Categories: TECHNOLOGY

How to Find Names, Addresses, Phone Numbers and Email Addresses Online

When you need to find someone in a hurry, the Internet is usually your best bet. Whether that person owes you money or you’re just trying to locate a childhood friend, the Internet has opened up new ways of finding out where people live and how to contact them. Finding names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses can be a challenge, but here are a few tips.

Locate People Online: Try the White Pages

If you go to whitepages.com, you can usually find names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses and postal addresses as long as the individual you are trying to locate has listed his or her contact information in the public directory. However, it will be difficult to find that person if he or she has changed their name or if you don’t know which state they are living in. If you have a phone number but no address, you can try their “Reverse Phone” feature, or you can try looking them up by their email address, though this is a relatively new feature and hasn’t been fully populated yet.

Locate People Online: Perform a Google Search

I have stopped answering my cellular phone because I am consistently getting calls from telemarketers and wrong numbers. So, when a number I don’t recognize pops onto the screen, I usually do a Google search for that number to see what pops up. Often message boards and blogs will contain the numbers of telemarketers so I can flag that number on my phone. If you are a savvy enough Internet researcher, you can usually find names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses through Google. If the person you are looking for has his or her own website or if he or she has been mentioned somewhere else online, you’ll usually get a hit.

Locate People Online: Subscribe to a Database

For a fee, there are plenty of websites online where you can search for people using data you’ve already collected, such as names and birthdates. Private investigators use these sites all the time, and it’s much cheaper to sign up yourself than to hire someone by the hour to do it for you. Just make sure you aren’t violating anyone’s privacy; databases that have information like social security numbers and arrest records are generally unscrupulous, and you should avoid obtaining information illegally.

Locate People Online: Find Friends

If you know people who know the person you are trying to find, you can conduct a roundabout search. Using Google or WhitePages.com, you can usually find at least one person who knows the individual you’re looking for, and you can get the contact information through them. Again, however, be careful that you aren’t violating anyone’s privacy, and that you disclose the reason you are trying to locate this person to anyone you speak with. The only exception would be if you are trying to locate someone to serve papers for a lawsuit, in which case you wouln’t want to give them a heads up.