I confess I get a certain kind of thrill when I type a number into a reverse phone number lookup and find out who called me, even if it was from a place I expected a call from. In this tough economy I, like many people, have fallen behind a time or two on payments for credit cards and other bills. Feeling sometimes picked on and paranoid, I feel a measurement of power and control when I use this feature to find out exactly who it was on the phone. Someone who wants something, no doubt, but at least I know ahead of time and can prepare myself – should I choose to call back.
I started using Reverse Phone Lookup sites last year when I got a call asking about a friend of a relative I didn’t know. Had I used a phone lookup site, I could have saved myself 5 uncomfortable minutes and hey, 5 minutes can mean something. At any rate, I now use it regularly and it has surprised me to learn that many, many calls that come in every day are not from legitimate businesses. Many pseudo-charities have successfully made it past federal do-not-call lists and onto my phone, to ask for donations.
Last year, one of these fake charities called me when my daughter had a high fever and I was awaiting a call from a doctor. When I explained I was keeping the line open, the response was, “I am not asking for a million dollars!” HUH. Later on, I searched online for this number and found many complaints about this so called charity and scams associated with them. Insightful and interesting information that was impossible to get in the past. Technology is amazing. Compare that to the past star lookup your telephone and we have come a long way.
I haven’t found any particular sites better than others so the best way is simply to Google the phone number in question and read several sites and user comments. This won’t work if you are in a hurry, of course, but for a repeated phone caller it is quite interesting. Many people complain about legitimate numbers, however, so it is important to read through all of the information to determine the nature and legitimacy of the callers in question. You don’t want to ignore a call from the IRS or your Grandma for instance.