Before you spend your hard earned money, hiring a private investigator
to find an unlisted phone number, with a bit of work, there some basic
techniques you can try that have worked for many people.
First try a web search for the person's name and you might happen
to find their resume at Monster.com, or they might have a website
that gives away their phone number. Sometimes people forget and post
their unlisted phone number on their website where anybody can find
it.
Think of all the possible places where somebody is required to fill
in their phone number on paperwork that's public records - open to
members of the public, such as a traffic citation or bankruptcy filing.
Everybody is required to give their phone number there. You might
have to drive to the courthouse where the records are kept on paper
file. Incidently, you might happen to find somebody's SSN there too,
which can be used to look up other types of records.
When you think about it, finding an unlisted phone number isn't always
that diffcult. Sometimes it takes a little imagination and a bit of
work.
You probably won't find a comprehensive database online of all the
unlisted phone numbers in America. This is one of those things where
you can get lucky without much effort, or you may take great persistence
and work to find. Keep in mind all "unlisted" means is it's
simply not listed in the phone book, so the number simply isn't listed
somewhere at the phone company.
It's possible sometimes directory assistance might have the number
to give you, even though it's not printed in the phone book, but these
days, it's usually not available to them either. Owners of unlisted
phone numbers pay an extra fee on their phone bill as a special service,
for the previlege of not having their phone number published, usually
to stop harrassment calls, prank phone calls, telemarketers, etc..
so if you do manage to get ahold of one, they will likely respond
"Hey How did you get my number!?"
A reverse phone directory or "criss-cross" directory is
a possible source of an unlisted phone number if you know the person's
address. There's no need to buy one of these books which are expensive,
as most bigger public libraries should have one on hand. These are
mainly used in the telemarketing, and direct sales industry. These
are also sometimes known as the "blue pages" or "pink
pages" not to be confused with the government pages you see in
the regular phone book.
You might find an Unlisted phone number in any one of public records.
- The DMV, MVR or Dept of Motor vehicles
- Voter registrations
- Various court records
- City or county tax records, Inc. property if the person is a homeowner
If you want to get ahold of an unlisted phone number of a friend
or somebody who would be likely to return your call, you can always
call the operator and claim it's an emergency. The operator can call
the person for you as operators do have access to unlisted phone numbers,
and give the person your phone number to call you back.
There is a "cheat" method where you can get it directly
from the phone company. First you need to get ahold of the phone number
of the phone company's local "DPAC" office. These offices
are responsible for assigning the phone wires to the phone numbers.
You will need to call the customer service billing dept and ask them
for the DPAC number for the location in town where the number is.
When you have a DPAC number, call them and simply ask them for the
listing for the address or full name you have. You do need an address
or name for this to work. They don't know if a phone number is listed
or not.
Net Detective's database can help you quickly find this information.
Net Detective's powerful database contains an estimated 70 million
unlisted phone numbers! Learn
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