It can be frustrating when you get text messages from a number you don’t recognize. If the person seems like they know you, then you may not want to admit that you don’t know who it is. Or, if you keep getting random messages, you’re probably asking yourself “who keeps texting me?”
The good news is that there are a few effective ways to find the owner of a phone number right away. By going through the methods below, you can get all the information you need on who has been texting you.
Searching the Number on Facebook
Considering how many people connect their phone numbers to their social media accounts, your first stop should be Facebook. The site also prompts its users to connect their phone numbers periodically if they haven’t already, making it more likely your mystery number will have someone’s account tied to it.
All you need to do is enter the phone number you want to look up in the search bar. If it’s tied to an account, that account will pop up, unless the user has adjusted their privacy settings to avoid these kinds of searches.
Even if the phone number isn’t connected to an account, you could still find its owner if there have been any public posts with the phone number in them. Although it’s less common now for people to publicly post their phone numbers on Facebook, it happened more frequently years ago.
Since there weren’t cloud services at the time to back up phone contacts, people would often create groups to notify friends when they lost phone numbers. Those friends would then respond by posting their phone numbers. You may find one of these posts when you search for a phone number on Facebook, although it’s important to note that if the post is from years ago, the number could be tied to someone new by now.
Using Google to Search for the Number
Google is a powerful search engine, and you can sometimes trace a phone number just by Googling it. Plug the phone number into Google and see what results come up.
You’re most likely to find the owner this way if the phone number is tied to any sort of business, although this method can also work if the owner of the number has their own personal website and included the number in their contact page.
Even if you don’t find the owner’s identity right away through a Google search, you could find valuable information by combing through the search results. For example, you may find the number on a site that logs spam numbers, in which case you can assume that the message you received was probably some sort of scam.
Google can work well for tracking down the name behind a phone number, but it doesn’t always come through. If you can’t find much information on the first two or three pages of the search results, it’s likely a waste of time to look through any more of them, and you should move on to another method.
Performing a Reverse Phone Lookup
You’ll get the most comprehensive information on who’s texting you when you search for the phone number owner by name in question using FreeBackgroundCheck.org. From the site’s homepage, click the Phone tab at the top to switch to that search method, enter the number in the search bar, and then click Search.
Using FreeBackgroundCheck.org, you’re able to search phone numbers from anywhere in the 50 states and uncover a substantial amount of information in minutes. You can get contact information, including the owner’s full name and address. FreeBackgroundCheck.org can also provide property records, arrest records and criminal backgrounds.
Whether the two methods above didn’t work or you just want to get more information, FreeBackgroundCheck.org can tell you everything you need to know about an unknown number that has been texting you.
Tracking Down Numbers You Don’t Recognize
Of course, you can always try the direct approach and simply ask who’s texting you if the message seemed legitimate. You may find that it was just a wrong number, or it was someone you know whose number you didn’t have saved.
Sometimes messages seem shady, though, and you want to get more information on who you would be talking to before you respond. Or you could send a reply, and then hear nothing back from the sender, leaving you wondering what’s going on.
That’s where some online sleuthing on your part can come in handy. With Facebook, Google and FreeBackgroundCheck.org at your disposal, you’re equipped with all the tools you need to pull up more information on numbers you don’t recognize.
