Why Conduct a Reverse Cell-Phone Lookup:

It could be because of persistent scandalous, threatening or blank calls from a cell-phone number that is unrecognizable.

Or perhaps you've seen that cell phone number once too often on your spouse's incoming or outgoing call records.

Maybe you'd really like to get in touch with old friends who've moved out of the neighborhood and all you have is an old phone number but no forwarding address.

It could be that you have a cell-phone number written on a piece of paper with no name written alongside and you cannot remember whether it belongs to the President of the company or to that gorgeous babe you met at the party the other night. If you were trying to make a date, you wouldn't want to call the wrong number, would you?

While conducting a reverse phone look-up on land lines is easily done through major search engines including Yahoo!, Google or MSN as well as through sites such as WhitePages and Switchboard, you may not find it that easy to conduct a reverse phone lookup on cell phones.

This is not only because of the transient nature of cell phones but also due to stricter privacy restrictions that apply to wireless numbers.

Publishing cell phone numbers in either offline or online directories without the explicit permission of the owner is considered a violation of federal law.

Therein lies the incongruity of modern technology.

With everyone carrying around cell phones these days it is getting increasingly easier for anybody to infringe onto another person's personal space by harassing them with unwanted calls, while the perpetrator's privacy remains protected.

It may be difficult to find the name and address behind a cell phone number, it is by no means impossible. Here's how you can find out who's behind a cell phone number in 3 easy steps:

Step 1

Before trying out any external source you may first want to check out your updated as well as your old address book and determine whether or not you actually have the phone number. While you are it, you could also look through all your business cards and also your contact list on the computer.

Step 2

Once you've made sure that you do not have the number in your records, you could try out the internet. There are two ways you can find out who's behind a cell phone number on the internet. One is by using major search engines and the other is by looking on popular social networks.

Search Engines - Conducting a search through one or all of the major search engines including Google, MSN and Yahoo! is fast, easy and free. All you need to do is enter the cell-phone number you are checking up on and if that number exists anywhere on the World Wide Web, it's yours for the asking along with all other pertinent details.

Social Networks - Popular social networking sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Orkut have a large member base with profiles and personal information about their members posted on the site. This personal information very often consists of the member's address as well as the cell phone number.

Just go to the various social networking sites and enter the pertinent cell phone number and you may just get lucky at one of the sites if the person you are looking for is a member of that particular site. Some of the other sites you could try looking are USFreeAds, Kijiji, BoardTracker and Craiglist.

Step 3

No luck yet? If you are still determined to find out who's behind a cell phone number, you could use a premium service that will help you find the information you are looking for.

For a fee that could range anywhere between $20 and $100, these companies will provide you access to proprietary cell phone info databases. This fee enables you to access all the available records of the person who is behind the cell phone number you are tracking.

While you may have second thoughts about paying this sum of money just to try and flush out a merely irritating "phone-pest", it could be money well-spent if it is a question of safeguarding your privacy and protecting your relationship and your family.

Moreover, most sites offer clients a "No Hit - No Fee" guarantee, which means you have nothing to lose. If the search turns up zilch, you pay nothing and if your search is successful, you've found what you've been looking for.