesis (?555 555 1234?). This way Google will look for the numbers only and ignore the punctuation and numbers that only match some of the whole telephone number.

The final way to search for someone by telephone number is to just call the number and see who answers. Often, a person answer their home phones by saying their last name, such as ?Hello, Johnson residence.? You could have your answer right there. If you don't want them to know who you are, though, make sure to do this from a phone they cannot get caller identification info from (like a public phone or pay phone in a gas station or restaurant). If they don't answer with their name, just say, ?Excuse me, who's speaking?? Most a person answer this question on impulse.

If all three of these options don't work for you, then you can try the last resort: phone companies. Most phone companies are uncooperative with giving reverse lookups. Be prepared to be on hold for long amounts of time with most phone companies too. Most cell phone companies are likely to tell you that the information about their customers is private and they cannot give it to you without a court order. If you're persistent, whichever of these answers you get, you can still sometimes get the information you're after.

So now you have a good idea of where to start if you're trying to locate someone using their telephone number. All of these methods are free and won't cost you the fees of a private detective!
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