Reverse Cell Phone Directories - Scam Or Not?

Reverse cell phone directories have been around for some time now but the knowledge of their existence online has only been gaining popularity more recently. This has led to questions about how legal and how useful they actually are.

Below are some frequently asked questions about reverse cell directory websites and at the end a summary to help you make you mind up about these controversial websites.

A reverse cell phone directory is an online tool where you can find the details of who owns a particular cell phone number by simply entering the number into a search field very much like a google search and by pressing submit will get back the owners name and sometimes even more details.

This works just like a regular reverse phone number directory in that instead of looking up a name top find their number you are looking up a number to find a name.

As you may know if you have ever tried to find someoens cell phone number theer are no cell phone directories in operation in the united states and in many other countries either.

In the USA this is because cell phone number are not a part of the public domain where land lines are so any private citizen can get access to home phone details but not to cell phone numbers.

A reverse cell directory however has gathered cell phone numbers and owner details from compiling a mega database from various marketing compnaies, the internet and various other sources which then allows you the user to search this large database.

Yes!

In the United States reverse cell lookups are legal as the database they create has been compiled from legal sources. There is a difference between not being public domain and being protected from the public.

The databases that reverse cell phone directories use are legal and have been compiled at their own expense and time

This is where you can start seeing the difference between a scam and the genuine article. Many of these directories claim to have massive databases and many more claim to be 'free' but we will get into that next question.

The problem is can we trust the information on these sites to be true? Unfortunately the answer here is it is hard to be sure. You can certainly test a sites quality by entering a few cell phone numbers into their search engine to test the validly where you know the owner and having done that you get mixed results.

Firstly you find many of them come back with no details at all and while this is not misleading at least they obviously are not a very good resource. In this regard you must simply be alert to sites that seem like a scam.

There are a few warning signs that migth set the alarm bells ringing when you find a reverse cell site that calls it into question.

• Free reverse cell lookups
• Sites that ask for your number and details
• Frequent failure to find details

The reason these sites might just be a cheap scam is that any real and decent reverse cell phone database costs a lot to set up but when done have quite a complete listing for you to use. Most free directories are actually just looking for your email address and phone number details so they can sell them to advertisers to gain money.

There are however a decent number of quality reverse cell phone directories on the internet but these ones will cost a small fee for a search but you are guaranteed your money back if they cannot help you and their prime stream of income is more honest with them just wanting payment and will not sell your details on for profit.

So these sites are not all scams but many are, if you do need to discover the owner of a mystery cell number you have try this site which has been rated one of the best:

Reverse Cell Detective