How to find anything
Contact Info (Email/Phone): Search Guides
Work out who's behind a number or address, or find a proper way to reach someone. Phone numbers and email addresses aren't in any public directory, so these guides focus on what does work, and how to report scams.
There's no public phone book for mobile numbers and no directory of email addresses, so a lot of sites that promise one are selling a guess. What does work is narrower: searching the number or address itself, checking listed directories, and asking the carrier or platform when there's a scam or harassment involved.
Guides
What to try first
- Search the exact number or address in quotes, in a few different formats. Businesses and scam reports often show up straight away.
- Check whether the number is in a listed directory. In Canada, Canada411 covers listed numbers, but not unlisted or mobile ones.
- For an email address, look at the domain: a company domain points to the organisation, and many companies publish a standard address format.
- If the contact is a scam, don't reply or click. Report it instead; the guides list where in each country.
Which guide do I need?
- An unknown number keeps calling you: How to Find Out Who Owns a Phone Number. Free search steps, what carriers can and can't tell you, and how to report scams.
- You got a scam call or text: How to Find Out Who Owns a Phone Number. See the scam section: the FTC in the US, the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre in Canada, and the National Do Not Call List for telemarketing.
- You want to email someone at a company: How to Find Someone's Email Address. How to find a published address or the company's format, and the CAN-SPAM, CASL and PECR rules before you send anything commercial.
- You want to check who is behind a website's contact address: How to Find Out Who Owns a Domain Name. WHOIS and RDAP lookups, and why personal details are usually redacted.
- You're trying to find a person, not just a contact detail: How to Find Someone: Free Ways to Track Down a Person. The people guide starts from a name rather than a number.
Coming next
We're writing these next. They'll appear here once they're checked:
- How to check if an email address is real
- How to trace a scam text