Anyone who's spent any amount of time on the internet knows that of all the scams and broken promises that exist out there. Many sites will claim to offer free products or services in their ads, but of course when you get to the site it's either a complete lie or a very limited trial. Are backwards phone search companies sites from this plague that devours the internet?

We'll get to that in a minute, but first let's examine what exactly a backwards phone number search is for those unfamiliar with the process. Basically, it's the opposite of a traditional phone number search, in which you most often lookup a name to find out their phone number. With a backwards search you look up their number to find out their name, as well as other information like their address and phone carrier. This is useful when you've been contacted by an unlisted number or cell phone number, when you don't have call display, or when you otherwise have a phone number in your possession whose origins you're unsure of. This can prove useful when you've been out of contact with someone for a good amount of time and want to ensure the number is still theirs before making contact.

So when we talk about backwards phone records searches, we can break these down into searches of listed landlines, and those with listings of cell phone numbers and unlisted landlines. There are indeed many free directories which exist for the former, but the latter is where we begin to run into problems. It is actually illegal for anyone to freely distribute information related to cell phone or unlisted numbers in a database. So the answer to the title's question is both yes and no.

You'll have no trouble tracking down listed numbers for free through a backward phone book, but unlisted and cell numbers will not prove so easy.

All is not lost though, for there are sites which do host these numbers, but they aren't free, both for the legality issue mentioned above, and for the costs these sites incur gathering this data. Most of these sites charge a minimal one-time fee which gains you permanent access to the site. The fee is just enough to help offset their costs and make their service completely legal. What you'll get with these searches is the name, address and carrier information listed with that phone number.

Backwards phone records are collected directly from the phone carriers and is updated constantly. These sites will often list business and toll-free numbers as well, and some may even mention have pager numbers in their databases. These sites may also include access to other public records searches which can be of immense use, either directly through the site or through an affiliate or sister site.

You'll surely come across sites or ads claiming to offer free backwards searches of unlisted and cell numbers, but these will always lead to paid sites or simply be a big waste of time. Find a good paid site with accurate and current records and after that initial fee it will be as free to you as any other site out there.