You receive repeated phone calls from an unknown phone number and the correspondent leaves no message to identify him? With a little trick and if luck is on your side, you can put a name or a face to this anonymous.
It is never very pleasant to see a call appear on your phone from a correspondent who is not in the address book. You never know if you should pick up or not to avoid dealing with spam or cold calling. If in doubt, let the messaging service take over. If it is important, the unknown caller will leave a message. But if he does not bother to comply with the exercise and the calls are repeated, it is better to know who is trying to reach us so insistently in order to decide whether or not to take the next call. For this, there are reverse directories, available from any web browser, on computer as well as on mobile. All you have to do is provide them with the telephone number – landline or mobile – of the caller to, with a bit of luck, find out their identity.
But don’t claim victory too soon! These services have some constraints to be effective. First, the targeted phone number must be well referenced in a database. If its owner has, for example, chosen to keep it confidential with its fixed or mobile operator (by registering on a red list), the reverse directory will have no chance of providing you with any information about its identity. Then, many numbers are used by call platforms and are available by varying a few digits. Again, reverse directories are unable to identify them clearly. At most you will learn that the number belongs to a company (in this case the call platform) and more. Finally, if the number corresponds to an internal position in a company, again, reverse directories will not be able to help you. In addition, if the number appears hidden, you will need to contact your operator to carry out the investigation for you.
To find the holder of a telephone number, there are many free services. Distrust, however: many in-between carry out the search, tell you that they have found a result and then invite you to dial a premium rate number to obtain the information. Don’t be fooled! Most draw their information from public databases… and free of charge. Better to go to sites and apps that do not charge you anything for the same result. You can also rely on social networks to achieve your goals, especially if it is a question of finding the owner of a mobile telephone number, since this is frequently requested (and even obligatory in certain cases) during registration.
If the unknown caller trying to reach you used their number to create a Facebook or WhatsApp account, you can unmask them.
With Facebook
► From your computer, access Facebook. If you are connected to the social network, disconnect while performing the manipulation. Then go to the page of account recovery set up by Facebook. It is normally intended for those who have forgotten their identifiers.
► Indicate in the search field the mobile number whose owner you want to know. Validate with a click on Search. If he has a Facebook account for which he has provided a mobile number, banco! The name that he indicated on Facebook as well as his profile picture will be displayed.
With WhatsApp
► Providing a mobile phone number is essential to use a WhatsApp account. And when you know the popularity of the service, there is a good chance that the holder of the line whose number appears on your screen uses one too. WhatsApp will not give you the name of the correspondent (which was possible before) but will at least display the photo linked to the profile. On your smartphone, launch WhatsApp. Press the button to start a new chat. From the menu that appears, choose New Contact. Enter the phone number you want to unmask (WhatsApp informs you immediately if the number is saved in its database) and save it.
► The profile of the correspondent is displayed with, at the top, the photo used for this one.
If the person trying to reach you has not taken steps to appear on the black list, you can try to identify him using reverse directories. These rely on a public database to match the telephone number, landline or mobile with a name. Please note: there are many online services offering the reverse directory function such as Inversed annual, Minitel, Reverse Directory France or CTWho. Most will give you the answer for a fee by asking you to dial a premium rate telephone number (on average 3 euros all the same). Others like TelephoneAnnuaire give completely erroneous results. To be sure not to be taken in, head to the Yellow Pages service which is 100% free. It’s the only one we recommend.
► Connect to the Yellow Pages site in the Reverse Directory section. Enter the landline or mobile phone number whose owner you want to know and validate.
► Immediately, if the number is in the database, the name of its owner is displayed with their contact details.
If the correspondent who is trying to reach you uses a mobile line, you can discreetly try to find out who it is by joining his voicemail directly. With any luck, he will have left his name on his greeting. And there’s no fear of him picking up since this trick will immediately switch you to voicemail without his phone ringing. Still, it is still necessary to know to which operator he is subscribed. You can go to this page to define the operator that governs the line. All that remains is to follow the steps indicated by the voice aid depending on the operator.
- To reach the voicemail of an Orange or Sosh line, dial 06 80 80 80 80
- To reach the voicemail of an SFR or RED line, dial 06 10 00 10 00
- To reach the messaging service for a Bouygues line, dial 06 60 66 00 01
- To reach the voicemail of a Free line, dial 3277 where the 3665. But beware, these services are chargeable! Unlike other operators, Free does not offer this service internally.