There are many possible occasions when you’ll encounter a situation where you have a phone number but no name or address associated with it, and that can be very irritating. There are, however, ways to find out more details on that number. If the number is a land phone, then the process is very simple: you’ll just find the details in a registered telephone directory. But if it’s a cell-phone, then it becomes a bit more tedious.

The main problem is that cell-phone companies have a lot of legal privacy rights laws to favour them in honouring customers’ privacy and keeping information unavailable to the public. Therefore, you need to pay the providers in order to gain access to such information. Through these directories you can find names, addresses, number of phone numbers registered in their name, the location in which the phone number was issued on a map, etc. Such a search can prove extremely useful when you’re in the need of an address corresponding to a specific phone number.

Many reverse look up sites also provide background checks, such as criminal offense record, sexual offenders’ charge record, etc. So you can figure out if a particular prank caller has previous charges against him/her, and press charges yourself. Certain websites also allow you to press charges directly from their website. On clicking the appropriate button, you’re redirected to the authorities.

Each individual search is usually about $14 and you can also avail the option of unlimited searches throughout the year for just a fee of $39 for the year. The second option is quite obviously the more economic one, especially in the long run. You’ll have unlimited access to the database and their tools, all for just $39, which is very good value for money!

You need to be careful while selecting the service to access the database from, because you’ll need regularly updated databases for accurate and consistent information, otherwise you’ll end up with the name and address of the previous owner of that cell-phone number! Certain sites may even overcharge you, so you have to be careful about the pricing as well.

Another thing that you have to look out for is websites that allow you to perform an ‘initial’ search. Always remember that any search will cost you money. So an initial search will end up costing you $14 or more. It’s much better to go for the unlimited search option when it’s available, and not get into the whirl of just an ‘initial search’ to see if the data’s any use, and then the actual ‘full’ search which follows. Be careful not to get scammed by directories that don’t deliver.