On the surface you might think there isn't much demand or need for reverse phone books service. But you'd be surprised. Think of all the phone calls you miss during the day. You look at caller id and cycle through the numbers that called. How many do you recognize? From all the calls I received yesterday, I only recognized two! Who are these people calling me?

To find that out is why reverse phone directories are getting to be so popular. I took one of the 800 numbers that called me, and found out it was owned by my old high school. Aha, that mystery is solved. They're probably doing their annual fund drive. They didn't leave a message, but now I know their identity. In a world filled with scam artists, stalkers and harassers, it's a peace of mind to know who is calling you.

That's another reason why these books are getting more use, to make sure the same person isn't calling and hanging up. Or to find out the identity of the person that left a harassing phone call. But what if they have an unlisted phone number? No problem! Many reverse phone directories can also search through unlisted or unpublished numbers. How do they that if it's unlisted? If a phone number has ever been published in a phone book before the owner decided to enlist it, then it is still available legally to the public. That's a fact not many people know.

Another use of reverse directoreis is to trace cell phone numbers. Find out the owner of the cell number instead of blindly calling back the number. This is useful again in the case of harassment, stalkers, and proof for legal use such as lawsuits.

Parents will want to use this for their kid's cell phones. Who is calling your daughter? Trace the numbers back, find the owner and if you don't recognize the name then trace the person's name to make sure they live in the area or are not on a sex offender list. There have been too many girls lured to cross-state trips with sex offenders with the details planned on a cell phone. You have a duty to protect your child from harm, especially from danger they are unaware of. This is the basic use of a reverse phone book.