Let say you get a call/message from an unknown number or an email from a stranger. And you are curious to find out the real person behind it. Or you met someone on matrimonial/job search websites and would like to know who they are.
Usually, background checks is a paid service. But there are few online tools can help you identify people on the internet.
Also Read: How to Stay Anonymous on the Internet
Places to Search for People On the Internet
1. Use Graph search
With more than 300 million active users, Facebook is the best place to meet people on the Internet. By default, you can find any Facebook profile. Use their graph search to find people by name, email address, and interest.
2. Search for people using Google Advance search
What Google does best is search. So why not use Google Advance search to find people by name, mobile no or even address. Enter the information inside quotes (for instance Google the keyword “+9123456789”) and Google will deliver all the search for an exact match.
3. Search for Phone no
Using mobile number locator service you can get the rough idea of its location. However to get more info like the person’s name or even picture use mobile apps like the truecaller, WhatsApp. Once you have the number, location, and name, use social networking sites like Facebook to filter the results.
4. Do a reverse image search
If you have a picture of someone but don’t know their real identity, then use Reverse image search for Google. However, it’s more likely to works for popular images like a celebrity.
Bonus Tip: To identify the online image in Chrome, right-click the image and press ‘s’ key on your keyboard.
Related: Identify Fake profile on Facebook
5. Use people search engine
It’s a people search engine. I found the results quite accurate. You can search for people by their name, email, and location. It works by searching a public database and extracting contact’s details.
Other people search engine Wink, ZabaSearch, Pipl.
Alternative
If the person you are looking for is a webmaster, then use whois.net lookup. It can provide some useful info like their name location and even contact number in some cases. Technorati and Google blog search are other great options to find bloggers.
Wrapping Up
If the person you are looking for doesn’t use the internet regularly then it may be difficult to find them. None of the above mention methods guarantee any results, but their combination works quite well.
