How to run a free reverse email lookup? Read to get an answer to this question and know how to track people down, from their email addresses.
Has your email inbox been spammed lately, by mail from unknown senders? Are you looking for ways in which you can track the identity of these senders? Then what you need is a free reverse email lookup service, offered by some sites on the Internet.
The nature of the Internet is such that the information available on it is free. Also, many services like electronic mail are offered, free of cost, by sites like Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail. However, when it comes to tracking personal information, including name and address, by using the email id, phone number, or cell phone number, it is hard to find free services. Most sites that offer personal information tracking, require to be paid.
I was initially skeptical about finding any true sites that offer a free service. However, when I searched around on the Internet, using the Google search engine, I found some sites that can actually track the name associated with email addresses.
How Does it Work?
Every person that browses the Internet and uses its services, leaves behind a digital trail that is stored on web servers. Today, social networking sites like Facebook and Myspace have millions of followers. These sites, with the consent of the users, directly display personal information on the web, which is accessible to search engines. Besides that, people register their email IDs in public records, that can be accessed, free of charge.
Using all these sources of public records, social networking information, and other shared information on the Internet, some sites track the identity of an email address owner, free of charge. The very basic information, including the name of a person is made available for free, while if you ask for detailed information, you must pay for it. Using such websites, you can track the identities of people who mail you information or spam your inbox.
Running a Reverse Lookup
There are many con men on the Internet, that send you mails, talking about you having won a million dollars in lottery or other such offers, which are aimed at duping you. If you want to track down such con men, you can use the reverse email lookup service on the Internet. Here are some simple ways in which you can do it.
Google It
If you are suspicious about a business offer, mailed to you and need to verify whether it’s an email scam, just copy-paste the email id of the sender and go for a Google web search. Chances are that if it’s a scam, there will be other people out there, who have been contacted by the same person.
Discussions will exist on online forums, where the email ID of the same sender might have been put up. This will immediately pop up in Google search and you will know the truth about whether it’s a scam. Most scams can get revealed this way.
Use Websites
If the above method doesn’t work, you can use websites, that offer free services. Some of the sites that I found to be actually useful are ‘Spokeo’, ‘Pipl’, and ‘Radaris’. Most of these sites are social networking aggregators, that gather data, through information shared on sites like Facebook, MySpace, and Orkut. While I won’t brand any of the above sites as best, they certainly do the job. The name of the email ID owner can be had for free, but if you want to dig for more information, you must cough up some green bills.
Contact Sender’s Mailing Site Support
Another way of running a free lookup is to contact the sites hosting the sender’s mail account. If you are being threatened by emails sent by somebody, you must take help from cyber-sleuths and contact the support team of the site that holds the email account of the sender.
Using any of the alternatives mentioned above, you can use the lookup service to at least track the name of the owner. For more detailed information, you will have to pay most sites. Such services do raise a question about the protection of our privacy on the Internet.
While such reverse email lookup services do make tracking spammers and con men easier, they can also be used to track your personal information, which can be used for nefarious purposes. So be careful and do not share your personal information online, unless it’s really necessary.