Every so often you have a phone number and you want to know who it belongs to. Maybe it keeps showing up on your caller ID and you want to know why. Maybe it’s showing up on your spouses phone bill. You run it through a bunch of free internet reverse-search directories and search engines but nothing will pull up any current information on them. Most people just give up but you don’t have to. This article will give you a few more ideas on getting information from an unlisted phone number. It will also give you ideas on keeping your own number a little more anonymous.

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Many of the techniques on this page are very effective but some of them might be illegal. We list the illegal methods to help people keep themselves a little more unlisted. Please be responsible and don’t do the illegal things that we suggest on this page. If you’re unsure of the legalities of some of these techniques, check your state and federal laws. That being said, on to the ideas…

Before anything, let’s state the very obvious. Call up the number and ask them who they are. Just say something like, “I keep seeing your number on my caller ID a lot and I guess I haven’t been here when you’ve called. Who is this?” Maybe it’s just a telemarketer. Maybe it’s a wrong number. But before you get carried away with trying a bunch of covert methods of finding out who owns a number, just try calling and asking them who they are. The worst that’ll happen is they won’t tell you.

Everyone likes free things. And everyone likes pizza. So let’s offer the people who own your number a free pizza! Call up your subject’s number and have the following conversation with them:

THEM: Hello?
YOU: Hi, this is Roy from the Domino’s Pizza on 3rd Street and I’m calling to let you know that you’re our winner in this week’s random drawing for a free delivery of a free 16″ three topping pizza!
THEM: I didn’t enter a drawing.
YOU: Our computer just picks random customers for the contest. Would you like to have a free pizza tonight or should I put you in the computer for a free pizza for a different day this month?
THEM: But I don’t think I’ve ever ordered from there. So how is my number in your computer?
YOU: Perhaps someone else had your phone number years ago and ordered from us. In any case, the pizza is yours since it’s your number. Would you like that free pizza tonight? Or I can put you in the system for a free one the next time you call us.
THEM: Sure, I’ll take it tonight.
YOU: Great! And what kind of toppings would you like?
THEM: Half pepperoni, half sausage, extra cheese on all of it.
YOU: Anything to drink? The drinks won’t be free, just the pizza.
THEM: Nah, no drinks tonight.
YOU: And could I get your address?
THEM: I thought you had my address in the computer.
YOU: Well you said you hadn’t ordered from us before so I was just confirming. We might have an older customer in here. Are you at 525 Morgan Street?
THEM: No. I’m at 1013 Kingswood Court.
YOU: Okay, and your name?

You get the idea. They’re usually not so suspicious but I put all the suspicion in there to give you ideas on how to cover yourself if they ask too many questions. Here’s some advice for trying this kind of trick:

• Find out what the closest pizza delivery place to them would be. Look up the address and phone number for it on the internet and have that ready when you talk to them in case they ask for it.
  
• Use a cheerful, professional voice. Before calling the number you want information on, try the call on a few other random phone numbers. Practice will make you better when you make the real call.
  
• Block your number using *67! Your call will show up as PRIVATE which might make them suspicious. But not as suspicious as if it had your real name and number. Besides, once they realize they don’t really get a free pizza they’ll be pretty mad at you.

Let’s try the pizza trick the other way around. Get a list of all the pizza places local to your subject. Call them all and attempt to order pizzas from them. Since most pizza places look up your account (name and address) with your phone number, you just give them the number of your subject. Once they put your subject’s number in, their screen will show that number’s name and address if they’ve ever ordered a pizza there before.

Usually after you give your number, they’ll read off your address for confirmation. If they don’t, ask them what address they have. If they ask you what address it should be, just babble on for a few seconds about how you’ve moved a few times in the past year and 911 updated the street names where you are, blah blah blah. End your rant with, “So which address do you show for me?” Hopefully they’ll tell you and you can say, “Yep, that’s my address.” You might want to ask which apartment number is on it to, just in case they left that part off. Then ask which name is on the account. A good way to ask is to say something like, “Is my wife’s name still on our account there? Cause we’re divorced now and I don’t want to see her name on the pizza box. Which name do you have there?”

And just to make sure that you’re getting correct, current info from them, ask them when the last delivery was made to that address. Most of the Domino’s and Pizza Hut computers will show this, along with the total cash amount that the customer has spent. They may think it’s weird that you want to know, but convince them to do it anyway. If the employee doesn’t want to give you information, try back later to get a different employee.

Get a listing of all the video rental stores in the same area that your subject is located in. Start calling them all and ask if they can check your account to see if you have any late fees to pay. Most video stores will ask for your phone number to pull up the account with. But some will ask for your name. Just make something up and when they can’t find your account, ask if they can look it up by phone number instead. If they’re not able to look you up by phone number, hang up and try the next video store on your list. It’s best to try the big chain stores first, like Blockbuster and Hollywood Video.

When they pull up your number, they’ll either ask you what your name is
or they’ll say, “And you’re Mr. Xxxxxx?” to which you reply “yes.” If she
asks you what your name is, just make something up and she’ll get a little
confused and say that she’s showing another name on the account.
Fortunately, the average video store employee is not trained to be
suspicious of calls like this. Say, “Hmm, that’s strange…what name are
you showing there?” And write down her answer and say, “Oh yeah, that’s my
roommate!”

If you only got their last name, you still need the first name and address.
Tell her that the account is actually under your parents/roommates name and
you need to find out if your name is on there so you can rent something.
Hopefully she’ll read off the list of names authorized to rent movies on
that account. If none of this works, call back later and try to get a different employee to try
for you.

Now you still need the address. At this point, you should probably hang up
and get the rest of the info later just to avoid suspicion, but if you
think they’re not getting too annoyed with you or too suspicious, carry on.
Tell the video lady that you just moved and you want to make sure she has
the current address on your account. Hopefully she’ll read the address to
you. Then ask if she’s got the right apartment number on there just to be
sure you get the complete address.

Video stores have a lot of information on their customers and you can use this same technique to get just about any of it. You can say that somebody from their video store called your work, telling you that you had late videos. They’ll say, “Nobody from here would have called your work.” So you ask them what contact or work number they have for you. Whatever they give you, tell them that’s not the right number and ask if there’s any other contact number on the account. Then you can say something like, “Well this is odd. I wonder if it’s someone else’s account with my same name. Which social security number do you show on there?” Video store employees usually don’t get very suspicious so it’s pretty easy to get anything you want from them.

Call up your subject and tell them that your with the phone company. The conversation should go a little something like this:

THEM: Hello?
YOU: Hi, this is David Patterson from the Bell South toll fraud department. I wanted to let you know that we’ve shut off your calling card this morning because it’s surpassed the monthly limit of $3000.

Of course, your subject will be a little shocked and might freak out so you’ll have to calm him down. Ask who
you’re talking to and hopefully he’ll tell you. If he says, “Well, you
should know, you called ME.” Then reply, “Well we’re not
allowed to give out any personal information regarding an account until
we’re sure who we’re talking to.” and hopefully he’ll buy it and give
you his name. Write it down and then ask to confirm his address in the
same manner. Being in fear of having to pay a $3,000 phone bill might make your subject want to cooperate.

Let’s try calling up the phone company’s billing office and weasle some information out of them.

THEM: Thanks for calling Verizon. Could I have the number you’re calling about?
YOU: Sure, it’s 503-258-xxxx
THEM: And you’re Mr. Davidson?
YOU: Yep, I’m Ken Davidson.
THEM: Well I don’t show a Ken authorized on this account. I have a different first name on here.
YOU: It’s probably under my dad’s name. Dean. Should I have him call in to ask questions?
THEM: I don’t show a Dean on here either. I show an Andrea.

Unfortunately it’s usually not this easy. The phone company is used to people calling in and trying to trick them. And it’s especially hard if the person’s number is unlisted or if there’s a password on their account. But sometimes even if there’s a password, they’ll give you the name before asking you what the password is.

The best thing to do is to just keep calling the billing office over and
over until one of the operators gives you a little bit of information.
Then use that small piece of info to get more info, etc. Makes the calls
one after the other and hope that the operator doesn’t make a note on the
account that someone keeps calling in, trying to get his info. (This
happens.) The key is to not try and get too much information all at once. Take your time and make a lot of calls to them.

• Cell Phone Numbers Search - reverses or locates cell phone numbers for you
  
• People Files This is a good site for getting unlisted phone information and just about any kind of public or private records.
  
• Phone Searches Central If our methods don’t work for you then try the professionals. This site guarantees you accurate information on any kind of phone number as well as other handy searches.
  
• Discreet Reverse Phone Lookups Find cell phone records, unlisted phone number records and more.
  
• Private Investigator Resources Our collection of free PI resources on the net.
  
• Recording Telephone Calls Learn the best methods to record your telephone calls.

• Reverse Genie Locate practically anyone - job applicants, potential dates, neighbors, lost relatives, even friends.

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