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Home  Georgia  People Search

 

Finding People Through The Internet-Step By Step
1. When The Person's Whereabouts Are Unknown
2. Internet Phone Books
3. Listing What You Know About The Person 
4. Search Engines
5. Special Search Engines 
6. Search Trickseol

Find Also:

People With Common Names
People By First Or Partial Name
Women Who Have Married Or Divorced
Old Classmates












 

 


 










 

1. Finding People When You Don't Know Their Whereabouts
When you don't know where someone lives, look for National Directories and search for them just by name. The goal is to get their city and state so you can look for them locally. (To find women who may have married, click here.)   

A good directory will give you the person's address, phone number or at least the city and state where the record was obtained. You may also be able to learn their profession or something else useful.  

Your first stop should be the Age lookup sites. These sites are far more comprehensive than the Internet Phone books, which omit people with unlisted numbers. Age lookup sites will help you identify the person by their name, their age and even the people they've lived with. You may also learn the city and state where the person is living now.

Search Tips For Age Lookup Sites: When looking for someone, enter their first and last name only.  Ignore the box for age, state, middle name, etc. Being too specific could cause you to miss a name because the data gatherer entered the wrong age or forgot a middle initial.

Once you get a hit, find their address or phone number through
the Internet Phone Books.

To learn even more, search for them through General and Specialized Search Engines such as Google, their state, county and city homepages, their chat groups, their state bar/professional association, local newspapers, court records, etc. See Find People By Their Photos.

Still no luck? Then look for relatives in their home state, i.e. people with the same surname. Also, contact the "possible relatives" that were listed on the age lookup sites.

A relative by birth or marriage may be your yellow brick road to the person you're looking for.

Good National Directories Include

Internet Phone Directories
Search Engines (like Google and Yahoo)
Age/Birthday Records (Find Their Zip Code To Get City & State Info)
Death Records
Federal Records such as the FAA Pilot Registry, Federal Bureau Of Prisons or database of Federal Campaign Contributors
Search Engines That List Professionals such as Doctors and Lawyers (i.e. Martindale Hubble Directory)

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Finding People On The Internet

2.The Internet White Pages/People Search Sites
Don't stop with one. Try several of them for a thorough search.

You're most likely to score when you know the person's name and address or at least the city they live in. Some sites also offer reverse lookups, where you can find a person's name just from a phone number or an address.

No hits?  Try shortening the person's first name to an initial or Nick Name. This allows you to find those people (usually women) who avoid use of their full name.

For tough cases, see step three.

3. Make A List Of All You Know About The Person.

MOST IMPORTANT if others help you in your searches:

Their full name, (first, last and middle) their age, race, city/state and relatives. Also important is when you last knew of their wherabouts. For finding women, male relatives are preferred (they don't change names)

A. Include Contact Information Such as
Their first, last and middle name or initial (if known), nickname, maiden name, dating profile name, all usernames, city or state where they live or once lived, all prior contact information (include defunct cell phones and landline #s, all prior addresses and email addresses, website addresses), companies they've owned or worked for the last time you heard of them and the city and state where they were living at.

B. Friends & Relatives
Names of parents, names of adult children, spouse, ex spouses, brothers and sisters
and friends of theirs with unique names. (the latter may be useful to find on Facebook, and see if your subject is on their friends list.) For finding women, male relatives are preferred (they don't change names)

C. Things That Make Them Unique From Others with the Same Name
Their age race, gender, nationality, place of birth, height, weight, build, hair color, religion, former schools, hobbies, interests, languages spoken, military (navy, marines, army, airforce), occupation or professional background, tattoos, birthmarks, unusual features, disabilities (blind, deaf, bi-polar...), certifications/degrees, fraternity/sorority/other affiliations, organizations involved with, etc.  Even if you know almost nothing, put it down anyway. The Internet is teeming with information and anything might prove useful later on.

For example, I found an ex-girlfriend of 9 years back knowing only she spoke Russian and once lived in Ohio.

Putting her name in quotes, I combed the major search engines and found a letter she once sent to a Russian newspaper.  This letter gave me the city and state she currently lived in. With this information, it was easy to find the home page of her city government and also to look up their local court records.

Sure enough, my ex-girlfriend had gotten a traffic ticket back in 1989. This ticket proved invaluable as it listed her name, address, age and telephone number. Although she obviously didn't live there anymore, it was still worth looking into.  Through a reverse search on the phone number, I found her father, who after 12 years was still living at the same address! I called him and got her number.

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4. Use The Big Search Engines ie GOOGLE, YAHOO, Etc.
 Start with Google first. Do a search with the person's name in quotes i.e. "Jon Doe" or "Carol Smith".  Also try their last name first i.e. "Smith, Carol". For a thorough search try other variations such as using their middle name.

For example, you could get different hits with:

"John Smith"
"John L Smith"
"John Lewis Smith"
"John Smith, L"
"John Smith, L" Atlanta
John Smith (No Quotes) (for hits with spouse i.e. John and Mary Smith)


To refine your search, add the person's city or state (if known) or add other terms.  For example.  If your friend speaks Russian, try "Jon Doe" Russian. If you know Jon was once in the Army, try "Jon Doe" army.

With unusual or rare first/last names, try leaving off the  name that's common.  This is a good thing to do especially when searching for a woman who may have married or stopped using her maiden name.

Don't forget to search by Nick Name. For example, "Elizabeth" might be found under "Libby", "Richard" under "Dick", etc.

Once you get to a desired web page, find the name quickly through a mini-search. On your keyboard, hold down the control key and the letter "F". When the search screen appears, type the one word you're looking for and click Find Next. Click "Find Next" again to go further down the page where that word appears again.

See Googling People By Their Address, Phone # or Email

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5. Use Specialized Search Engines.
Search engines abound to locate, Regular People, Military Personnel, Classmates, Doctors, Birth Parents, Genealogies, Lawyers, Veterans, Smokers, etc. They are also good for tracing people through their Chat Groups, clubs & associations.

Never forget to search the home page of the city and county government where the person once lived. There you will find access to local information such as court records, marriages, births, deaths, clubs and community news. 

Have an address with a bad phone #? Use reverse lookups (address or phone) to get the names or phone numbers of the person's neighbors. Then call them for more information.

Also checkout the county tax assessor, which sometimes lists the names and addresses of property owners within its jurisdiction. To locate this agency via GOOGLE, plug in the terms  "X county" "Tax assessor".

 To find more information, do a word search in the local newspapers and/or check out the homepage of the local library.

On line local papers are truly an invaluable source.  Papers in small towns will publish anything, including obituaries, letters to the editor and local events missed by other search engines. You may learn your subject got married, or rescued a cat from a tree or became a school teacher.  Even if you can't find the person you're looking for, perhaps you'll find one of their friends or relatives who can point you in the right direction. And don't forget to use your search tricks.

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6. Search Tricks
.Find Names in The Internet Phone Books, See Step Two.
.In Search Engines, Put first and last name in Quotes i.e. "John Doe".
.Narrow searches by adding new terms.
.Look for city and county local websites.
.Find Specialized Search Engines.
.Comb The Local Newspapers.
.Search for words within a website or document via "Control F".
.See the Search Tool Chart For How To Work Each Search  
 Engine.

To find prior versions of a website that has changed or is gone,
Use the Google Cache feature below your Google return.

OR


Plug the web address into the Way Back Machine by entering the website URL in the search box and hitting "take me back". This works great when you're searching for a person or thing that is no longer listed, but present on earlier versions of the site. Click Here For prior snapshots of www.consumer-sos.com.

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Finding City & County Governments

City, County & State Governments Online (All 50 States)
Get local court records, liens and property records by going to the homepage of the city, county or state. For more on Counties, click Here. For more on Cities, click Here.

OR Use the Major Search Engines
Just type in quotes "City of X" or "City of Y"
For counties, type in "County of X" or "County of Y".

If the search engine pulls up more than one state, you can always make your search more specific.

i.e.  "City of Miami, Florida" or
       "County of Suffolk, New York"

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The Control F Function


Use shortcuts to instantly find terms within websites, large documents and attachments.

For PDF (Adobe files), you can search for words by clicking on the Binoculars Icon found at the top of the page.

Use "Control F" to search within Websites emails, Word, Excel or PowerPoint: 

  1. You must be on the screen of what you want to search;
  2. Left click on a blank space at the top of the screen or document (where there are no links);
  3. While holding down the "Ctrl" button on your keyboard, press the letter "F";
    >>>A Gray Search Box will appear.
  4. Type in one term (make sure there no spaces before or after such);
  5. Click "next";
    >>>Your cursor will move to the first point where the term appears.
  6. Click "next" again and again to search for other instances;
    (In Excel, you must repeat steps 1-6 in each tab you wish to search.)
  7. For best results, search for words in their simplest form.

Example: A search for "Cat" will also find "Cats" but not vice versa.
But a search for "Company" will not find "Companies" (spelling change).

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Control F Troubleshooting
If your search term wasn’t found,
Did you:

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Find or Background a Business

Complaints, Violations & Sanctions (Consumer-SOS)
Safety records, government sanctions and other wrongdoing for private and public companies. (Hint: Here's where you can report them.)

Get Names of Business Officers, Directors, Parent Companies, Subsidiaries (Consumer-SOS)
Find who is connected to a company both US and abroad. Can search by individual name, but can also search by business name to find officers and directors.

Background The People Behind The Business or Use Their Name To Find Their Company (Consumer-SOS)
Learn more about the individual officers, directors, and employees, their age, relatives, mugshots, bankruptcies, voter records, taxes, property, the companies they own and more.

Tracking US Federal Grant and Sub-Award Recipients (Consumer-SOS)
Has the company received money from the US government? Learn how much, from which agency and what it's for. (Hint, if they're irresponsible, you now know where to whistleblow.)

Locating Assets (Consumer-SOS)
Find their boats, planes, patents, salaries, side ventures, trademarks, etc.

Back to People Search


Other Business Intelligence

Find Their Parent, Subsidiary, Suppliers, MFG, and Distributors (Consumer-SOS)
Search by business name for who's connected to what. (A good jump start to your investigation.)

Worldwide Company Searches (Consumer-SOS)
Open Corporates, Panama Papers, Offshore Leaks, Aleph, etc.

USA Company Searches (Consumer-SOS)
Secretary of states, one stop searches, and much more.

Who Do They Contract With? (Consumer-SOS)
Search for contracts using various free databases.

Dirt Diggers Guide To Strategic Corporate Research (Worldwide)
Comprehensive links to company complaints, and exploring a company's relatiionships including their shareholders, subsidiaries, outside directors, creditors, suppliers, customers and franchises.

Tracking US Federal Grant and Sub-Award Recipients (Consumer-SOS)
Has the company received money from the US government? Learn how much, from which agency and what it's for. (Hint, if they're irresponsible, you now know where to whistleblow.)


Little SIS
Use to find the movers and shakers along with their political and financial connections USA or foreign). See their board members and president, though info may be outdated. Sometime lists who they donated to and how much, may have photos and lists services and transactions with customers, subsidiaries and parent companies, official filings, and sales to the military.

Back to People Search


Who Do They Contract With? (Search within lawinsider.com)

"Arris" "warranty" site:lawinsider.com
Shows any contract with Arris and the word "warranty." In Google Search Box replace company name with the one you're looking for.

"Spirit Aerospace" "Bombardier" site:lawinsider.com
Pulls up contracts between these two companies. Replace with the company names you're looking for.

Tracking US Federal Grant and Sub-Award Recipients (Consumer-SOS)
Has the company received money from the US government? Learn how much, from which agency and what it's for. (Hint, if they're irresponsible, you now know where to whistleblow.)

Back to People Search


Complaints, Violations & Sanctions

BBB Complaint Database (USA, CAN, MEX)
Find the business by name, phone number or web address and learn who owns it. To increase the chance of finding the company just enter a part of the company's name. Or you can file a complaint here.

Ripoff Report (USA)
Top right can file a complain or mid right search by company or individual for complaints. Or search by topic See
Ripoff Report Complaints against GA Debt Collectors.

Company Violation Tracker-USA & UK (Records not complete but still good)
For US, just type in a company name and hit search (do not select any filters in your first search). Violation Tracker provides access to data on a wide range of cases from all federal regulatory agencies, cases referred by those agencies to the Justice Department and cases initiated by DOJ. It also has extensive coverage of state regulatory agencies. Violation Tracker UK provides similar data for the United Kingdom. Can click on YEAR to sort by most recent. See also their UK version!

Safety Records on Commercial Interstate Carriers (Movers & Truckers)
Search the US Department of Transportation's SAFER database by company name or by DOT Number and Motor Carrier number to get the truck's owner, insurance info, and safety history including crashes. See top tight of screen for SMS results once you've clicked on the name of the carrier.

Companies or People Involved in Patent Litigation (RPX Database)
Type in their last name or their company to learn their state of incorporation, their company and address information. Often can learn more by clicking on a copy of the legal complaint, which tells address and owner information.

US Company Violations (Links to Federal Databases)
EPA, FDA debarment, FINRA, OSHA, SEC, Dept of Treas. enforcement...

Dirt Diggers Guide To Strategic Corporate Research (Worldwide)
Comprehensive links to company complaints, and exploring a company's relatiionships including their shareholders, subsidiaries, outside directors, creditors, suppliers, customers and franchises.

Back To Backgrounding a Business

Lookup Parent, Subsidiaries, Distributors, Suppliers, and MFGs

Corporate Subsidiaries-(Scrapes Public US SEC Filings)
Mostly US Public Companies-combine with Thomas.Net which can list subs along with products. Database scrapes the subsidiary relationship information from Exhibit 21 of the 10-K SEC filings. Not very many foreign companies appear in the SEC data, but the foreign subsidiaries of U.S. corporations are included. Some companies specify in their filings which of their subsidiaries own each other, but not all do. Sometimes a more thorough examination of the 10-K is required.

Find A Company's Suppliers & Manufacturers (Import Yeti)
Helps you know who to subpoena when looking for assets.

Find Company, or Their Suppliers and Distributors (Thomas.Net-USA & Canada)
To find by product, or company select ALL in the dropbox. If too much, then select by product or company.

Find A Company's Import and Exports (Voltza)
Use their dropdown to select company (or keep at the default for Product/HSN Code.) For company, two out of three times, Voltas returned a clickable list of company affiliates. Click on these links at the left for their products the # of imports and exports, the places of export or import and the major buyers and suppliers. To get company contact info requires a paid subscription but the rest is free.

Track Containers for 166 Companies
Enter container number here, should have format XXXU1234567.

Hidden Relationships Between Websites (Consumer-SOS)
Learn who owns or manages various websites based on their Google Ad ID, backlinks to a common source, shared email addresses, common coding, etc.

Worldwide Company Searches (Consumer-SOS)
Open Corporates, Panama Papers, Offshore Leaks, Aleph, etc.

USA Company Searches (Consumer-SOS)
Secretary of states, one stop searches, and much more.

Dirt Diggers Guide To Strategic Corporate Research (Worldwide)
Comprehensive links to company complaints, and exploring a company's relatiionships including their shareholders, subsidiaries, outside directors, creditors, suppliers, customers and franchises.

Locating Assets (Consumer-SOS)
Find out what they own.

Back to People Search

Hidden Relationships Between Websites
Learn who owns or manages various websites based on their Google Ad ID, backlinks to the same websites, shared contact info, shared hosting service or same coding, etc.

Reverse Searches on Websites & Contact Info To Determine Ownership (Consumer-SOS)
See how to find their other websites even when the owner's website info is privacy blocked. (Scroll through all the yellow highlights!)

Domains That Share the Same Unique Google Analytics ID
Discover relations like ownership between domain names, even when the owners are hidden.

Find What Websites Are Built With (Builtwith.com)
Find what programs the website is built with to see if it's related to another site. For example, both have the same old version of Word Press.

Back To Backgrounding a Business

See Find Or Background A Person
See Public Records (Consumer-SOS)
and Businesses Matters (Consumer-SOS)

 

 










Find Someone's Date Of Birth And Where They Live

See Age, DOB, Relatives, Employment, Prior Places Lived

Do a Google search with their name, city and/or state for even more information.

County Lookup By City (National)
Plug in the city and state to get the county. Then do a records search in that county.

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Reverse Searches
Plug in just a fragment of their information like a photo, an address, email or phone # for even more about them. Use when you don't have a name, want to confirm someone's identity, or need more than just a Google search.

Search By Their:

Emails Photos/Images
Phone #s (Includes Cell Phone #s) Usernames/Dating Profiles
Street Addresses Websites/Intellectual Property
License Plates & VINs
Metadata and Geolocation (Date, Time, Place, Author)


Emails

Get Photo From Their Gmail Account (Japanese site but with English Results!)
Paste the first part of their gmail address into the white search box and press enter. Wait a few seconds, then copy and paste the link for the Profile Picture into a new Google search. Often it will show a photo of the account owner. Site may also provide a link to their profile page which shows if they've written any Google reviews and could also provide the location of such.

Is The Email Reputable? (verify it's not just a throwaway email or used by spammers)
Good for dating or buying online when you ask for their email. Gives you 3 free searches a day. (Made up a fake email and it caught me!)  Use this to see if someone is a serial dater and setting up burner emails. See Backup site.

Retrieves Photos, Occupation, Marital Status & More (Osint.industries)
No longer free as of 10/6/2023 With their free signup, you can plug in an email address to get their photos, usernames, marital status, hobbies, where they shop or their professional occupation. Claims to do the same with phone numbers but all I could get was if they had a Skype account. US phone # format=678-587-9228. Sole drawback is you must perform 2 annoying captchas per search.

 

Cyberbackgroundchecks.com (Reverse Email Search-USA Only)
Use a new or old email address to find who lived or lives there, along with their
cell phone #, email addresses and physical addresses.

Does Their Email Address Pull Up a Name or Photo? (Worldwide)  (Epieos.com)
Free sign up and then put in any email address, even from Hotmail or Yahoo to get a name or photo from their Gmail account. For back up site try Castrickclues.com whch also does usernames, but not so well.

Use Email Address To See Skype Username, Photo and First & Last Name
Then do reverse lookups on photos and usernames, or simply Google their full name.

Spytox Reverse Email Lookup (USA or if Once Had a USA Address)
Excellent email reverse lookup to confirm name and state of the person who owns the email address. Worked with about 80% of my email lookups but at times lists several people at once: The correct person is usually at the top of the list.

Shows Social Media Accounts Based on Email Address or Username
Enter in either of the above and then click on the link to see what it reveals about the user. (3 free tries per day)

Use Email Address To Verify Name, Age and Physical Addresses

(USA-Advanced Background Checks)
When it works, you can get their name, age, middle name, relatives but the "current" address on top displayed may not really be their current address. For backup site, see SearchPeopleForFree.

Use Email Address To Pull Up Associated Domain Names along with the Owner's Name, Phone # and Address
My Yahoo address pulled up every single domain name I ever registered for. It also revealed the contact information above.


Use Person's Name, Company Or Email To Get Website Which Will List Their Address, Email Or Phone #
Once you have their domain name or website, see what you can find on the website. Don't forget to put the domain name through a Whosis lookup for their address, email or phone number. Click Here for another site that uses reverse lookups to get websites. For Best Results: Search by all 4 if you have this info. An email address may turn up sites not listed under their business, and vice versa. For common names, search by email or something tied to the owner.

Email Validators
Is it a working email or a one way trip to the Bermuda Triangle? See Backup Link as well. You may have to enter the email twice to see if it's valid.

ThatsThem
Works OK with some email addresses but sometimes returns the wrong name or no name at all.

SpyDialer (Now Does Emails)
Does quite well for Yahoo and Gmail reverse lookups. Can return a full name or just a first or last name.

MyLife.com (USA)
Enter in a name or email address. Works best for yahoo emails. Often wrong on political party affiliation or marital status.

Facebook (Worldwide)
Plug in an email address or phone number. With a billion plus members you'd be crazy not to try! Often returns something.

Website Informer-Find Their Website By Email Address (Reverse Whosis Lookup)
Found two of my urls based on my yahoo email address. For a similar site click Here.

Whoisology
Enter in a domain name or email address for the owner, emails or other other websites they own.

Email Reverse Lookup (Returns a name 20% of the time, Name may be wrong)
Before searching for your subject, look for yourself and close friends so you know what type of information is accurate.  For example: Site routinely lists a bunch of social networks that have nothing to do with your subject.

Use An Email Address To Find A Person's Name Or Phone # Or Use A Street Address To Get An Email Address
Finds about 20 percent of the people and it's often wrong. Still good with what's out there. May require free sign up.
NOTE when several email addresses are listed, they may have both the wrong one and the right one, i.e. both g_firestone@aol.com and g_firestone@yahoo.com. The way around it is to email all of them (Assuming you want to contact the subject). Or you can Google both addresses and see what turns up.

 

Photos/Images
Use a photo to confirm their name or find out more about them. See where else the image appears to know if there's copyright infringment or if the photo is a fraud (appears under several names, on various dating websites or is associated with scams).

Lenso.ai - AI Reverse Image Search
Free site with no signup, just upload a pic and it does an OK job searching for online photos of that person. If you don't get a hit, use their crop feature to hone in on the face and try again. Decent results.

Face Check ID (NO LONGER FREE!!!)
Excellent for white people but so so for Africans/African Americans. Can find other photos in social media, which can lead to a name or username. Found me with a photo I never ever put on the Internet! Note: if you have a photo of a person in a crowd, use Windows Snippet to crop their picture, and save, then upload and this works quite well! Best to crop a headshot without the clothing. Use to find witnesses for depositions (other people in the photo!)

Verify It's The Same Person
Upload two pics and see. I tried three postings and couldn't trick it! Spotted the difference between me and my twin brother, but also identified the same person with radically different hairstyles! Use in conjunction with facecheck.id.

Get Photo's Date, Time & Location (Consumer-SOS)
Free websites that can identify the country, state or city by examining photo metadata, architecture, terrain,landmarks, and maybe even the soil and plant life! Other links include getting a location by tracing an IP address!

Google Image Search (Making it work as before when it was good)
Two steps
1. upload image to Postimages.org and copy the "Direct Link" (must be from your files and not only online)
2. Paste direct link into https://googlelens.imagesniper.eu

Deblur, Enlarge, Extract Text, Flip or Remove Background (Consumer-SOS)
These tools can deblur, flip the image, remove the background, text or objects, extract text/translate text or recreate missing parts.

Does Their Email Address Pull Up A Photo?  (Worldwide)
Put in any email address, even from Hotmail or Yahoo to get a name or photo from their Gmail account or skype. Does it match the person you were looking for? To see where they live (or lived when the account was set up) copy the maps link into the address box up top. Sometimes it pulls up an additional photo with their real name, if you click on Bing or Google or Yandex link that it provides below.

Yandex Reverse Image Search
Click on camera/magnifier icon on right to paste the URL of the image (if image online) or to upload an image from your device.Yandex can drag the image. then at bottom is a crop function where you can move and reshape cropping square just to get a face or a brand name. Yandex will then search for photos similar to the area on the photo that was selected. If your pic has text, drag or upload and Yandex button will appear "recognize text"
Click it and it will extract. Can then do a Google Translate. or click on translate button and change the language to English.

TinEye Reverse Photo Lookup
Upload image or paste image URL.

Google Reverse Images Lookup
Works best with URLS and worst with uploading images.
Click camera icon on right of search box; paste url of image and click on "Search by image".
Firefox: To get image url, right click over image;  and "copy Image location"
IE: To get image URL, right click over image, select "Properties" and copy the link where it says Address URL
Google Chrome: To get image URL, right click over image, select "Copy image URL"
Microsoft Edge: Good luck! I couldn't get it to copy an Image URL.

Back to Photos Reverse Lookups


Photo Edits and Extracts For Better Reverse Lookups
These tools can deblur, flip the image, remove the background, text or objects, extract text/translate text or recreate missing parts.

Deblur Remove Objects & People
Enlarge/Reduce Text (Extract or Translate)
Flip (vertical or horizontal) Metadata (Date, Time, Place)
Uncrop (Restore Boundaries)  


Deblur

Clean Up Photos-Deblur
Is there writing in the background to Google or put in a reverse image search? See this back up link as well. Don't forget to extract and translate if needed.

Deblur License Plates (platerecognizer.com)
It will write the numbers it thinks the license plate really is, e.g. GA 12345.

Enlarge/Reduce
Helps see text or objects.

Reduce or Enlarge Photos To See Details or Background (pixelied.com)
Upload and then enlarge or reduce from 33% to 800% with a scrollbar. Still blurs but it's fast and easy to use.

Hugging Face Enlarger
Enlarges a photo to 2x, 4x or 8x.

Imageenlarger.com

Shrink or Enlarge (webupon.com)

Enlarge  Images (List of Links)
Tools to enlarge and possibly sharpen an image for details which may reveal street signs or other clues you can Google.

Flip (Vertical or Horizontal)

Flipping Your Photos-Mirror Image (Good For Geolocation or reading text in reflection)
Did your cell phone flip the photos so that a cat or other object on your left appears on your right (the way someone facing you sees it.)
Use this tool to flip it back. Use when geolocating buildings based on landmark objects to the left or right (mountains, water towers, restaurants, etc.) and then plug photo or other info into other reverse lookups, etc.

Text Extract or Translate

I2OCR
i2OCR is a free online Optical Character Recognition (OCR) that extracts text from images and scanned documents so that it can be edited, formatted, indexed, searched, or translated.

Extract Text Found in a Photo or Image and Even Translate It (Sleuth For The Truth)
Extract the text displayed in an image whether it's a name of a building, a person or even a poem!

Metadata & Geolocation
Geolocators work best with external things in the background such as a building, bridge, store or mountain. Always confirm using at least two sources.

Photo Geolocation (Geospy AI)
Free website that can identify the country, state or city by examining photo metadata, architecture, terrain, landmarks, and maybe even the soil and plant life! Works to some extent even with screenshots of other photos! Best free tool of this sort I've seen.

EarthKit Agent
Upload your picture and let AI do the rest. Requires sign in. Tends to get the region accurate (Northeast, Southeast, etc,). Does better with outside landmarks in the background. You can also give it hints to narrow its findings.

AI Describes Photo, Sometimes Gets the City (Huggingface.co)
Free and worth a try!

IP Address Geolocation (Consumer-SOS)
Track the location of someone based on their IP address.

Photos-Extract Date, Time Location and Other Metadada
May reveal date, time and place where the photo was taken. Doesn't work for Facebook images online. Does work for uploaded photos (to some extent).
If the file is on your computer, you can also use Windows and right click/select properties, to see date photo was taken.

Search Locations Based on Objects In Photo Open StreetMap Search
With a free signup you can find a photo's location through landmarks, buildings, railroads, mountains, other structures and satellite images: Specify the objects you see and the distance between them (ex: a 10-story building 80 meters from a park). Select a search area (ex: a district of a city). See also this blog on how to use.

Metadata2go
Can show hidden metadata in Word, Excel, pics, audio and video (but not YouTube.) which could include the author, location and more.

Remove People, Objects & Text

Remove Unwanted People or Objects from Your Digital Photos (https://cleanup.pictures/)
Instantly remove your ex boyfriend or the bystander in the background. Easy to use and free! For a backup site try clipdrop.co/cleanup, or automatically get rid of all objects but the people with RemoveBG. You can also use the Windows Snipping tool to draw a box around the person you want and save to your desktop.

Remove Text in a Photo
Does a decent job but you'll need other tools to remove the text box.

Uncrop (Restore Boundaries)

Restore Boundaries on Over-Cropped Photos
AI extrapolates what the photo boundaries would look like if the pic was uncropped. Expect hillarious results if picture is just a small portion of the whole object or person. Note: A cropped shot of me sitting on a small bit of a couch along with a cat hillariously duplicated couch cushions and a very creepy extra cat with no eyes or mouth!

Back to Photos Reverse Lookups

Street Addresses

Find Those Who Live or Once Lived At That Address (Consumer-SOS)
Find your old frat brother even when you don't remember his first or last name or where they live now. These sites often link to the names and contact info of others who lived there.

Cyberbackgroundchecks.com (Reverse Address Search-USA Only)
Use a new or old address to find who lived or lives there, along with their more recent cell #s, email addresses and physical addresses.

Find the Full Street Address With Just the House# or Zip Code
Will give you a full address with just a partial one. Then reverse lookup the whole address for who lives there.

FastPeopleSearch
Retrieves people who've lived at that address along with age, the subject's companies, old phone numbers, cell phone #s, etc.  

Melissadata Address Check
Verifies if address is legit, reveals if it's a concealed mail drop, and lists who may live there, even does so for NYC apartment buildings.

Bellingcat OpenStreetMap Search
With a free signup you can find a photo's location through landmarks, buildings, railroads, mountains, other structures and satellite images: Specify the objects you see and the distance between them (ex: a 10-story building 80 meters from a park). Select a search area (ex: a district of a city).

Background Homeowners By Their Address To Get Their Name, Middle Initial & Marital Status (50 States & DC)
6 out of 10 people own rather than rent, which means you can find or verify the names of over a hundred million homeowners with just their address. Simply select the state and city where the address (home) is located, then click on the appropriate property lookup link to search by address. Results may also include their middle initial, the home's value, or that a spouse is also on the deed! If you can't find them, it could mean they rent or gave you a false name.  But it could also mean they live in NYC, or you have the wrong address or city.

Radaris Address Reverse Lookup
Pulled up my friends' names, middle initials, and old phone numbers along with prior renters based on their home address.

Show My Street
Instantly shows photos of the house or building as you're typing the address! If it doesn't then take off the suite #. A photo may show the address is just a concealed mail drop and not a real suite or business. (this is obvious when it's just a strip mall with a UPS, Staples or Mailboxes Etc. For more, see Other Street View Lookups (Google Search)

411 (By Name or Address Reverse Lookup & Neighbors)
Enter in an address for a name or a name for age and other information. You can then click to see the names and addresses of their neighbors. From there you can use other consumer-SOS links to find their phone numbers.

OOPS! I Sent My Letter To The Wrong Address!!!! (Consumer-SOS)
Step by step on what to do to find out where it went. 

PO Box Lookup-Finding A Business Or Person Through Their Post Office Box (Consumer-SOS)


Find Old Roommates & Others Who Live or Once Lived At That Address
Find your old frat brother even when you don't remember his first or last name-just enter in their old address or the address where you both used to live as housemates. These sites often link to the names and current contact info of others who lived there.

Cyberbackgroundchecks.com (Reverse Address Search-USA Only)
Use a new or old address to find who lived or lives there, along with their more recent cell #s, email addresses and physical addresses.

FastPeopleSearch
Retrieves people who've lived at that address along with age, the subject's companies, old phone numbers, cell phone #s, etc.  

PeopleSearchNow Address Lookup (Find An Old Roommate, When You Don't remember their Last Name)
Look up an address to see current and prior residents. Click on their name to see age, relatives, addresses and phone numbers. Look up yourself to locate your old roomates. When their name comes up, just click! Too many searches and they start testing to see if you are human!

SearchPeopleForFree (Enter in their old address for new info)
Or enter in your name to get the address you both lived at, and then click on their name when it turns up as living there too.

FamilyTreeNow (replace existing address with your desired address)
Works somewhat for apartments too.

Back To Street Addresses

 
Phone #s

NumLookup
Out of 6 tries missed 1 got 5 and no false positives. Captcha then allows 5 more tries before the next captcha.

CallerName.com Reverse Cell Lookup
Got my name and the names of my friends and relatives just from their cell phone numbers. Lists city and state.

OK Caller Reverse Cell Lookup (USA only)
Use 2nd smaller searchbox (ignore the advertisement) to get the name or address of an unpublished number or cell phone #. It's totally amazing and should be used in conjunction with Spy Dialer. (Use both so you can confirm the owner.)

SpyDialer:Verify Cell Phone Owner Plus Hear Their Voicemail (USA)
Do a reverse lookup to see the owner. You can also listen to their voicemail  anonymously. Just select "Hear Voicemail", enter their 9 digit Cell # and “Dial." Their phone won't even ring and you can play back their voicemail to see who it is.  You'll be anonymous because their caller ID will show a number from Spy Dialer. This won't work with landlines, so make sure it's really a cell #.  New Feature: Learn the owner's first or last name. Just select "Lookup Name" Instead of "Hear Voicemail" (Mostly accurate).

Cyberbackgroundchecks.com (Reverse Cell #Search-USA Only)
Use a new or old phone number to confirm the person's name along with their
email addresses and physical addresses.

Phone # Can Retrieve Skype Username, Country and First, Last Name
Enter number without dashes like this 6785879228. Pulled up my Skype handle, country of origin and my full name. Haven't tested for outside USA.

Find The Name Behind A Cell Phone # zlookup.com No Longer Works)
Five free lookups per day. Found me, my mom and almost everyone else. Check at least one other site below to confirm as sometimes these sites return the wrong name.

Names & Ages of Cell Phone Owners (USA-Peoplesearch.com)
Narrows the # down to two choices and provides their age. Found most of the cell #s in my address book but address and relative info is not reliable.

Get a Name with a Cell Phone # (Advanced Background Checks)
Enter a cell phone or landline to pull up a name, age and address info. Don't trust the top one to be their current address. But their address could be listed in the middle.

Verify Name of Cell Phone Owner For Free (CallerSmart.com)
Get their full name from a cell phone #. Sometimes the last name may be missing a final letter.

SpyTox
Select "Phone" and enter in a cell # to verify who it belongs to. Found mine and my mom's.

Reveal Name Worldwide Lookup (No longer works)
Works great in the US and I tested it in the UK and Germany too. To search in other countries, click on the country flag and enter their cell number to verify the true name of the owner.

CallerID Test
5 free lookups, which gave me the correct owner of 50% of the mobile #s I was looking for. Did not give me any false leads.

Caller ID Lookup (CNAM)
Unlimited tries, and often gets cell phone numbers.

Melissa Lookups (Global Phone Check)
Good for finding the owner of cell phone numbers and unlisted numbers. Just put in your number like this: 678-587-9228
(and ignore the box that says "COUNTRY")

Once you get a name, enter the full name at their sister site:https://www.melissa.com/v2/lookups/personator/index
To find out if they rent or own, their age, address etc. NOTE:  after a few lookups, you may be required to sign up for more free usuage. IT'S WORTH IT.

Facebook
Plug in an email or phone number. With a billion plus members you'd be crazy not to try! Often returns something.

CallerSmart (Hit or miss for Cell Phones)
Pulls up the names of some cell phone #s and some unlisted landlines.

That's Them (Hit or miss for Cell Phones)
Pulls up the names of some cell phone #s and

Google: Find A Person Or Business  (By Phone #)
Type the phone # into their search box (try with and w/o dashes) to get the person's name and address. 

Reverse Phone Number Directory
Get a person's name and address by typing in their phone#.

Reverse Phone Lookup
Gives you the address but no names. For the name, Google your address or use a reverse address lookup.

http://www.anywho.com/reversephonelookup
Free.  Look here to find residential or business phone numbers.  Also does reverse lookups where you can get the person's name & address if you have their phone number.

The Best Search Engines/Including Reverse Lookup
One central spot where you can do free searches on a variety of good search engines.  Can Also Search For Photos Of People!!!!!

411.com 
 

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Usernames
Plug in an old username or the first part of an old email before the @sign to find accounts on Facebook and other social media, even if they changed names! Tip: go through your old email contact list and look for friends with unusual email addresses or for people with rare names. To guess their usernames try combinations like: grahamfirestone graham.firestone graham-firestone graham_firestone gfirestone g_firestone g-firestone.

IDCRAWL by Username
To get their photo & social media profiles, plug in their old username or for unique emails, the first part before the @ sign.

Namevine
Searches all social media at once for where the username appears. Best for rare usernames unlikely to be used by others. Can also search for a name with spaces if it's rare. Do not search for complete emails.

What'sMyName
Can enter a
username or a first and last name with or without spaces. Do not enter a full email address.

Shows Social Media Accounts Based on Email Address or Username
Enter in either of the above and then click on the link to see what it reveals about the user. (3 free tries per day)

Use Username For Photo Or Social Media Site (Google Image Search)
Enter a rare username in quotes like "sleuthforthetruth" to see what photo, name or website appears. Then click on the image for more. Use this trick to find your old friends who may have changed names due to marriage or divorce. Don't forget to Google the username as well.

Castrickclues.com
May pull up a name via username.

HandleFinder
Find a username across various social media platforms. Pulled me up on Facebook, Instagram, Gravatar and Reddit along with many of my Reddit posts.

Google, Bing, Facebook, Twitter, Other Social Media Sites
Never overlook the obvious places! You might get lucky! Try with "" and without "" as in "alotasugarjet" or alotasugarjet

Dating Profiles (Consumer-SOS)
Find other ways to learn who your potential date is.

Usernames & Defunct Emails: Find Old Friends & Classmates (Sleuth For The Truth Blog)

Social Media- Specific Sites & Tools (Consumer-SOS)
See what tools there are to search for people on Facebook, Instagram, Redditt, Twitter etc.

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License Plates

Free Lookup of Make, Model, Year, VIN and Car Specs
Worked with my car when I entered a license plate and state. Also claims to pull up "Historical events for this vehicle listed in chronological order." Noted one accident and a recall for a friend of mine! Probably have to pay for more details.
Good if you need to report an aggressive driver, or just want to see the specs of your own car, or if a car you wish to buy has been in an accident.

Is the Vehicle Listed as Stolen or Salvage? (NICB.org)
VIN Check cross-references the VIN entered against participating insurer’s theft and salvage records. 5 free tries a day. But records are not complete.

FAXVIN License Plate Lookup (Free)
Plug in their plate # and state for the make and model of their vehicle. Pay under $10 and you should get an accident report as well. Good if need to report to the police. Photo displayed may be a diffierent color vehicle of same make and model. For the driver's name, you'll have to pay a bit more no doubt. To get the VIN with the same data, click HERE!

Findbyplate.com
Enter in their plate and state and it may tell if there's been a driving incident. My plate pulled up the correct make and model. Color may be wrong.

Deblur License Plates (platerecognizer.com)
It will write the numbers it thinks the license plate really is, e.g. GA 12345.

Deblur, Enlarge, Extract Text, Flip or Remove Background (Consumer-SOS)
These tools can deblur, flip the image, remove the background, text or objects, extract text/translate text or recreate missing parts.

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Reverse Address Lookup/Finding Out Who To Contact When You Sent The Letter To The Wrong Address

1 Use a reverse directory to find out the name of the person or business residing at that address. If you get a contact name click here.  Otherwise see below. 

2. Call information in the area code where the address is. For example, if  your letter was sent to "Colorado Springs, Colorado" dial 1719-555-1212.  If your letter went to New York, New York dial 1212-555-1212.

3. Explain to the operator that you need a name and phone number so you can contact the people at this address and have the package returned to you.

4. If they can't find this address, ask them for the phone number of the local post office closest to this address.

5. Ask the local post office if they can tell you the name of the person or business that resides there.  Find out if the address is a valid one.  If it is not, it may be that the shipper is liable and should have had the item returned to you.  If you get a contact name click here.  Otherwise see below.

5A. If you have a friend or associate nearby, have him go to that address and investigate the matter. Or try calling calling the local City Zoning, Property or Tax Commission. These guys usually have a plat or map of all the buildings in the area and who owns them. 

5B. Use The Cole's Directory. Through a Cole's Directory you can use the street address to look up the phone number. The Cole's Directory is probably available free at your local library.

 6. Once you have a name, use the Internet White Pages or Business Yellow Pages to find the phone number.  Or find the phone number by dialing information in that area.

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Missing Persons

The Nation's Missing Children Organization & Center for Missing Adults 
Find information on both children and adults.

Comprehensive links For Missing Kids & Adults (Many States)
To find links in your state, use the edit/find option on the tool bar of your browser. To check for more state links click "find next". 

National Find Family Registry For People with Disabilities
Open to people seeking each other even though just bits of information are available.
May help reunite those who lost touch with family members with disabilities for other reasons too, like divorce, foster care or adoption, personal problems or misfortune.

See Missing Kids (Consumer-SOS)

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Classmates


Find Or Background Old Classmates-Step By Step (Consumer-SOS)
Get in touch with all your old friends, even those who have married and changed
names.

www.classmates.com
Membership is $25 but you can sign up for their free limited access. If your classmates haven't registered, you won't find them.

Alumni Net
Free International site.  Not that useful unless you have the
Password to get into their restricted sections.

www.reunions.com
$25 membership fee.  Uses databases and links to other people search and genealogical sites.  Other fees involved depending on the type of search.

High School & College Alumni Database
Free membership but not many people in this database.
Track down lost friends with this database of 17,000 U.S.
High Schools and 10,000 colleges, featuring a message
center, reunion postings, automated email updates and
more.

See Also By Name, # or Public Records (Consumer-SOS)

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Finding Your School’s Homepage
Two Year

Four Year

Graduate
 

Back To Find Or Background Old Classmates-Step By Step

Two Year Colleges

U.S. Two-Year Colleges
Includes links to more than 1,000 community colleges, listed by state. Provides links to state boards and agencies, and community college districts and systems.

Maricopa Center for Learning and Instruction
Search for individual community college Web sites, or obtain a full alphabetical listing by country, state, or province. Contains links to 1,131 community colleges, plus 194 related resources.

Canadian Community Colleges
A list by province of Canadian community colleges not affiliated with a university.

Back To Find Or Background Old Classmates-Step By Step


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4 Year Colleges and Universities

US News College Directory 

Peterson’s Guide To Colleges and Universities
Type the school name in their search engine.

Back To Find Or Background Old Classmates-Step By Step


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Graduate Schools

Peterson’s Guide To Graduate Schools
Type the school name in their search engine. 

Back To Find Or Background Old Classmates-Step By Step


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Military

USA Military Directory
(Facebook Group)
Volunteers help you find your long lost service buddies, friends, or loved ones that have been left behind due to all the military moves...or just the passage of time.

GI Search (All Armed Forces)
Search by first and last name for their age and home town.
You may be able to verify more if you sign up as a free member.

Offline Requests For Military Service Records
Records open to the public include their photo, salary, rank, a transcript of their court-marshal trial and more.

Locate Military Members, Units, and Facilities
Includes How to Locate U.S. Military Personnel and Veterans.

How To Verify Or Locate A Veteran (Google)


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Fee Based Sites

www.ussearch.com
Fees range from $10 to more than $500.  Uses thousands of databases to find and check up on people.

www.reunions.com
$25 membership fee.  Uses databases and links to other people search and genealogical sites.  Other fees involved depending on the type of search.

www.peoplesearch.com
Free people searches for phone numbers and e-mail addresses.  Other searches are $10 and up depending on the complexity.

www.net-detective.net
Download software for $25, which explains how to find people and dig up information on them, even FBI files, for additional money.  See Also Private Detective

www.knowx.com
Offers information on death records, background checks, telephone numbers, and real property records for searches conducted before 11 a.m. or after 6 p.m.

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Genealogies, Birth Parents  & Ancestors

How To Search Your Own Genealogy (Mega site)

Genealogy Search Engine (Find Your Ancestors)

Birthparents-I Have A Name-Now What?
Step By Step What To Do.

National Find Family Registry For People with Disabilities
Open to people seeking each other even though just bits of information are available.
May help reunite those who lost touch with family members with disabilities for other reasons too, like divorce, foster care or adoption, personal problems or misfortune.

Searching For Birth Relatives-A Factsheet For Families

Searching Your Genealogy (Mormon Church Website)

Immigration Records From Ellis Island
Between 1892 and 1924, over 22 million passengers and members of ships' crews came through Ellis Island and the Port Of New York. Now you can research passenger records from the ships that brought the immigrants-even see the original manifests with passengers' names.

Finding Your Birth Parents (Search Registries)

Adoption And Finding Your Birth Parents (All 50 States & DC)

Find Who's Buried And Where
Punch in the persons last name the word "and" and then their first name for a list of cemeteries where they might be buried.

Click Here For More On Tracing Your Genealogy 

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Obtaining Vital Records

Where To Write For Vital Records (50 States & DC)
For birth, death and marriage certificates, divorce papers and more.

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Finding Women

Married and divorced women are much harder to find if they've had a name change. 

To Background or Locate Such a Person: 

See Also People By First Or Partial Name (Consumer-SOS)

See More on Finding By Maiden Name

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Googling Women To Find Their New Surname

Marriages are often publicly announced through newspapers, 
gift registries, alumni news, blogs, wedding announcements, etc.

To find your subject's new surname, simply click Here (Google).
Your Google search box should display:
"Jane Doe" marriage
While in the Google search box, replace the name in quotes with the name of your subject.
To be thorough, search again and again while using the various synonyms for marriage.

Examples:
marriages 
marrying married matrimony wedding weddings wedded betrothed
Still too Many Hits? Then narrow it down by adding
their last known city or state.

Examples:
"Jane Doe" marriage Georgia
or 
"Jane Doe" marriages Atlanta Georgia

See People By First Or Partial Name

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