What do you do if you have the phone number of an unknown caller and you want to trace that phone number to the owner's name? Well, a process known as a reverse look up phone number will allow you to trace a name from a phone number. The only challenge will be to find a reputable and competent service that will provide the required information.

Your initial thought would be to look for a free service for the information, but you will likely find many services online that will apply a 'bait and switch' technique.

The way this works is this - you are asked to enter the unknown phone number you want to trace (from your caller id or monthly phone bill), then the program proceeds with a search of their database, then you are told results were returned from the search, but then demands for payment are made before you can proceed - even though the search was advertised as 'free'!

Unfortunately, at this time of writing a free reverse cell phone directory does not exist. However, rather that hiring a professional private (and expensive) detective, there are available a number of reputable private services that will perform the reverse look up phone number for you for a small fee.

Such a service will provide the following information:

Unlisted Numbers

1-800-Numbers

Residential Numbers

Cell Phone Numbers

Pager Numbers

Business numbers

The motivation to perform a reverse look up phone number search usually stems from the need to protect you and your family and can include the following: situations:

To protect you from fraud

To help you save your marriage

To help you ward of potential danger

To help you locate loved ones you may not have seen in a long while

To help you protect yourself against identity theft.

A word of caution is in order here. While a reverse look up phone number search is helpful in protecting your privacy (as outlined above), please be mindful of the fact that everyone is entitled to their privacy and please do not abuse the large quantity of information that will be provided to you as a result of your search.

So, if you are looking to trace a name from a phone number you should be prepared to pay a small fee for the results you seek. Do not believe the claims of the free reverse cell phone directories - they will only cause you to waste your time and delay getting the results you are seeking.