Who Called Me? | A Comprehensive Guide on How to Find the Owner of a Phone Number and Reporting Scam Callers

Whether you’re trying to figure out who owns the phone number that’s been attempting to contact you to make sure it’s not a scammer or you need to find a phone number for another reason, here are some tools that can help you find phone number owners and more information quickly and easily.

Intelius Reverse Phone Number Search

Using Intelius as your first research tool can provide helpful information when you’re performing a reverse phone lookup. 

Intelius phone reports typically include the following information:

• Phone number owner full name
• Phone number owner details - aliases, photos, and more
• Owner history - find out where the number originated from
• Contact information - addresses, email addresses, and other phone numbers may be available
• Social media profiles - account profiles linked to the phone number, including platforms like Facebook®, Instagram®, and LinkedIn® 

Sometimes, this is all the information you’ll need and you can consider the case closed on who’s calling. Maybe it’s even someone you know who you’d love to reconnect with! 

It could also be a person you’d like to avoid. If that’s the case, you can take note of the number to make sure not to answer in the future. 

If you have concerns about a number that keeps calling you or have a phone number that you need more information on, use this guide to find alternative resources and expand your search. 

Online Searching to Find a Phone Number

This is one of the most common ways to search for a phone number owner. 

While this is a great step in searching for who owns a phone number, the results are typically mixed. 

Searching for a phone number in Google® or other search engines can potentially give you more information on a number owner or a business associated with a phone number.

The main problem with these results is that there is no vetting process. You’ll see all the results the internet has to offer on that combination of numbers. 

If you don’t know anything about the phone number and you don’t recognize any of the names associated with the number in search results, the results might not be very meaningful for you. 

A quick online search is an easy way to confirm if you know the owner of a number, but if you don’t, the results can be disappointing. There’s no harm in checking, so this is a great preliminary step to take when you’re starting any search. 

The Best Ways to Search for Phone Numbers on Google®

Here are some helpful tips to keep in mind when you’re doing a reverse phone number search for free on sites like Google. 

Why Should I Use Quotation Marks in Searches? 

Adding quotation marks around the number when searching on sites like Google or Bing can produce better results. 

Typing “123-456-7890” into Google will give you much more focused results than searching the number without quotes and just typing 123-456-7890.

The quotes help search engines know that those numbers are to be in that exact order. Your search will be for that specific phone number, not any combination of those numbers that is a “close match”. 

Helpful note: The quotation marks will save you time on this search and others as well. 

You can use quotation marks to get exact results for other searches that aren’t related to reverse phone number lookups. 

If you need an exact quote, phrase, name, etc., use quotation marks to get results for that exact phrase in the exact order you’ve specified in the quotation marks. 

For example: “peanut butter and jelly” will exclude results that don’t mention peanut butter or jelly, they need to have both to be included in your search results. 

Social Media Search for Phone Number Owner

It may sound wild to those of us who don’t advertise our phone numbers on social media that some people do, but many people and most businesses have their phone numbers associated with their public social media profiles.

Just be aware that searching social media for a phone number will likely yield uneventful results, especially if the owner is not a business. 

This step can be used as a last-ditch effort if you’ve exhausted other options. Know that this approach has limited usefulness in most cases. 

Be sure to add quotation marks around the number when searching for better results, for example: “123-456-789”.

Craigslist® or Facebook® Marketplace Search by Phone Number

It’s a bit of a long shot, but if the person calling you has listed their number on an online marketplace, you might be able to find them through there. 

The results won’t tell you much about the actual owner, but it could help you decide if the person is a legitimate caller or a scammer. 

If you find that they’ve got a lot of “hot” looking items listed on marketplaces, users leave bad reviews of their sold items, or there are comments about negative interactions with the owner of that number, you can steer clear of that trouble. 

Helpful tip: Always meet in a public place when purchasing items on marketplace platforms and from online or newspaper ads. 

Many police stations have specific areas set up for people to go make exchanges with police nearby to ensure safety. Contact your local police department on a non-emergency line or online to inquire about safe meeting places in your community.

Public Records Searches for Unknown Phone Numbers

This type of search can yield great results, but it can be incredibly time-consuming.

A manual public records search can provide you with the same information that you can find in an Intelius report in many cases (since an Intelius report is an assembled report of publicly available information).

There are a few differences between a manual public records report and a public records report that you’d get from Intelius. 

Here are the major differentiators between the two: 

Manual Search of Public Records Drawbacks and Advantages

• Manually searching public records is time intensive. This process requires manually searching either in person or online through public records databases and can take a lot of time to figure out where and what to search. 
• A manual search of public records is limited to your search region. Not all public records are connected to a master system that can give you data on someone’s time in Louisiana and California in the same report. 
• A manual search is free, aside from court costs associated with paperwork or data. One reason many prefer manually searching is if they already know where to search and what to search for. If you have a good idea of what you need and where to get it, a manual search can be a great way to save some money and still get the information you need. 

Intelius Public Records Search Advantages and Drawbacks

• An Intelius search of public records is fast. You can get results for your public records search in minutes. This option can save you a lot of time if you’re planning on doing extensive research or plan on researching multiple numbers.
• Intelius searches a wide source of public records in the United States. An Intelius search includes results from all 50 states, so you don’t need to scour each state, city, or county database looking for results. Intelius can scan these state records quickly and assembles the results in one report instead of many small pieces of information.
• Intelius can provide information on partial phone numbers. Need to know who is calling, but can only remember the first few digits? Intelius can help you identify where someone is calling from based on the area code, like a 646 phone number located in New York. You can also use their phone number directory to browse based on the information available to you.
• Intelius is a paid service. Unfortunately, the best things in life aren’t always free. Intelius does need to keep the lights on, so they charge a monthly fee to members for unlimited searches. 

Reporting Scam Numbers or Robocallers to the FTC or FCC

If you discover that the number calling you is associated with scammers or they seem like they’re trying to scam you, you can report the number to the authorities. 

Reporting helps track changes in the number and frequency of scam calls. 

By sharing this information with government agencies, you can help them know about new trends in phone scams and robocalls.

To report the phone number that’s calling you for scams, go to the FTC or FCC scam call reporting sites. 

Final Thoughts - Be Sure You Know Who’s Calling Before You Answer

The good old days of looking forward to a phone call are behind most of us now. 

When the phone rings, it feels like it’s more than likely a scammer, a sales call, or someone else you’d rather not interact with. 

Knowing who is on the other end of your calls can potentially save you time, hassle, money, and stress. It’s always wise to gather knowledge about who is calling you, and if you determine it’s a legitimate caller, you can always return their call; they’ll probably be happy to hear from you!

To run a reverse phone lookup on Intelius, click here to get started now.