eastortel.org

Almost anyone who knows the alphabet can find a telephone number in a telephone directory. It’s as simple as looking through the alphabetized list of customers’ names to pinpoint a number.

Those phone directories are becoming less useful over time, though, as more phone customers opt out of published numbers and choose unlisted numbers instead. Cell phone numbers are never listed in directories, either. Since today we have so many companies providing phone service, we also have many directories and databases to search before maybe finding the number needed.

This increasing unavailability of phone numbers could pose a problem for people like firemen and policemen who need to respond quickly to emergency calls if it weren’t for reverse phone number databases. This kind of directory lists the number first, with the customer’s name and address following. The reverse phone number databases used by law enforcement and other emergency services operators include both listed and unlisted numbers but use of these databases is severely restricted and never shared with outsiders

Market research companies have published reverse phone number directories for years. They sell these directories to libraries and businesses for very hefty fees of hundreds, even thousands, of dollars per year. These directories are too expensive for widespread use and the internet is proving to be fierce competition for them.

The internet is often accused as being a reason for the lack of privacy felt by so many in today’s world. Perhaps the reverse phone number search capabilities of many websites is one reason. There is a growing number of websites that offer reverse phone number searches at little or no charge.

One potentially sinister application of the online reverse phone number searches is that, for the right price, much more personal information is available along with that phone number. This array of information may be legitimately valuable in some instances but it has been used as a means of stalking and identity theft, too.

By contrast, a reverse take on an online reverse phone number database is that it is easy to look up callers who don’t leave informative messages. Their numbers can be searched to identify the caller, be it a friend, family member, telemarketer, stalker, or pervert making (illegal) obscene calls to your phone.