The absence of a family member is a unique kind of pain. But thanks in large part to the rise of consumer DNA testing, searching for lost relatives has moved from being a niche curiosity to a pursuit millions embark on every year.

Knowing you want to find someone is one thing but knowing how to actually go about it is another. Plus, the search itself is only the beginning. What happens when you find the person you’re searching for?

If you’re ready to get started on your search for a long-lost connection, Spokeo has put together a list of nine ways to track down family members and how to approach establishing contact.

Before you search: Know your starting point

Before choosing an approach to tracking down your family member, it’s important to set your expectations by reviewing what you know. The amount of information you already have on them is a good starting point. Having a full name, last known city, birth year, or even a single photograph will help to narrow which methods are most likely to be successful.

It’s also worth pausing to consider what you hope to get out of your search. Some people are looking for medical history or answers about identity. Some are looking to establish a relationship again. Regardless of your reasoning, being clear with yourself about your intentions won’t just help you choose a method, but will also help you navigate whatever comes next.

Finally, you should also take into account the legal and ethical consequences of the search. Laws around accessing adoption records, for instance, vary from state-to-state. Open records laws that allow adult adoptees to access original birth certificates are in place in some states, but others still restrict access. Knowing the laws in your state can save you significant time and frustration. 

The nine approaches to finding lost family

The following nine methods to track down lost family will suit different individuals, but be aware that no search will guarantee success. It can still take years or mixing and matching methods to see success.

Approach 1: DNA testing services and shared match trees

Consumer DNA testing has become one of the most powerful tools for finding biological records in recent years. Services like AncestryDNA, 23andMe, and MyHeritage DNA compare your genetic markers against a database of other users and unveil matches. This search can find people who share unique DNA segments with you, ranked by the estimated relationship they have.

The real detective work typically comes from the shared-match feature most sites offer. By identifying a cluster of people who all match one another, in addition to you, you can typically reconstruct a family tree even if the person you’re looking for hasn’t tested themselves. The main limitation with this method is that the relative you’re searching for, or a close relative of theirs, needs to be in the database. The more popular the testing service and the larger the database, the better your odds. Testing over multiple platforms naturally increases your chance of success as a result, but the cost can add up.

Approach 2: Genealogy research through Ancestry and FamilySearch

Traditional genealogy research through platforms like Ancestry.com and FamilySearch, a free nonprofit, can sometimes fill in branches of a family tree going back generations.

FamilySearch is maintained by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and offers free access to billions of digitized records ranging from birth certificates, census data, marriage licenses, and more. Ancestry.com has a subscription fee but adds in additional information such as military records, newspaper archives, and more.

For those trying to find a living relative, as opposed to just tracing ancestral history, these platforms work best when combined with DNA evidence. You can use records in these databases to identify and verify the names that a genetic match may have pointed you to.

Approach 3: Social media searches

It may seem too simple at first, but a targeted social media search is often one of the more productive steps you can take. Facebook, Linkedin, and Instagram can all surface a person if you have their full name and a rough idea of their location.

Some strategies here will work better than others. For instance, searching Facebook groups organized around specific areas of the world or graduating classes can turn up people who don’t appear in a standard word-based search. LinkedIn is more useful if you have information about the person’s job. Instagram and TikTok will serve you better if you know hashtags they may be associated with or if they are tied to certain communities.

Social media searches are best used as a confirmatory or contact tool once another method has pointed you towards a name. They’ll be less useful for you if you have limited information to start. Further, this is where you will want to be thoughtful about your first message, as social media has a personal feel.

Approach 4: Public records and people search services

Public records such as birth, death, marriage, divorce, and court documents can be a goldmine of significant personal information to aid you in your search. This data is often aggregated by people search services, which compile publicly available information into searchable profiles.

These services are most useful if you have a name and general geographic area. They’ll typically return associated addresses, phone numbers, and family members, which can help you confirm you’ve found the correct person or give you new leads if you’ve bumped into a dead end. Something important to keep in mind is that the information in search databases isn’t always up to date. Some people may have also chosen to keep their information private.

Approach 5: Reverse phone and address lookups

If you have a phone number or address for someone, but aren’t sure who it actually belongs to, a reverse lookup tool can help. These allow you to enter a phone number and the tool returns a potential name and location associated with it. Entering an address can provide historical records of the current or past residents.

These tools are most beneficial when you’re already deep into your search or when another method has given you a partial lead you need to verify. They’re less useful as a starting point unless you already have a phone number or address in hand. There are limitations with this method, as cell phones are less consistently indexed than landlines, so reverse phone lookups are more reliable for older individuals or businesses.

Approach 6: Reaching out through mutual relatives

Sometimes, the most direct approach to finding a lost family member is already in front of you. Talking to a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or cousin who stayed in touch with that person may yield contact information or, at a minimum, a willingness to pass along a message. This approach works best when you have a warm relationship with the intermediary and when the lost family member is more likely to reply to them.

It also maintains the lost relative’s privacy. Be sure to handle these conversations with care. The mutual relative may have complicated feelings about estrangement or getting caught in the middle. Come in without any assumptions and express gratitude for any help they can offer.

Approach 7: Alumni networks and religious community directories

Institutional records like high school and college alumni databases or church directories can be useful resources when you know where a person went to school or attended religious services.

Alumni associations often maintain contact databases specifically meant to help people reconnect and many may be willing to forward a message on your behalf without disclosing contact information. Church and religious community records often go back generations and sometimes include addresses, family relationships, and dates that can fill in genealogical gaps.

FamilySearch also maintains a guide to locating U.S. church records by denomination, which can be helpful if you know the person’s affiliation. For school-based searches, try to reach out directly to the alumni association.

Approach 8: Adoption registries and state-mandated reunion servicesAs a starting point, learn state-by-state access laws and reunion information. The American Adoption Congress maintains this information and is a useful place to begin. Many states now have updated open record laws and, as of recent years, the bulk of states allow adult adoptees to access their original birth certificates. However, rules around intermediaries and consent still vary.

For searches involving adoption, a specialized set of resources exists. Adoption registries allow birth parents and adoptees to register their willingness to make contact in the future. When both parties agree, the registry facilitates the connection. The International Soundex Reunion Registry is one of the longest-running mutual consent registries in the world, around since 1975.

Approach 9: Professional search angels

Search angels are volunteer genealogists and researchers who help individuals like adoptees or those conceived via donor search for their biological family. They do this at no charge in most cases. These volunteers have expertise in genetic genealogy, DNA analysis, and records research that many people searching on their own just don’t have.

Search Angels and DNA Angels are two reputable names in this space. Both match searchers with trained volunteers who can help you to interpret DNA results, build family trees, and identify new leads. These services are most helpful when you’ve already gathered DNA results but are having trouble making sense of the results. They can also be useful if you’ve hit a wall and just need a fresh set of eyes to look at the information.

What to do when you find a long-lost family member

Finding a lost family member and confirming their identity is a moment people spend years working towards. The prospect of a reunion can bring feelings of excitement, trepidation, and fear, which is why what follows the discovery and how you handle it matters. Here are a few tips that can help you manage the process with care and thoughtfulness.

Preparing before first contact

Before you reach out to the person you’ve discovered, give yourself some time to sit on the information. Think through the possible scenarios. Some people may be overjoyed. Some may be confused and cautious. Others may not respond at all. You need to prepare yourself emotionally for a range of outcomes, including the less positive ones, to properly protect yourself.

If you’ve been in contact with an adoption counselor, therapist, or some type of support group, now is a good time to check in. The American Adoptions network and other similar organizations offer counseling specific to this phase of the search process.

First-contact etiquette

A letter or email is typically better than an unannounced phone call or visit. Written communication gives the contacted party time to process the information privately at their own pace, without being put on the spot. Aim to keep the initial message warm, yet brief. Introduce yourself, explain how you found them, and make it clear what you’re hoping to get out of reaching out. Avoid putting any type of pressure on the recipient or overwhelming them with the first message, opting instead to just give them room to respond.

If you’ve reached out through a mutual relative, follow their lead on both timing and approach. They may be aware of the other person’s emotional state or have information that can impact first contact.

Preparing for a response that may not come

Not everyone wants to be found, so you need to be prepared for every eventuality. A non-response is a hard outcome to sit with, but it is an answer in and of itself. Searchers are encouraged to send one thoughtful message, then typically wait several weeks to a few months before trying a follow-up. Repeatedly reaching out when there’s no response can be perceived as intrusive and might close a door that would have opened in time.

When a relative doesn’t want contact

If a family member declines contact, whether directly or through an intermediary, honoring their boundary is always the right thing to do. It may be painful, especially after so much time spent searching, but it’s that person’s right. It’s also the only thing that leaves open the possibility of a different answer someday, now that the other person is aware you want to make contact.

Their reasons may have nothing to do with you. It doesn’t mean the search wasn’t worth doing. The other person just may not be ready now. Some state reunion registries allow you to provide a letter or update contact information so that if the relative ever changes their mind they can reach out.

Protecting yourself and lost family

Searching for a lost family member is an act of both hope and courage. Regardless of the method you use and wherever your search leads, the process itself can be illuminating. You can learn where you came from, get resolutions to questions you’ve long held, and potentially find the beginning of something you didn’t even know was possible. Navigate the process carefully and honestly, while also giving yourself and the person you’re searching for the grace to find your way through it at whatever pace is required.

This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

For a growing number of Americans, though, these close-knit connections just aren’t possible. The forces that allow families to move far apart from one another nowadays include remote work flexibility, cost-of-living increases, and educational or career opportunities.

Geographic distance between relatives has become a defining feature of modern family life. Distance doesn’t have to equal disconnection, though. Spokeo has analyzed key data from leading sources including the Pew Research Center, the U.S. Census Bureau, the National Library of Medicine, and the American Psychological Association to show how families are navigating this new world.

The scale of the shift: How family geography has changed since 1980

The world is a remarkably different place than even just 40 years ago. Data from 2022 from the Pew Research Center found that 55% of U.S. adults say they live within an hour’s drive of at least some extended family members, but one in five say they don’t live near any at all. That 20% figure represents tens of millions of Americans having to navigate familial relationships across state lines or even greater distances.

There’s a reason for this divide, and it’s happening more than ever before. From 2020 to 2024, an average of 12% of Americans moved annually, according to Census data, with many of those moves driven by the rise of remote work, paired with the search for housing affordability. Family connections don’t always follow people as they relocate.

A 2020 study published in the Journal of Marriage and Family found that, while 74.8% of adults with at least one living parent or adult child had their nearest relative within 30 miles, only about one third had all parents and adult children that close. Having some family nearby and having your whole family nearby are two very different experiences.

Education and income naturally play a significant role in these patterns. Over three in five adults with a high school education or less live near extended family, while just two in five adults with a postgraduate degree do. The higher a person’s income, the more likely they are to live farther from family. Upward mobility may create career opportunities, but it comes with a geographic cost.

The rituals that actually work

Research on long-distance family maintenance consistently points to one key finding above all else: It’s how deliberately and regularly you connect that matters, not how close you are physically. Routines, such as family rituals with predictable timing and shared expectations, are what distinguishes close families from those that lack tight bonds.

A 2021 review from the journal, New Media & Society, which examined social media, communication rituals, and long-distance family maintenance, found that families who use messaging and video calls aren’t just doing it to catch up. Rather, they are practicing something known as “assuring behavior.”

Assuring behavior is small, repeated acts of checking in that signal an ongoing commitment to the relationship. Video calls in particular play a key role in preserving shared identity among extended family members across distances, as they can enable a sense of belonging and emotional connection through seeing other people. Here are four key tips that can bolster this effect.

1. Host standing weekly video calls

The families that retain the strongest connections tend to be those who also schedule video calls in advance and hold them consistently. That means the same day and same time. The ritual aspect, as opposed to spontaneous coordination, matters as much as the content of the call.

2. Set up group chats with agreed norms

Most families already have a group chat. The difference between one that sustains connection and one that is full of ghosts, however, is a mutual understanding of what it’s for. Chats that function as a running thread including photos from daily life, quick updates, reaction to news, and more help keep families present. Chats only used for logistics or milestones can sometimes feel hollow. 

3. Create annual in-person reunions

Gathering in person allows families to naturally share stories, create lasting traditions, and make new memories that can translate across generations. They also help family members remember to maintain connection throughout the year by turning events at the reunion into future talking points. Even just a single annual gathering for the holidays or a long weekend can help anchor a family’s sense of shared identity.

4. Share experiences across distance

Finally, some families have found creative ways to create parallel experiences despite being in different places around the world. Whether that’s a shared TV show, photo challenges, or cooking the same recipe, having a shared object of attention can create common ground for chats.

The tools families are relying on

The digital infrastructure of the world today can help families across distances stay together. Based on Pew Research Center data from 2025, nine out of 10 Americans use the Internet on a daily basis. The challenge, however, is to choose a combination of those tools that works for everyone, including members of different generations with differing levels of digital fluency.

Video calling via FaceTime, Zoom, or Google Meet remain the backbone of long-distance family connection. The platform matters less than the consistency of calls, and a weekly cadence tend to perform the best.

Group messaging apps like WhatsApp, iMessage, and Signal also serve slightly different use cases. Families that are multigenerational and spread internationally tend to find WhatsApp better, given its cross-platform accessibility. On the other hand, iMessage works seamlessly for families where everyone has an Apple device. Families who value privacy may prefer Signal.

In addition to communication through video and messaging, shared platforms for other content are prominent today. Dedicated family photo sharing is a popular choice through apps like Tinybeans, Google Photos, or Amazon Photos. These apps provide a low-friction way to quickly share visual updates without needing to jump on a formal call. Similarly, shared calendars, such as on Google Calendar, can make coordination for calls, visits, reunions, or just staying up to date on people’s lives far easier.

Finally, platforms designed around family storytelling can be a great way to make new memories. StoryWorth is a popular option that prompts family members with weekly questions and compiles all of the answers into a book. It serves a unique but important function. Narratives can be shared across generations, which is the kind of context and history that families who live close together get already.

The correlation between long-distance family bonds and health

The science on close relationships and health outcomes is surprisingly consistent. A meta-analysis of 148 studies on mortality risk published in PLOS Medicine found that strong social relationships increase the likelihood of survival by 50%. Conversely, social disconnection is at least as harmful to health as well-established risk factors including obesity and physical inactivity. Family relationships are among the most powerful of those social bonds.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development, which has tracked participants and their families across generations for over 80 years, came to a similar conclusion. In a 2017 summary noted in  The Harvard Gazette, aggregated data showed that relationship satisfaction at age 50 is a better predictor of physical health at age 80 than cholesterol levels. The number of close relationships mattered less than their overall quality.

For long-distance families in particular, this research points to a few key predictors of bond strength over time:

1. Frequency and consistency of contact: Regular, patterned contact, as opposed to occasional long conversations, can predict long-term relationship quality across distance.

2. Intentionality of connection: Families that actively create shared experiences together, rather than waiting for connection to happen naturally, report stronger relationships. Distance removes the contact that physical proximity provides, so it needs to be replaced with something.

3. Relational trust and reciprocity: Both parties must be equally invested in maintaining a relationship for it to have the strongest predictors of long-term quality.

4. In-person anchoring: Even just a single annual gathering can significantly strengthen the bonds that digital connection maintains during the course of a year, further improving the long-term outlook of those relationships.

In a busy world, maintaining long-distance familial relationships can feel challenging, but all of the necessary tools are at your fingertips.

How to re-establish contact with a family member you’ve lost touch with

Plenty of people have lost contact with loved ones over the years. Whatever the reason for the drift, it’s never too late to reconnect after a long gap. However, it will require a different approach than maintaining a relationship that’s gone a little quiet recently.

Reconnecting is a process that will require time and effort, so it’s best to start small. Even an initial text or quick phone call can re-build a foundation. These modest and early gestures, on a continuous basis, show a greater interest in getting back in contact more than a single grand reconciliation that has no follow up.

The Conflict Expert blog, run by an accredited Centre for Effective Dispute Resolution mediator, offers up some helpful tips for this first interaction:

• Offer to meet in-person at a neutral location like a nearby park, cafe, or mall
• Focus conversations on the present and avoid revisiting past tensions or fallouts too quickly
• Steer clear of toxic forms of communication such as playing the blame game for disconnection
• Be positive about the meetup or reconnection and thank the other person for their time

For estrangements that are rooted in deeper conflict such as abuse, resentment, or value divergence, a family therapist can provide structure for conversations. The American Psychological Association also offers support via a topic page designed for families, which can be an excellent starting point for understanding and rekindling familial relationships. 

Connection is a practice, not a place

The families that stay close across thousands of miles aren’t doing something magical, but rather they’ve accepted that geographic distance requires deliberate effort to maintain relationships. Proximity provides connection naturally, and long-distance relationships require intentionality.

Successful families have built structures across distances. Whether it’s a Sunday call that never moves, a group chat that always stays active, or an annual week together that everyone blocks off on the calendar, it’s about a focused effort to foster your familial relationships.

More than half of Americans may be living within an hour of at least some extended family, but that still leaves millions trying to navigate family life across time zones and state lines. However, the digital tools of today have never been better and the research is unusually clear on what works. All that remains is finding the will to treat connection as something you build, rather than just let happen.

This story was produced by Spokeo and reviewed and distributed by Stacker.

• Booking.com is a legitimate digital travel service. 
• But the site has become well known for scams and bogus listings.
• Avoid scams and book safely with tips from the pros.

Dutch travel company Booking.com hosts more than 28 million accommodation listings, available in 43 different languages. So there’s no doubt that the site is popular, but is Booking.com legit? And what’s the deal with all those Booking.com scams you’ve heard about? 

Before you book one of those 28 million rooms yourself, brush up on how to navigate Booking.com safely, smartly, and free from scams. 

What Is Booking.com? 

Booking.com is an online digital travel service founded in Amsterdam in 1996. The site specializes in accommodations listings, hooking travelers up with hotels, homes, apartments, and other stays. They’re also a broker of general travel arrangements, enabling users to find flights, car rentals, cruises, taxis, attractions (and combos of these things) by entering their travel dates and destinations. 

Similar to sites like Expedia or Kayak, Booking.com acts as a sort of search engine and third-party reservation service. It’s free to browse and book your plane ticket, taxi, and hotel room at the site, and Booking.com gets a cut of what you’ve paid to the respective airlines, hotels, cruise lines, and such. 

Is Booking.com Legit? 

So now that you know what the site is and what it does, is Booking.com legit? Long story short, yes, Booking.com is a legit company, one that’s been around for 30 years and has millions of users every year. 

When you use Booking.com, you are interacting with a genuine company, so it’s not like you’re handing over your credit card digits to a scammer, getting infected with malware, or offering up your valuable private information to bad actors just by using the site. That said, it is helpful to keep a few scam-related safety considerations in mind, especially given recent developments (more on Booking.com scams in a bit).

Ok, now you know that the travel platform is legitimate, but is Booking.com reliable? If consumer reviews are anything to go by, it’s a mixed bag. According to trends observed by Norton and Trustpilot across thousands of customer reviews, users have positive feelings about features such as ease of use, discounts, pricing transparency, customer loyalty incentives, and free cancellation options. On the flip side, Booking.com customers who’ve reviewed the company online commonly complain about refund complications, overcharges, unclear accommodation location info, annoying AI chatbots, outdated listings, frustrating customer service, and exploitative pricing practices. 

Common Booking.com Scams

Unfortunately, when you bring up Booking.com nowadays, one thing you’re almost guaranteed to hear about is Booking.com scams. And there’s a good reason for that — since around 2023, Booking.com scams have increased in the ballpark of 500 to 900 percent.  

Oftentimes, Booking.com scams play out as phishing scams, in which a scammer poses as someone else (or as a reputable business or organization) in order to extract valuable private information from their victims, ultimately to steal money from them. 

One major Booking.com scam involves fake lodging listings on the site. The platform has an Airbnb-like service, in which hosts can offer stays in privately-owned lodgings to travelers, with Booking.com acting as a broker. Scammers make completely fake listings, accept would-be travelers’ payments on the site, and then disappear. With the rise of generative AI, these types of scams in particular have increased, as criminals use the tech to quickly and easily generate fake images and text for large quantities of scammy listings.   

While the fake lodging listings are a big one, Booking.com scams can take lots of different forms, including: 

• Bogus direct messages. In this grift, scammers pose as legit Booking.com agents – and some have even managed to access the site’s official messaging environment – in order to get additional “verification” information from guests. In reality, the crooks use this information to commit identity theft and get into your finances. These can come via email or phone, too.
• “Reservation At Risk” scams. This is also a phishing scam that goes down in DMs and emails. Here, scammers will contact travelers under the guise of Booking.com to alert them of a “complication” in their travel plans. To address it, you’ll be prompted to provide additional private information, click a sketchy link, or pay an additional fee (directly to a con artist).
• Overpayment scams. Overpayment scams victimize property owners with listings on Booking.com rather than travelers. In this hustle, scammers posing as travelers overpay to book a listing, and then ask the host for the difference back. This thing is, their initial payment will bounce, leaving the host holding the bag.  
• Phony job offers. In an off-site but related Booking.com scam, the popular company’s name and branding are sometimes used as part of rampant job offer scams. In this phishing scam, bad actors pose as well-known companies, cold-contacting victims with lucrative “job offers” in order to harvest their private info when they ask you to fill out paperwork for the nonexistent gig. 

How to Book Safely

Different Booking.com scams call for different preventative measures and tactics, but casting a wide net of scam-repellent digital travel safety tips is your best bet. Keep these in mind to dodge common Booking.com scams, so your vacation doesn’t end up a staycation thanks to scammers:

• When it comes to fake listings, if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• Make sure the image listing is cohesive with the area it’s in.
• Keep an eye out for telltale signs of generative AI, like over-smooth images, blurry elements, or nonsensical visual details. For text, overuse of the em dash (–) is often a dead giveaway for ChatGPT usage.
• Always check property ratings and read reviews before booking.
• Try to stick with property listings that have contact details readily available on other sites, including active phone numbers. 
• Be wary of overly urgent or threatening language. Spelling errors and grammar mistakes, all common signs of phishers.
• Likewise, look for sketchy email domains, which indicate people posing as the real Booking.com (their official email subdomain is “@booking.com,” not stuff like “@booking-59q237.com”).
• Avoid clicking on links that don’t end in “.booking.com” when using the site. Scammers may try to lead you to phony, but official-looking, websites that prompt you to enter your private information, or sites that just straight-up install malware on your device. 
• Never make a payment or send financial info unless you’re certain beyond a shadow of a doubt that you’re actually dealing with the real Booking.com.
• Never take the conversation with hosts or people claiming to represent Booking.com off-platform (like WhatsApp or Telegram, for instance).
• Never make payments on Booking.com using non-standard payment methods (like crypto, Venmo, CashApp, or gift cards). If someone’s asking you to pay with these, they’re not the real deal.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Booking.com trustworthy?

That’s not for us to say. But statistically, we can report that – as of early 2026 – Booking.com has a 2.0 out of 5.0 rating on customer sentiment tracking site Trustpilot, based on an aggregate of over 103,000 consumer reviews.

What are the most common Booking.com scams?

While we don’t have hard statistics on which Booking.com scams are most prevalent, phishing seems to be the most popular type of scam perpetrated on the site. Speaking to the BBC, Booking.com’s internet safety boss, Marnie Wilking, says, “Of course, we’ve had phishing since the dawn of email, but the uptick started shortly after ChatGPT got launched.”

How can I be sure I’m talking to a real Booking.com rep?

If you’ve used our Booking.com scam safety tips but you’re still not sure if that text, call, or email is from a real Booking.com representative – or you just want to be extra safe – run their contact info through a quick Spokeo People Search. 

We’ll cross-reference that contact with billions of public records in an instant and hook you up with everything from available names to location to criminal records possibly associated with it (additional fees may apply), so you’ll know who you’re really dealing with before you book it. 

As a freelance writer, small business owner, and consultant with more than a decade of experience, Dan has been fortunate enough to collaborate with leading brands including Microsoft, Fortune, Verizon, Discover, Office Depot, The Motley Fool, and more. He currently resides in Dallas, TX.

The news isn’t all bad, though. In a world where almost everyone has a personal number, and almost everything we do online is tied to that number, it’s become a really useful piece of information. Knowing how to find someone with a phone number opens up a lot of possibilities beyond simply knowing who called.

Who is This Phone Number Registered To? 

Of course, finding out who called is often still the first thing you’ll want to know about an unknown number. There are a number of ways you can check, with varying degrees of usefulness. A few quick options include: 

• Just Googling it: That’s the first thing we usually think of, right? If the number belongs to a legitimate business or government agency, it should show up in a search (it shouldn’t matter whether you use Google or an alternative search engine). A number belonging to a professional — a doctor, lawyer, accountant, even a contractor — should also show up, because they typically advertise their services. Numbers belonging to ordinary people won’t usually come up in the search results, for privacy reasons. 
• Checking social media: The various social media platforms can also sometimes turn up the name attached to a phone number, if it’s made public and searchable. Business-centric LinkedIn is especially good for that, because people on that platform typically want to make contact with others, but even sites like Facebook or Instagram will yield a result. Of course, if the person keeps their social media private (or just makes the phone number non-searchable), that won’t work. 
• Visiting your local library: A lot of libraries have a physical book called a reverse or “Criss-Cross” directory (that’s the name of a specific company’s directory, but people often use it for the category as a whole). It lists phone numbers in numerical order, and gives the subscriber’s name and (sometimes) address. The numbers won’t be quite up to date, but sometimes you’ll get lucky. 

None of these options is entirely effective, but they’re free and will sometimes turn up the information you’re looking for. That being said, there are better options available if you need them. If you want to know who’s calling in real time, call screening/blocking apps like Spokeo can do that for you. If you’re interested in knowing more than the name — perhaps it’s the number of someone you already know, and have lost touch with — Spokeo’s search tools (on the site, or in the app) can help you dig deeper.

How to Find Someone With a Phone Number

Using Spokeo’s Reverse Phone Lookup is a lot faster and more efficient than the options we’ve just discussed, and it takes away the hit-or-miss aspect of your search. Our powerful people search engine, which draws on billions of data sources, can easily find someone using just their phone number (as long as it’s a US-based number). 

Searching with a phone number has a couple of obvious advantages. Suppose you already know the person you’re looking for and have heard their name spoken, but never seen it written down. If you’re searching for their name, you have to worry about misspellings, nicknames, and other name-related complications. Those don’t matter when you’re searching for a number. 

The process couldn’t possibly be easier: 

1. Open Spokeo’s app or visit the Phone Lookup page on our website. 
2. Enter a 10-digit phone number, and click or tap the “Search” button. 
3. Browse the results. 

Spokeo will search for the name of the current owner of that phone number, previous names associated with that phone number (very helpful when you’re tracking down a long-lost friend or family member), and much more. 

Find Who Someone Is by Phone Number

Another key advantage of number searches is that most apps and accounts now use phone numbers as a user’s primary identifier. When you want to know things about someone — not just a name, but who they are as a person — this can be profoundly helpful. 

Spokeo’s phone lookup doesn’t just reveal a name to go along with the number. The search results will also include a range of additional information, which might include:

• Other names/AKAs used by that person
• Their age
• Their current residential address
• The names of other members of their household 
• The estimated value of their home (if they own it)
• Any email addresses associated with the name
• Social media or dating app profiles associated with that number
• A criminal record, if they have one (additional fees may apply). 

Those in turn can become the starting point for additional searches, using Spokeo’s Address, Name, or Email lookup. 

Knowledge is Power

That kind of information is useful in a lot of ways. If you just wanted to know who’s calling and whether it was a legitimate call, you’ll get that answer quickly. If you’re using a years-ago number to reconnect with someone, the list of previous owners should include the one you’re looking for. Their social media profiles provide both a low-key way to reach out and (if you look at their posts) an opportunity to get a feel for their current interests, attitudes, and living situation. 

On a more practical basis, this kind of search is a good way to find out if your new crush is a catfish or married, or if the new person in your life has a dozen dating profiles under a dozen different names. Every situation is different, of course, but — whatever your reason for doing this kind of research — Spokeo’s people search tools will help you find out what you need to know.  

It didn’t necessarily have to go this way, but here we are.  It means everyday life online is a constant balancing act between usability and privacy, and we’ve often written about that balance here on this blog.  One of the biggest aggregators of data is Google, which means finding alternatives to Google’s services is a priority for some privacy-conscious people.  One of those alternatives is DuckDuckGo, which claims to offer privacy-centric search.  Is DuckDuckGo safe?  How does it work?  Let’s dig in and find out. 

What is DuckDuckGo?

DuckDuckGo describes itself as “an independent internet privacy company,” which offers privacy-centric search, a privacy-based browser, and a number of related products.  The company began in 2008 in founder Gabriel Weinberg’s basement. As Weinberg told Forbes in 2016, he was looking for a way to improve his search results by weeding out the spam.  It was rolled out to the public later that year, and by 2010, Weinberg and his collaborators made a conscious decision not to track its users.  It was a very deliberate choice, made to draw a clear contrast with Google’s increasingly invasive policies. 

A decade later, in 2018, DuckDuckGo expanded its offerings with a mobile app and browser extensions.  Standalone browsers for Mac and Windows computers followed in 2023.  Although its search volume is dwarfed by Google’s, DuckDuckGo has held roughly 2 to 2.5 percent market share in the US during the 2020s, which adds up to billions of searches per month.  Its mobile search market share was 1.8 percent as of April 2023.  That’s slightly lower, but puts it second only to Google in mobile search. 

DuckDuckGo proudly boasts that it doesn’t track or retain user data, including your search history.  That does mean you’ll give up a degree of personalization, but you’ll recapture a large measure of privacy in exchange.  For most of its millions of users, that’s a worthwhile tradeoff. 

Why DuckDuckGo is Bad, According to Some Users

There’s a cynical aphorism that “no good deed goes unpunished,” and despite its ideals and pro-privacy stance, DuckDuckGo has come in for its share of criticism.  Some of those criticisms focus on its management of user privacy, and others zero in on its claim to provide non-curated search results. 

Accusations of Politically Motivated Censorship

DuckDuckGo is careful not to describe its search results as “unfiltered,” because filtering results is exactly what you want a search engine to do.  But its search results aren’t tweaked and personalized, the way Google’s are, to show you only what it thinks you’ll want to see.  For that reason, users who earnestly believe that Google (and Big Tech in general) censors or suppresses their political views embraced DuckDuckGo as an alternative, even dubbing it the “free speech” search engine. 

That honeymoon met reality after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, when DuckDuckGo severed its working relationship with Russian search engine Yandex and began down-ranking sites that peddled Russian disinformation.  Founder Gabe Weinberg took to social media himself to defend the company’s actions, arguing that returning accurate, high-quality results is a search engine’s job, and that misinformation is — by definition — a low-quality result.

Questions about DuckDuckGo’s Commitment to Privacy

A more fundamental criticism hit DuckDuckGo in 2022, when researchers discovered that despite its anti-tracking stance, it was giving a pass to some Microsoft trackers.  The company pointed out that: 

• This affected only its browser, not its search results. 
• It was contractually obligated to allow those trackers, by the terms of its deal with Microsoft (Microsoft’s Bing search engine provides most of DuckDuckGo’s search results). 
• The criticism came largely from a direct competitor, CEO Brandon Eich of rival browser Brave, but the site used for testing DuckDuckGo vs its rival was actually owned and operated by a Brave employee.  

Nevertheless, the reporting was accurate as far as it went.  Microsoft still would not have been able to track or profile an individual user as a result, but would at least still know when an ad was clicked. 

The whole controversy went to the heart of DuckDuckGo’s stated mission, and its main selling point as an alternative to Google: user privacy.  At this point, it’s appropriate to take a closer look at how exactly DuckDuckGo manages its users’ privacy and data.  

How Low is the Bar for Privacy?

To properly understand what DuckDuckGo doesn’t do, you first have to understand what its competitors do.  Google is the king of the hill, and it records everything about your search: the search terms you used, the results you clicked on, your location at the time, details about your devices, and much, much, much more. 

The thing is, you probably use a lot more than just Google’s search.  Most of us use some combination of its other products and services, from YouTube and Gmail to Maps and Chrome, or the Android and Chrome OS operating systems.  Google collects high levels of data from those sources and integrates them all under your Google Account.  The company is pretty up-front about what information it collects, though it’s always positioned as (and in fairness, generally is) a way to provide you with better services and more personalization. 

Google also emphasizes that it won’t sell your private information, though privacy-centric critics like the Electronic Frontier Foundation are quick to point out that it can monetize your private data in many ways without explicitly “selling” it.  Moreover, while the company anonymizes the data it shares with its various commercial partners, de-anonymizing data — uncovering the actual individuals associated with it — is startlingly easy to do. 

The other leading players in search (Microsoft and Yahoo) make similar links between your searches and their other services, though they aren’t able to gather quite the depth and breadth of data that Google does. 

How Does DuckDuckGo Address Privacy?

Now that you understand the context, let’s look at how DuckDuckGo handles privacy.  There are a few key details, and they’re all laid out in the company’s Privacy Policy.  If you’ve looked at other tech companies’ Privacy Policies, this one will look strange: it’s a couple of dozen paragraphs of plain, ordinary language, much like the articles here on our blog, complete with informative titles for each section.  It’s a sharp contrast to the usual dense pages of inscrutable legalese you’ll see elsewhere. 

The short version is that DuckDuckGo uses only the data necessary to actually process your request, and only until you close the tab (or the app, on your phone).  Your search history isn’t stored, your location and device data aren’t stored, and it doesn’t monitor anything you do on any other site or app.  Even if you reach out to DuckDuckGo directly for something like a technical support issue, which necessarily means giving them specific personal data, they won’t keep it once your issue is resolved. 

Every DuckDuckGo query is encrypted, so even if your devices or your network are compromised, you’ll still have a measure of protection against eavesdropping by hackers or identity thieves.  Finally, any data that DuckDuckGo needs to share with its partner companies and service providers is stripped of identifying information.  And yes, that now includes Microsoft. 

Using DuckDuckGo vs. Other Search Engines  

Although DuckDuckGo’s focus on privacy is its key selling point, like any other search engine, it has to actually, you know… search.  So how does DuckDuckGo stack up against Google and Bing?  Let’s take a look at how they compare. 

Quick Comparison: Google vs. Bing vs. DuckDuckGo

Go ahead and type a search — any search — into Google, then Bing, and then DuckDuckGo.  If you flip back and forth between the three, you’ll see a lot of similarities.  Google usually shows “Featured Snippets” at the top of search results to provide quick answers to your queries, and DuckDuckGo’s “Quick Answers” fill the same role.  There’s a “knowledge panel” to the right of the screen with all three search engines, providing a more in-depth (but still at-a-glance) answer.  All three provide maps, news results, reviews, images, videos, and suggestions for related searches. 

The differences largely show up in the details.  Google gets its reviews and maps, of course, from Google Reviews and Google Maps.  DuckDuckGo uses Yelp reviews and Apple Maps, while Bing uses TripAdvisor and OpenStreetMap.  Google (surprise!) is much more likely to surface Google-owned YouTube videos for you to look at.  Google also has features like “People Also Ask” and the ability to set a custom date range for your search results, which the other two don’t. 

Search Quality in Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo

What about the quality of results?  Well, there are good reasons for Google’s dominance in search.  Precisely because it gathers up so much data from all of your activities, it’s usually able to serve a set of search results that are finely tuned to what you want.  Remember, big datasets can be mined for deeper, broader patterns (like your comics-nerd friend, who can explain every hidden “Easter egg” reference in every Marvel movie), and nobody has deeper datasets than Google. 

If you’re trying to dig up a half-remembered song, or “that movie with that one guy in it,” Google is your best bet.  Bing is no slouch in the personalization department either, because Microsoft – through the Windows OS, Edge browser, and its Office products — also hoovers up a lot of private data. 

This is both an advantage and a disadvantage for DuckDuckGo.  Because its searches don’t draw on your search history and entire online life, its results may be less pertinent.  On the other hand, it may surface search results that the other two won’t, for exactly the same reason.  This can be a factor if you use the same device for work and personal purposes, or if you share a computer with others: inferences drawn from other uses, or other users, can impact what you’re searching for right now. 

Privacy in Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo

That exact conflict between convenience and privacy is DuckDuckGo’s selling point.  If you want the absolutely best possible search results, they come from personalization, and that — in turn — relies on data gathering.  Maximizing privacy relies on minimizing data gathering.  It’s a conundrum, and you have to decide where you sit on that spectrum. 

Let’s look at a specific example.  Google and Bing provide you with localized search options (restaurants, weather, etc) by detecting your location, unless you’ve turned off location tracking.  If you have, they’ll prompt you to turn it back on.  DuckDuckGo’s privacy-centric workaround for local search is to guess where you are based on the Internet Protocol (IP) address reported to your device, and then send that approximate location to its search partners.  Optionally, you can choose to let DuckDuckGo detect your location on a one-off basis or manually set a location. 

What About Manipulation of Search Results? 

Again, this question revolves around your definition of “manipulation.”  Some would argue that DuckDuckGo’s down-ranking of misinformation sites counts as manipulation, while DuckDuckGo itself argues that it is simply countering the misinformation sites’ own manipulation of search engine algorithms. 

You may remember that Gabe Weinberg’s original motivation was getting rid of “spammy” search results.  This is an ongoing headache for Google in particular because of its market dominance.  The workings of Google’s search algorithm are the key to its success, and a closely-guarded trade secret; but there’s an entire industry called Search Engine Optimization (SEO) dedicated to figuring out how it works, and how to rank well in Google searches.  A 2024 German study found that product review searches (“The Best [X] in 2023”) were especially vulnerable to this kind of spamming. 

The study showed that Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo were all affected, though most SEO efforts are targeted at Google.  Legendary 19th-century bandit Frank James supposedly said that he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is,” and the same logic applies to Google because of its search dominance.  To Google’s credit it fights back brilliantly, and with some success; but you might find DuckDuckGo a better source for product reviews precisely because it’s less of a target. 

Improving Online Privacy With DuckDuckGo

If you’re ready to test drive DuckDuckGo as your preferred search option, you can do that by:  

• installing its Android or iOS app on your mobile device, or 
• setting it as your browser’s default search engine. 

Click the appropriate link here for instructions to do that in Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.  

For maximum privacy protection, you can add DuckDuckGo’s browser extension to your preferred browser.  Installing the extension in your browser takes just a few clicks, and you can find instructions for the major browsers on DuckDuckGo’s browser extension help page. 

The extension provides a variety of services, including tracker blocking, automatically directing you to the encrypted version of a page where one exists, and grading the sites you visit on their degree of respect for your privacy.  All of this helps limit the ways that Chrome, Edge, and other sites can harvest your data.  Alternatively, you can use the standalone DuckDuckGo browser for iOS, Android, Windows, or Mac. 

The company also has a new feature called Email Protection, which you can enable in the DuckDuckGo app, browser, or browser extensions to strip trackers and other undesirable elements out of your incoming emails.  It’s still in the testing stage at the time of this writing, but it’s open to the public if you want to try it out. 

Is DuckDuckGo Safe?

The short answer is “Yes,” DuckDuckGo is as safe to use as any other app or search engine, and more so than most.  There’s never been any hint of the app or site being compromised, and – even if it was – because the company doesn’t store or track your data, there’s little hackers could gain by breaching the company itself. 

Of course, its search product has limitations.  As we’ve said, its results will fall short of Google’s or Bing’s as a direct result of its privacy stance.  Also, like Google and Bing, there are some kinds of data it simply can’t access: if you want to find out who’s behind a given email address or phone number, for example, you’d still need to use specialized search tools like Spokeo’s people search engine. 

 Switching to DuckDuckGo isn’t a magical silver bullet for online privacy, but it can definitely help. 

Wondering how to find someone in the most effective way possible? Oftentimes, a multi-pronged approach with a handful of different methods is key – and Spokeo’s got a secret weapon that combines all those sources into one easy search tool, too. 

Effective Old-School Methods

Nowadays, when you’re asking yourself how to find people, heading to the post office and rifling through court documents may not be the first things that spring to mind, but that doesn’t mean they’re not effective. Whether you’re heading to a local government building in person or digging through digital docs, don’t sleep on these foundational people-finding methods.

The Absolute Basics

Want to know how to find someone the old-fashioned way? Start by asking. If the person of interest happens to be even a few steps removed from your family or social circle, it doesn’t hurt to ask friends, family, or co-workers for any leads they might have. 

Speaking of old-school, those ancient phone directories still exist. While physical phone books are uncommon these days, free online phone directories are still around, and can often be searched by name, address, or phone number. 

In some limited cases – namely, if the searcher needs the address for serving litigation – the United States Postal Service may provide someone’s address information. In this case, you’ll need the person’s name and will have to fill out a free Address Information Request form, which can be accessed online but will need to be turned in at your local Post Office. 

Going Deeper: County Records

While each city and official department varies, for the most part, counties will make certain records available and searchable online. Usually, a quick Google search for something like “voter registration records Dallas” or “property tax records Akron,” for instance, will get you pointed in the right direction. Here’s how to find people using these sources:

• Your county’s registrar of voters is a matter of public record and is typically searchable online. If you have the legal name of someone and they’re registered to vote, the registrar should provide you with their address at the time of their registration. 
• The office of the county clerk-recorder maintains records regarding property and business ownership as well as birth, marriage, and death certificates. Oftentimes, these are searchable online using keywords, such as names, addresses, or phone numbers, or you can inquire in person at the county clerk’s office.
• Likewise, the county assessor’s office keeps a tax roll containing the names and addresses of property owners. While that obviously won’t include everyone, if you’ve got a name, it can be worth a shot. 
• Similarly, most county courts offer online portals with searchable databases of documents, including criminal, civil, and probate court records, marriage licenses, and information on current inmates in jail or prison. If you’d rather search in person or get a little help with a human touch, you can always visit your local courthouse, as well. Even if you’re not necessarily digging for legal records, searching for a specific name can give you valuable clues to a person’s past and current whereabouts, or help paint a picture of the paths they’ve taken in life.  

Searching Online

Curious about how to find someone’s address? How to find someone’s phone number? How to find pics of their high school reunion and their dog’s Instagram account? The wonders of the internet have you covered. 

Search Engines

Search engines like Google, Bing, and DuckDuckGo are powerful tools for locating a person, using their name, alias, address, phone number, or email address (or really, any other context clues you may have). But there’s a bit of nuance to using these to track down someone you’re trying to get in touch with. Here are our top tips:

• Use quotes around the phrase you’re searching for, especially if it’s a name or phone number like “Dan Ketchum” or “867-5309.” Using quotes ensures that you’ll get results for the exact phrase, in that exact order, rather than, for example, pages that have the words “Dan” and “Ketchum” floating around disparately. 
• If you happen to have a digital photo of the person you’re searching for, tools like Google’s Reverse Image Search or Bing Visual Search let you search by image. Here, you’ll upload the pic and the search engine will find pages that contain the exact image or similar images, which might just lead you to your person’s online presence.       

Social Media

While typing a person’s government name with quotes around it on Google may turn up their social media profiles, you’ll have better luck scouring socials by searching the specific apps and sites themselves. On platforms like Facebook, Instagram, X, Bluesky, LinkedIn, Threads, TikTok, and more, you can often narrow down your search with parameters like age range, alma mater, gender identity, workplace, or proximity to a location, which can be super helpful if you have a little more info.

While you can always search socials with a legal name, don’t forget about online aliases. If you remember someone’s old MySpace handle, their Xbox Gamertag, or even a nickname they used to go by, try searching that or variations of it on social media sites where aliases, usernames, and quirky handles are the norm, such as Instagram, Twitch, or TikTok.  

Find Someone Using Spokeo’s People Search

What if the answer for how to find someone, how to find someone’s address, and how to find someone’s phone number happened to all be in the same place? The dream is real, and it’s called Spokeo People Search. 

If you’ve got a name, email address, phone number, or physical address in hand, Spokeo instantly searches billions (yes, billions with a “b”) of public records across social networks, courts, consumer records, historical documents, property paperwork, business information, and more to come up with hyper-specific hits.    

How to Find Someone on Spokeo 

Here’s how it works:

1. Head to Spokeo.com on the desktop or mobile browser of your choice. 
2. In the search bar, type in the name, email address, phone number, or physical address of the person you’re looking for, then hit that big “Search Now” button.
3. When prompted, choose the city and state the person lives in. If you’re not sure, just select “Not Sure.” 
4. Now choose which data types you’d be interested in seeing. You can tap or click on as many or as few categories as you’d like – from location history to marital status and more – or just choose “Select All” to search everything. Then hit “Continue,” or “Skip This” if you’d rather let Spokeo figure it out for you.
5. Some questions may appear to help us find the right person. Choose “Yes,” “No,” or “Not Sure” in response to queries about your subject’s marital status or arrest history, for instance.
6. From the provided list, select the social media platforms you think your person might be on, then hit “Continue” (or “Not Sure” to skip this entirely; don’t worry, we’ll still search socials).  
7. Enter your first name, last name, and email address when prompted, then select “Continue.” Your data won’t be added to our search results – this is just so we can send you your report. 
8. Now hit “Build My Report,” wait for all that juicy info to fill in, then click “Take Me to My Report.” 

From here, you’ll see the most exciting part: what types and categories of info Spokeo may have turned up. By tapping the “Continue” button, you’ll be taken to a portal where you can purchase a full name report for as low as $0.95 when you agree to take a trial of the Spokeo membership. 

With a few little keywords on Spokeo People Search, you could end up with your mystery person’s contact info, criminal records (additional fees may apply), social media profiles, location history, and even family and associates. All the fun of detective work with a whole lot less risk, danger, time, and hassle. 

As a freelance writer, small business owner, and consultant with more than a decade of experience, Dan has been fortunate enough to collaborate with leading brands including Microsoft, Fortune, Verizon, Discover, Office Depot, The Motley Fool, and more. He currently resides in Dallas, TX.

Sources

California Courts – Self-Help Guide – Basic Ways to Find Someone

ITPro. – How to Find a Person Online for Free: Seven Proven Methods

USPS – Address Information Request Forms

Yahoo! Life – Secrets to Finding People Online Without Paying a Dime