A cell phone trace is when a user can enter a known telephone number and retrieve the name and/or address of the person to whom the number is registered. This reverse lookup is a very useful feature offered by today's electronic white and yellow pages. It is used many times by doubting parents to keep tabs on people that call up their kids frequently and talk to them, as well as people trying to stop a prank caller.

A reverse number lookup can also be used if you have a person's email address and want to find out their name, address and cell phone number. It has appeared online during the last few years, granting you the ability to acquire private info on just about anybody provided you have their cell phone number. All you have to do while using a site dedicated to cell phone reverse lookups is to type the number of the person and hit the search button.

This investigative tool is also used by businesses to look up old customers, verify current ones and make sure their employees are who they say they are, and not criminals. There are several other useful reasons for performing a reverse look up, and the method you end up using is entirely confidential legally -- what you do is none of a third party's business.

A reverse lookup is often used where it's necessary to determine a user's identity for security reasons. But it is also often referred to as reverse resolving, or more specifically reverse DNS lookup, and is accomplished using a "reverse IN-ADDR entry" in the form of a PTR record. For example, the first time a reverse lookup is performed for a particular IP address, an attacker could provide a spoofed reverse lookup response for a domain name for which they do not have authority over. This is something totally different and shouldn't be confused with a reverse phone trace.

Cell phone directories are next to impossible to keep updated without constant maintenance. This is why free cell phone lookups are simply not offered, or if they are, they won't provide you with the results you want. Thus, if you want accurate information about a particular mobile phone number, you're going to have to make a small investment. That will give you permanent access to a cell phone database that is constantly updated and will allow you to search it at anytime. You also have the choice of selecting a smaller fee for a one-time lookup. If you aren't running a business that needs to screen a lot of employees for example, you might want to choose this option.