How To Find Out Who Called Me With This Number ()

Cell phones have become a big part of our daily lives and almost everyone around the globe owns one. They have made communication easier so now we can communicate with people who live miles and miles away.

However, even when this is the case, almost all of us at some point in our lives have received a call from a blocked, unknown or no caller ID number that left us stressed while we were trying to figure out who the caller might be.

Lucky for you, it's now easy to find ‘who called me’ with any number.

Who Called Me with an Unknown, Blocked or No Caller ID Number

If you’ve been called with an unknown, blocked or no caller ID number, it's normal to get worried especially when the person keeps calling you and doesn't leave a message.

But, who can this unknown person be in the first place?

1. Scammers

Scammers impersonate government entities like IRS asking you to pay exorbitant fees and by the time you realize it your money is already gone and there’s nothing you can do about it. A scammer could also be calling to steal your identity.

2. Ex-partners

Relationships are complicated and when they end, not everyone takes it well. Phone harassments from ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends are common, especially among the younger generation. When this happens, it could end up disrupting your life and may even lead to serious issues like stalking.

3. Pranksters

Some people just want to get you fired up by making prank calls every now and then. If you receive a call from an unknown number, the chances are that it could be a prankster trying to get under your skin with fake calls.

Former Business Associates

Not everyone you do business with is mature enough to move on amicably and understand that not all deals go as planned. If you keep receiving calls from an unknown number, you might want to look at people you have done business with in the past.

Why It Is Important to Find Out Who Called Me

1. Unknown Calls Can Damage Relationships

Not knowing who’s calling you can leave you feeling conflicted trying to figure out whether it's your ex, a scammer or that relative you’ve been trying to avoid for a long time. This could leave you feeling untrusting about your phone and wondering what calls to ignore.

2. Harassment is Serious

Whether a former business associate or an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend, someone harassing you through the phone is usually a serious offense. While you may decide to ignore those harassments, they could turn into something more serious especially with people you’ve been in an intimate relationship with and it could lead to actual physical harassment or reputation damage.

3. Identity Theft

Scammers will call you with the unknown numbers either to steal your identity or your money and when this happens, you need to report it to the relevant authorities.

What Is a Reverse Phone Lookup

Reverse phone lookup refers to a process of identifying a caller through their phone number only. Most people who use reverse phone lookup do it not only to identify the number, they also do it to discover scam calls, identify call harassments or online sellers, learn more about someone they’re about to go out on a date with and to also see public records of someone to determine if they can be trusted.

How a Reverse Phone Lookup Works

With landline numbers, you can easily find out ‘who called me’ by looking through the phone directory, but it's a little tricky with mobile phones since they belong to different operators. Reverse phone lookup sites work by crawling different databases.

Each website or app has an engine that captures phone numbers shared online as well as additional information like physical location, job titles, photos and email addresses. There are apps that take information from their contact lists and add to the database as well as from social media networks and online links to extract this kind of information.

As such, if you want to use reverse phone lookup, go with providers that have big databases. A majority of the time information that you get from these sites aren’t reliable since most phone numbers aren’t in the databases and those that are don't have any additional information about the owner of the number.

One other problem you may encounter with reverse phone lookup sites and apps is the availability of information that’s obsolete. Since most people change phone numbers every now and then, the information that you’ll find in these databases are misleading most of the time since they’re rarely updated and don’t have a record of the present user of the number.

Today, you have to pay a certain amount of money to access reverse phone lookup apps and some of them offer to refund your money if the results don't pay off.

How to Identify ‘Who Called Me’ for Mobile Numbers

With mobiles phones, as mentioned earlier, it’s a bit tricky, trying to find out who called you from a blocked, unknown or no caller ID number but it’s not entirely impossible.

While reverse phone lookup apps and sites like TrueCaller or Hiya work to identify the owners of numbers that aren’t in your contact list, they aren’t able to identify callers with unknown or private numbers or those with hidden caller IDs. So how do you identify who called you in that case?

Search Online

If the number is visible, but you don't have it in your contact list, a quick web search can give you the caller's identity. With social media being a part of our everyday lives, most people have shared personal information like home address, email addresses and even phone numbers online.

A quick search of the phone number on Google or any social media site where the person may have account will give you the identity of the person if they’ve shared that information online.

Use Your Service Provider

If you keep receiving calls from an unknown, blocked or no caller ID number, it may be time to contact your service provider depending on their policies and the local laws.

If you have proof of the calls being intrusive, the service provider will monitor your calls and if they continue, they’ll warn the caller or terminate the number for good. In case the caller threatens your life or the calls are very disturbing, it’s advisable that you involve the police within your locality.

Use Third Party Service Providers

If the person doesn’t stop calling you, you can use third-party service providers that work to reveal the identity of a private, unknown or hidden ID number. With such a service the only thing you need to do is to reject the call from the number and then wait for a few seconds for your phone to ring again with the identity of the caller.

If you have such a service activated, after rejecting, the call is forwarded to a special number and they’re able to identify the caller, something that’s possible either through a special SIM card or you need to pay for the service.

How to Identify ‘Who Called Me’ for Landlines

You may have been out and missed a call on your landline and are unable to identify who called since not all landline phones have caller ID. You can still find out ‘who called me’ in that case and here are some of the most successful ways to do so:

Dial 69

On a landline, 69 is a special code that’s also known as the ‘last call return’ and is able to retrieve the last caller's number, though you have to pay to dial the number. The automated voice will reveal a number which you need to write down and it's usually the number that called you last and not anything before that.

Use online phone directories

Search through your phone book to see if you have the person in your contacts. If you don't recognize the number, use websites like WhitePages.com or AnyWho.com to do a reverse phone number lookup to identify the person who called you if they’re listed.

Use search engines

If reverse phone lookup doesn't work, use search engines like Google to see if the person has used the number online or if it belongs to a company. If it belongs to a scammer, you’ll see discussion from other people regarding the number.

How to Do a Reverse Phone Number Search on Desktop

You can use a reverse phone lookup on desktop using websites like phonelookup.com once you’ve identified the number the caller used. Enter the number to the website and see what more information come up about the caller like their name, home and email address.

The only problem with such sites is that information is limited since they’re normally based on the area code and most of the time will only give you the location of the caller, while you may have to pay for reverse phone lookup that can yield more information.

How to Prevent Unwanted Calls in the Future

Once you’ve identified the caller and in no way want them to contact you again, you can go ahead and block them. Some phones have the call blocking feature depending on the operating system as well as the version.

If yours doesn’t have that feature, then you may need to download third party apps (most of which are free) and block the number. Some of these apps take time to kick in and your phone may ring for a few seconds from the unwanted caller before they’re blocked completely which is something you should be aware of.

There’s nothing as annoying as receiving many calls from a blocked, unknown or a hidden ID number. While the natural instinct is to ignore the caller, sometimes they may make your life miserable. When that happens, you need to know how to use different techniques to identify the caller and finally block them from contacting you ever again.