But it is quite surprising to note that the general awareness of reverse phone lookup amongst the non-business community is pretty low and even if some person is indeed aware of this service, they feel that it is something that only top corporate houses need and reverse phone lookup services are not useful for the general public.

If you are one of those people as well who believe that you do not need such a service, well first let me start by telling you that pretty much everyone needs to use reverse phone lookup sometime or the other. While there are many uses for such a service, I have listed the most common reasons why you may need to make use of websites that offer reverse phone lookup services:

To check phone billing accuracy:
How many times have you looked at your phone bill and wondered whether you had indeed made so many calls as the bill reflects. I am sure many of you have looked at an itemized phone bill and said to yourselves, wow – I don’t remember calling these numbers. Who are these people and have I really called them?

If you have ever been in such a scenario, then enter reverse phone lookup services. These services allow you to enter a phone number whether it is a landline number or a cell phone number and check who the number belongs to. You can get the full name and address of the person or company who owns the number and that way you can verify if you or any member of the family has indeed made calls to that number.

To get directions or an address:
Many times we have the number of a person or a place we need to visit – maybe the doctor or a car mechanic but we don’t have an exact address. You can try calling the place where you are going to get the full address but just in case you cannot get through to anyone due to whatever reason, you can just simply use a reverse phone lookup service, enter the number and get the exact and complete address of the person or company you want to visit.

To eliminate unwanted calls or avoid sales calls:
One of the most frustrating things in the entire world is to find a bunch of missed calls on your mobile or caller id and then calling the numbers back, only to get an irritating sales person on the other side. How you wish you never called back the person.

Not just that but sometimes you may be trying to avoid a particular person – either a relative or person from some company and even though you were lucky enough to miss their call, you end up calling them right back and enter a situation you wanted to avoid in the first place.

In all such cases a reverse phone lookup or a reverse cell phone lookup service would come in really handy as that way you can find out exactly who called and decide whether to call back or not.

There are many different reverse cell phone Lookup services offered on the internet right now. Every a single is distinct in the size of its database and its accuracy. Unless they had been willing to spend a large amount of time and effort manually researching, customers have had no approach to compare each directory. This has recently changed.

The newly launched ReversePhoneTrace.org has decided to address this issue by employing 4 criteria to review probably the most trustworthy and correct unlisted phone number reverse lookup services. The review of the top three mobile phone directories observed on this internet site is actually a very advised piece of reading. This website also addresses some really important info about totally free cellular phone lookup services, at the same time as a number of the legal elements of cell phone privacy.

Elements Considered in the Tabular Comparison

1. The size of a reverse cell phone database is among the criteria employed in classification. The largest mobile phone lookup databases accessible will provide the consumers as significantly as 20 billion records (not all of these are telephone numbers). With far more than 250 million mobile phone users in America, it’s proposed that searchers utilize a database with a minimum of 200 million cellular phone records. This will guarantee a far better likelihood of finding a certain amount. The smaller the database, the a lot more likely it is a particular amount won’t be listed.

2. The reputation of the Cell phone lookup directory is an additional criterion they contemplate. It was reported that roughly 11 million Americans were victims of identity theft in 2009 alone. This is why you should be genuinely cautious about which company you’re employing for your reverse cell phone lookup.

Totally free Reverse Cell phone Lookup Exists?

With the rapid advancement of technology, many of us feel that our right to privacy is being threatened. Unlisted phones numbers were at first introduced just for this reason, to protect our privacy. Unlisted numbers made it very hard to discover information about you without paying a lot of money for private investigation services. These days you can find directory assistance services even for phone numbers that are unlisted.

Reverse cell phone lookup has only added further discomfort to our already growing discomfort regarding our privacy. These days the only thing you have to do is to type in the number in one of many free internet reverse phone lookup services and provided that the number in question is not unlisted, you will have the persons name, address and many other personal information right before you.

So how can you protect yourself?

1. Always, always have all your phone numbers unlisted. Provide your phone number only on a need to know basis, to your family and close friends.

Even if someone wants to pay for that information, it will be very hard to obtain your personal information in this way, if your phones are unlisted.

This should be your first line of defense, and in case that your number is already listed ask your service provider to change it, and then have it unlisted.

2. Use caller ID blocking system. Most cell phone models have that function ready for use, so why not use it if you have to call someone not on your friends list.

When calling friends however it is always good to let them see who is it that is calling them. You can always dial *67 before actual phone number, that will prevent your number from showing up.

The person you are calling will see just blank space with a message unknown or private being displayed instead of your number.

3. Government laws. Government has many regulations and laws in place that protect your private information. OK, so maybe these laws are not perfect, but they do limit the amount of information that can be gathered about you without your approval.
Actually in this case reverse cell phone lookup is safer then most other information gathering services. For example, information from your drivers license or social security card can be far more dangerous and easier to use if someone would want to steal your identity.

Finally reverse cell phone lookup is not the major thing that should worry you concerning your privacy. Besides that with a few simple steps you can make reasonably sure that, your private information is safe and secure.

The Fallacy of Cell Phone Privacy

While cellphone operators and their and their co-conspiring governments can track us down within seconds and feet to any location, day or night, to almost any point in the past; there are individuals and companies exploiting the true nature of cellphone privacy for their monetary gain at the loss of your time.

Today it seems like the number of telemarketing calls which interrupt us grows daily. We pick up our cellphone only to find the number is unidentified, ‘private’, etcetera. The vast majority of these calls now come from cellphones.

These numbers are not currently listed in any “official” phone company directory. You can’t go to 411 or call information to find out their name and address. And this is the primary reason telemarketers find them so lucrative, pranksters use prepaids to pull chains, and cheaters call their companions with cellphones.

Identify That Caller

Although official databases don’t exist and free directories fail, private cellphone numbers are not totally safe. A new type of reverse cellphone directory can unmask the man behind the machine, and give you the information you want to put an end to your phone frustration. Names, Addresses, Phone Companies, Service Status, and more can all be revealed within seconds. Everything they try so hard to hide can be had conveniently by using the right reverse phone directory.

Privacy is a good thing, but like all things can be used for bad in the wrong hands. Spy on the invaders of your phone and fight fire with fire. Don’t let them take any more of your precious minutes.

The reverse cell phone searching lookup service allows you to find out a name associated with a a wireless phone number. There are numerous reasons why people are requesting these kind of searches today. Some want to dodge prank callers and those irritating, persistent telemarketers. Others may feel that there is a grave threat to their safety. Others could suspect that their significant others are seeing somebody else behind their backs. Whatever reason they may have, the reverse cellular phone search can be part of the solution to their problem.

Using cellular phone numbers to trace back to their owners used to be impossible previously. Since cellphones are so convenient and accessible it has prompted the government and cell phone service providers to design laws to protect the privacy of cell phone owners. One such law is known as the cell phone privacy act. One of the provisions of this law is to prevent the public listing of mobile numbers to protect the right to privacy of the subscribers.

The advent of new information technology has changed all this. Nowadays, finding a name using a cell phone number is now possible. The reverse mobile phone number look-up allows a person to look-up a certain number through the online databases. Among the information one can get is a full name, address, previous numbers, and other personal information. Since the searches will be done through the internet, they can be done safely and discreetly right in the comfort of one’s home or office. If you want to find out a name of someone who keeps calling you or that might be a threat this reverse look-up service is definitely your best bet.

It’s really amazing how spammers thrive on blowing any rumor out of proportion and spreading mass panic whenever possible. It’s also astounding how persistent some of these rumors can be: some won’t go away years after they’ve been officially classified as urban legends.

Take the National Cell Phone Directory panic that began as far back as 2004, and regardless of countless rebuttals, just will not die. Just the other day another such warning appeared in the Sci/Tech section of Google News, of all sources. The rumor claims that in just days all U.S. cell phone numbers will be released to telemarketing companies. Cell phone owners will begin to receive unlimited sales calls, for which they will obviously also have to pay. They urge you to add your cell phone number to the National Do Not Call Directory as the best source of telemarketer protection. Cell phone owners who fell for this have since found out the full irony of this solution, when suddenly their cell phones began to receive more spam calls and texts than ever. By adding your number to ANY online directory, you are just providing another source for telemarketers to harvest for numbers to call.

Just as I write this, my cell phone begins to ring, and I can tell by the unknown area code it’s a telemarketer. I pick up and simultaneously hang up. Nothing new there: telemarketers will find the way to get their hands on our numbers, and they’ll call. The millisecond I spent on the phone won’t end up costing me that much in the large scheme of things; nowadays, we all have pretty reasonable calling plans. I guess, the panic stems from the fact that the cell phone directory is supposed to mass-release ALL cell phone numbers to the public. Now, read my lips: that will never happen. Ever.

Where did this mass urban myth originate from? Some think the panic started back when all the major cell phone carriers got together and considered pooling resources to create a national 411 cell phone directory , due to the fact that land lines were quickly becoming obsolete.

However, extreme legal limitations were put on this directory to prevent abuse, and additional laws that have since been passed, have made an official cell phone directory down-right impossible at this point. Not to mention, it is still illegal for most telemarketers to call consumer cell phones. Some cell phone carriers even initiated lawsuits to put telemarketers back in their place. Bottom line: don’t believe everything you read and put your cell phone privacy fears to rest once and for all.

Lots of people are concerned about invasion of their privacy. Idea that government can look over our shoulder in just about every aspect of our lives isnt very appealing. With new highly complicated technology government has the ability to listen to your phone calls, check your banking accounts and access whatever personal information they want without your or mine approval.

I believe most of the people who think as I do that we have nothing to hide, have mixed feelings about this, but if this can help prevent another 9.11., fine they can listen on my conversation to their harts delight.

Where one draws the boundaries? And is government truly the greatest threat to our privacy? Or maybe we should worry about multinational corporation who gather and sell information? Thoughts like these make us think twice about services like reverse cell phone lookup because it being the latest personal information gathering technology.

Reverse cell phone lookup services are completely legit, and they are no different then any other similar search directory in the last 10 years. If done by the law they are no more threat to our privacy then any other lookup service.

But why do we see it differently then lets say search engines? Probably because we see cell phones as very private item, and the idea that someone might record our every call and distribute that information free or for a price is very disturbing and makes as feel vulnerable.

But if you stop for a minute and think about it there is nothing more anyone can find out about you then it is possible to find out already by searching online. However our feeling of security (even if we have nothing to hide) is very important to us. We need to know that it is there if we need it. Because of that we have devised many techniques to hide our calling number, we do not list in a phonebooks and many other techniques.

I guess there is a small James Bond lurking in anyone of us, just waiting to pop out. Fortunately there are several federal laws that protect our privacy rights. And naturally it is always a good idea not to list your number, you can give the number to the people that you want to have it, and for the others who cares.

Overall concern regarding reverse cell phone lookup is a bit over stated. There are much bigger concerns regarding your privacy then reverse cell phone lookup, like for example identity theft through stolen or lost credit card or even social security number.

Try to see the positive side of this service and think about how you can use it to gain some benefit out of it for yourself or your family.