How to Find Someone’s Phone Number: Your Complete Guide
Cindy Ellis - July 27, 2022
Whether you need to get in contact with a long-lost friend or relative, are interested in contacting a company’s customer support service, or you need to research leads for cold calling, finding someone’s phone number is essential. However, this information can seem difficult to obtain, especially in today’s day and age where phone numbers are reluctantly given out due to the threat of scam calls and telemarketers around every corner.
We’ll help you navigate the process of finding someone’s phone number so you can reach out and make contact easily. There are several methods you can use to investigate an individual or corporation’s phone number, and we discuss the simplest ones for you to follow below.
Why Would You Need to Find Someone’s Phone Number?
In today’s age, using someone’s phone number is often the quickest way to contact them or reach out and communicate directly with someone. For example, you may need to find a company’s phone number to reach their customer service department or ask questions about products, or you may want to reach out to a long-lost friend or relative and need to verify their phone number.
Many individuals may also want to collect phone numbers for cold calling and sales or as part of an overall marketing campaign.
The above reasons and many more are all acceptable uses for a phone number search. Still, you should never attempt to look up phone numbers if you intend to harass an individual, stalk somebody, or deliver threats. These actions are punishable by law in most jurisdictions. More information on the dos and don’ts of online search report use can be browsed here.
Is It Legal to Search for Someone’s Phone Number?
Information searches online and searching for someone’s phone number is perfectly legal. However, you should note that the Fair Credit Reporting Act regulates and restricts how you can use the public information that you find. More information can be found here.
The Easiest Methods for Finding Phone Numbers
Asking the individual in question for their phone number might be the easiest method of figuring out a phone number, but when that simply isn’t possible, there are several different methods out there that can help you find the phone number(s) that you are searching for. If one of these methods doesn’t work for you, keep moving down the list and try each one out until you get the desired results.
Google Search Engine
A simple place to start searching for a phone number is to consult Google. This ubiquitous search engine holds a huge amount of information, and the phone number you are looking for can easily turn up in the first few pages of search results.
To complete a Google search for the phone number in question, type in the person’s name that you are searching for along with any other information, such as their address or the state where they are located in. It helps to use effective searching techniques like placing quotation marks around the individual’s name; this tells the search engine to only bring back results that have the words in the order you typed them in and can make your search easier. More information on internet search techniques can be found here.
For the most part, using the Google search engine to find an individual’s phone number will turn up a result on the first page and usually within the first five hits. The more pages you have to click through on Google, the less likely your search results are to be accurate, so keep this in mind when using the search engine.
People Search
The best way to find the most information about a phone number is to use a people search tool. A people search can help you gather essential information about individuals or companies based on a search of their name or last known address.
Data is compiled into one easy-to-read report and includes essential information such as phone numbers, addresses, emails, relatives, background information, criminal records, and more. This information can help you decide whether or not to use the phone number you find to reach out to that person.
Social Media Searches
There are a large number of social media websites around today, and many of them require or give users the option to input their phone number as part of their profile. The most popular social media site that does this is Facebook, but other websites such as LinkedIn may also provide this option. We’ll be talking about Facebook here, as that is the most common and easiest way to find someone’s phone number via social media.
For this method to work, you must also have a Facebook account. This will allow you to search easily and find the information you need. To get started, search the person or business’s name in Facebook’s search bar. Look over the list of results and select the one you are looking for. Once you are on the business’s or individual’s profile page, navigate to the ‘about’ section and click on that. Then, if it is publically listed on Facebook, you should be able to see the person’s phone number.
Toll-Free Number Searches
This method is more popular for finding the phone numbers for corporations, but when in doubt, you can Google search “800 number” followed by the company’s name. The 800 is one of the most popular toll-free codes for phone numbers and is often used by corporations for their customer service departments.
Another easy way to locate a business’s number via their toll-free phone code is to Google “contact us” followed by the company or business’s name. More often than not, this will direct you to the area of the website where the company’s phone number or other contact information is located.
Alternative Search Engines or Websites
There are a number of search engines and websites out there that allow you to search for individuals and related information such as their phone numbers. If Google searches aren’t turning up anything for you, you can try websites such as WhitePages, the Better Business Bureau for company phone number searches, or DuckDuckGo for general internet searches.
Remember to practice safe internet behavior and refrain from clicking on advertisements or websites that appear like scams.
How Do You Verify a Phone Number You Found?
Once you’ve used one of our methods to find the phone number that you need, you may be wondering how to verify this phone number and ensure that the information you have found is correct. Of course, the easiest way to do this is by calling the number; if it is disconnected or not active anymore, you will receive a message that tells you as such. Then, you can return to our search methods to find the correct number.
Alternatively, if you have found too many different phone numbers to call individually, you can use a phone number validator tool to check each number. This will help you remove the ones that aren’t active anymore and lower the amount of numbers that you may need to call to get into contact with an individual or company.
Finding the Phone Numbers You Need
Figuring out someone’s phone number may seem like a difficult task at first, especially if all you have to go on is an individual’s name or a company’s last known address. However, using the methods that we discuss in this article, you’ll see that finding someone’s phone number is as simple as running a people search.
Remember to try all the methods listed if one isn’t working for you, including internet and social media searches. But if you want a full report containing all the phone numbers and information you may need on an individual or business, Information.com is a one-stop shop.
