Private Investigator Resources

This page contains many free resources for tracking a person down, such as checking addresses, reversing phone numbers and doing reverse address lookups. I try to keep these resources updated as often as possible. If you find anything that’s out of date on this page or maybe a form that doesn’t work, please scroll to the bottom of this page and tell us about it in the comments section.


United States Post Office Who better to count on than the post office guys themselves? Using the their form, you can enter in an address, city and state and it’ll give you the CORRECT address and zip-plus-four code. Visit their web page for other options, such as finding out where a Zip code is located.

If USPS is down, try using Google Maps instead. Google Maps is really good at correcting a bad address you’ve given it and finding the correct address and zip code for you.


Exchange Locators:

Enter an area code and prefix in any of the forms below to find out where they are located and what provider they’re with. Fone Finder will even tell you which cellular carrier an exchange is with. DSLreports will tell you the physical location of the phone company central office and what other exchanges are serviced by the same CO. Switchboard will give you phone listings starting with the area code and prefix that you enter.

Fone Finder (Area Code / Prefix)

dslreports.com (Area Code / Prefix)

switchboard.com (Area Code / Prefix)
Local Calling Guide

The Directory This directory has an area code/prefix lookup. You pick any area code in the United States. Then you get a listing of every prefix in that state which tells you exactly what city the exchange is located in.


WhoWhere? This site has white pages, yellow pages and a very useful reverse telephone number lookup tool. Put a phone number into the form below and it’ll tell you who own it. Doesn’t usually work for unlisted phone numbers, though.


Obtaining Information Yourself:

Here are a few articles from phonelosers.org on various topics that might interest someone looking for information.

Identifying an Unlisted Phone Number If the searches on this page don’t help you, here are a few tips on figuring out for yourself who a phone number belongs to.

Recording Telephone Calls How to record your telephone calls. Also shows you how to detect phone taps on your own line.


Other Good Search Sites:

National Address Server This works kind of like the U.S. Post Office, but besides validating your address it will also print out an address label with a bar code on it.

Apartment Lookup Service You can get a listing of all the apartments in a given area by typing a city and state into this form. Great if you want to quiz the apartment manager about a tenant’s unlisted telephone number.

Bigfoot.com A large directory of e-mail and people directory services.

U.K. Yellow Pages It’s like the U.S. Yellow Pages…only in the U.K!

Telephone Directories A listing of different telephone directories on the web from different countries.

SwitchBoard Yellow pages, white pages, you know the drill…

Zabasearch Put in a name, address, city or just partial information and it will return public records of names, addresses and phone numbers. There’s usually an option to order complete searches on them. But the free results are nice and sometimes include birthdays.

United States Selective Service System Gives you the ability to verify your selective service registration, presenting you with your selective service number and registration date.

Dex Online Another yellow and white pages directory. Lets you look up by business catagories too.

thelist.com Looking for someone in a particular city? This list shows just about every internet provider in any given city, lets you list by areas or search for specific servers. Great for figuring out what ISP your target is on.

InfoSpace Search Standard lookups of businesses and residences. Also does reverse lookups on phone numbers.

Genealogy and Ancestry Resources

familytreemaker.com The largest and most complete genealogy resource. This is software that helps you search for your ancestors.

ancestry.com Another site for going genealogy searches.

Useful Websites

  • The Stalker’s Homepage An excellent source for anyone who wants to know stuff they shouldn’t. Includes search engine/people finder forms all on one page, social security number databases and ANI blocking services.
  • Investigator Resources A site for the professional investigation industry.
  • PI Magazine Although the subscription price really sucks, it’s a great source for anyone interested in this type of thing.
  • Spies Online A listing of different URLs to things like anonymous e-mailers, information brokers and search engines.
  • Information Unlimited Lots of spy equipment, kits and related things.
  • Sales Leads USA These people sell some pretty nifty CD-ROMs of phone listings and other data.


AnyWho.com Look up a person by last name, city and state:


Last Name: (partial okay)
First Name:
Street Name:
City:
State:
Zip Code:



dnsstuff.com Your IP address is . This website provides various searches involving IP addresses and domain names. Here are a few of the more useful searches.








Google I cannot stress how amazingly incredible Google is at everything. Put anything you want into the form below and Google will find something on it. You can even put in a phone number and Google will reverse lookup the number if it’s listed, sometimes even giving you previous owners of the number, as well as current.










MapQuest Enter any address in the United States and you’ll get a map of that area with a dot showing exactly where the address is located. Let’s you pan around & zoom in on areas. This thing rules.














Address

City
State

Here are a few other mapping programs:

Yahoo Maps
Google Maps
Maps On Us


CANADIAN SEARCHES
CANADA

Canada Post The Canadian Post Office web site. It offers a lot of the same address lookup features as the USPS.GOV site does, but for Canadian addresses.

Canada 411 Directory Lookup This site will look up businesses and residences in Canada. Unfortunately it won’t do reverse lookups on phone numbers.


Private Investigators and Information Brokers

The following companies can help you find information. While they’re not free, many are professionals that can get you the results you need for a sometimes reasonable fee.

23 thoughts on “Private Investigator Resources

  • January 30, 2007 at 6:16 am
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    See, I heard that there are websites where you could find the exact location of a cell phone just by typing in the number. Does anyone know of such a website?

  • February 25, 2007 at 2:53 pm
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    411.ca does reverse phone number lookups for Canada

  • March 25, 2007 at 7:46 pm
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    The Google search brings up a 403 error.

  • November 17, 2007 at 4:30 am
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    Hi, there
    I found this content website is useful for information about Reverse phone lookup and cell phone records: http://www.fonerecords.com

    Good Luck!

    Ray

  • January 7, 2008 at 12:02 pm
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    Ma’at Investigations is UK based, run by Karen Alexander Dip. API, A.M. Inst F.P, and offers professional Private Investigation services in the East Anglia region, nationally, and internationally via a network of highly skilled and experienced agents. Contact us today for a confidential, free, no-obligation quote.

  • May 16, 2008 at 7:11 am
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    I’m trying to find out everything i can about my husband’s mistress. Her mothers maiden name, so i can possibly get in her email,(that is the secret q) anyone have any suggestions.

  • June 1, 2008 at 11:16 am
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    Hey Brad,

    I just discovered your PLA website and podcasts! Great stuff. I hear that you messed with MJ from 93.3 HE fucking sux! I hate that dude and it was great to have him get a taste of his own medicine.

    I had a question about that, did you ever get in trouble about for that? What did they do? I heard in the podcast that he got all your info and the FBI has the case, I think it was bullshit but I was curious to see what happened with that.

    Thanks,

    Luis-

  • June 21, 2008 at 8:41 am
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    We specialize in domestic relations ranging from infidelity, divorce and chils custody. 866-640-1010 or http://www.matecheckpi.com We can get phone records that have been erased like text messages, that is one of the hottest new things we can do for you please contact for a free conseltation.

  • October 10, 2008 at 1:31 am
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    WAY COOL!!!! I HAVE BEEN USING IT FOR YEARS

  • November 4, 2008 at 4:10 pm
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    North Carolina Private Investigator
    http:www.tjconnerassociates.com

  • November 5, 2008 at 3:53 am
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    if you are interested in International Surveillance services, please contact us.

    International Intelligence Limited

  • December 8, 2008 at 10:29 am
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    CPA International Investigations Inc is the premier, full service professional investigation, security agency and your source for trusted professionals. The investigators, technicians and security personnel at CPA have skills and resources to handle all your needs. We are licensed and insured to provide confidential, professional, affordable investigative and security services. CPA provides a wide range of professional services for law firms, insurance companies, corporations, small business, and the general public throughout British Columbia, Canada, and Internationally. CPA’s vastly experienced professional investigators and security personnel guarantee each assignment is carefully monitored and kept up-to-date, whether it is a civil or criminal matter. We are proud members of the Private Investigators Association of British Columbia, Canadian Association of Private Investigators, ASIS, Vancouver Board of Trade and numerous others. Results Guaranteed!

  • December 28, 2008 at 9:12 am
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    JEN: Ancestory.com is a great site that provides birth info (many times mother and father’s names, birth, etc). They also offer a 14 day trial so you can test it out.

  • January 18, 2009 at 3:11 pm
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    Hey Investigator Resources dot com is currently being completely redeveloped and will provide a lot of online PI tools and detective information soon. More so than it used to before so you might check it out too.

  • May 5, 2009 at 6:21 am
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    This site is a great resource. I use a cool new FREE SMS service. Just TXT checkthisnumber + and 10 digit phone number to 368638 (DOTNET).

    It is amazing. You get back unlisted and cell numbers! All FREE.

  • June 3, 2009 at 5:00 am
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    TNID.org totally belongs on this list. They’re the only site I’ve ever heard of that gives CNAM results away for free!

  • February 4, 2010 at 8:14 am
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    I came across your site by accident and I have to say that I’m impressed with all the information you offer here. Good job man.

  • June 14, 2010 at 8:58 am
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    It’s always better to use a website that provides paid reverse cell phone lookup services; since it needs a lot of money to maintain a proper cell phone number database. And, so those who claim to conduct cell phone lookup at free of cost are all bogus; they charges money afterward. There are several sites that provide the most reliable fast and accurate result for minimum charges. You may use AAfter to get a comprehensive list of such sites. Just put the number in the search box and get it done.

  • January 3, 2011 at 4:06 am
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    I did a reverse phone number lookup on my U.S friend’s wireless phone, and amazingly I found her home address. Then I managed to send her a Christmas card this year -:). The website I used for the search was http://www.fonerecords.com

  • July 20, 2011 at 3:48 pm
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    This is great information. I’ve used reverse phone lookups several times and have been amazed by the level of detail I’ve been able to find. One of the better ones I’ve used is: http://www.numberinvestigator.com. I’m curious if any other readers have had experiences with other services they’d recommend.

  • December 11, 2011 at 2:35 am
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    Thank you for placing the greatest search engine sites for people needing to locate others into one. This makes life so much easier!

Comments are closed.