Reverse cell lookups claiming to be free are turning you around
I apologize for sounding a bit harsh, but if you’ve tried doing a “reverse cell lookup” search, you’ll know what I mean.
Despite the search results you are presented with ‘free reverse mobile phone lookups’ or ‘free mobile phone searches’, you end up being taken through several pages only to find yourself after much running around, ending up on a page of sales that requires payment for the information you need.
All the ‘free this’ and ‘free that’ are just lures to lure you in, hoping you’ll end up paying for search out of frustration, or at least clicking an ad somewhere on the website offering the website. owner some kind of monetary compensation.
It’s the same for organic (natural) search results and ‘sponsored’ (paid) search results found in the right-hand column of search results pages.
Is reverse cell lookup really free?
Well, click on any of the results I’ve mentioned above and you’ll see. None of them will provide you with the information you need without sending you through hoops and eventually pulling out your credit card.
The only exception to this is if the cell phone owner puts their cell phone number on a web page somewhere that is indexed by search engines. A simple exact phrase search (ie, searching for the number using quotes such as “123-456-7890”) using variations of the phone number format may return a result.
However, the chances of finding the information you need are slim.
What about reverse landline phone lookups?
Yes, it is true that there are some services that offer free reverse landline phone lookups, however trying to find them is like looking for a very small needle in a very large haystack. Even when you do manage to find one, the coverage is very small, meaning that only a small fraction of reverse landline numbers are available.
What kind of reverse phone lookup is available?
For example, businesses such as retailers and restaurants that want to make their identity available through a reverse number lookup would be listed, as long as the carrier offers such an option in the first place. Therein lies the problem, very few operators offer it, and even then, not many companies are willing to pay.
Therefore, for a free reverse landline lookup to work, the service must first be offered by the operator and secondly, the customer must pay for the service as an additional optional payment package. You can see why the result for landlines would be very small and for cell phones practically non-existent.
How is a reverse cell lookup made available?
Fortunately, there are companies that consolidate data from landline and cell phone operators and make that information available to the masses. However, for each and every search through them they must pay a fee to the carriers.
That fee, plus your own costs, plus an administration fee (read markup) is calculated and passed on to the end customer, which is no different than any service offered in any industry.
Like any company in any industry, those companies that are able to negotiate the lowest prices from carriers while minimizing their own operating costs (without compromising quality) are the ones that can offer the lowest price to the end user, and thus seize the largest market share.
Why isn’t free reverse cell lookups also available?
We’ve already established that only a handful of landline carriers offer their customers a paid option to make their phone numbers available for reverse phone lookup. For cell phone carriers, this option is not yet available, and even if it were, would you as an individual pay an additional fee to your carrier to have your cell number available for reverse lookup? I certainly wouldn’t.
Until cell phone operators freely provide their customers’ numbers to data consolidators, who in turn pass access to that data freely to search engines, then free cell lookups will not be available. In addition, the law of economics would prohibit this from happening, since no company in this process could benefit from the transaction.
Paid reverse cell searches are the only genuine option.
If you need to perform a reverse cell lookup, save yourself a lot of time and frustration by using one of the few legitimate reverse number lookup providers. Those are the companies that have negotiated deals with all the cell phone carriers, invested in the hardware and software needed to collect and consolidate data from all sources and present it to you quickly and efficiently.
However, be prepared to pay a fee for it. The best option is to use one of the membership sites where you pay a fee for a one year membership. The fees are more like credits you use against the searches you perform. Once you’ve used up your ‘free’ credits, you’ll need to pay to do more searching.
Other benefits of genuine reverse cell lookup services.
The benefits are that the credits you earn with your membership, or additional credits you purchase, can be used for many types of searches, not just reverse phone lookups. This includes comprehensive background reports, criminal background checks, public record searches (such as birth and death records), reverse address and email lookups, and many more.
If you’ve ever wondered what kind of information is out there about you, these are the places to look. Are you waiting for a promotion? Are you going to an interview? Make sure you know what records are on you, so if you’re asked about them, you’ll have an answer ready.