Accidents & Injuries
Bankruptcy
Banks & Credit Unions
Business
Cars & Motor Vehicles
Charities
Children & Parents
Colleges/Grants&Loans
Contracts
Credit & Debt
Crime Victims Domestic Violence
Criminal Justice&Police Misconduct
Disabilities
Divorce & Marriage
Food Matters
Government
& Gov. Assistance
Health & Medical
Health Clubs
Homeless
Home Matters
Immigrants/Refugees
Insurance
Internet
Landlord/Tenant
Lawyers/Cts/Self-Help
Mail & Postal
Money & Investments
Occupational-
Licensing
Boards
People Search
Phone & Utilities
Privacy/IdentityTheft
Public Records
Refunds, Repairs & Replacements
Scams & Cons
Seniors
Support Groups
Taxes
Travel
Wills, Probate &
Estates
Work/The Wk Place
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)
Back To Top
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.
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
Back To Top
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.
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.
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"
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:
Example: A search for "Cat" will also find "Cats" but not vice versa.
But a search for "Company" will not find "Companies" (spelling change).
Back To Top
Control F Troubleshooting
If your search term wasn’t found,
Did you:
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
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.
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 |
|
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
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.
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) |
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.
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
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.
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.
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!!!!!
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.
Back To Top
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.
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.
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)
Back To Top
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)
Finding Your School’s Homepage
Two Year
Four Year
Graduate
Back To Find Or Background Old Classmates-Step By Step
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
4 Year Colleges and Universities
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
Peterson’s
Guide To Graduate Schools
Type the school name in their search engine.
Back To Find Or Background Old Classmates-Step By Step
Back To Top
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)
Back To Top
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.
Back To Top
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
Obtaining Vital Records
Where
To Write For Vital Records (50 States & DC)
For birth, death and marriage certificates, divorce papers and more.
Back To Top
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
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