Who’s Calling? How to Identify Unknown Phone Numbers

If you’re someone who doesn’t like getting  phone calls from unknown numbers, you’re not alone:  phone anxiety is a very real thing.  In fact, according to a 2024 study from global recruitment agency Robert Walters, 59 percent of Gen Zers prefer  email and DMs to phone calls in general, and similar studies find the same is true for about 88 percent of Millennials.   

Whether an unknown number gives you a bit of the ick or just piques your curiosity, knowing the answer to one simple question – “Who’s calling me?” – undoubtedly makes phone calls a much friendlier, not to mention safer, proposition.  So you want to know how to find out who is calling you? Let’s start with six easy breezy, time-tested, and totally free methods. 

Let Your Phone Do the Work

The good news is, modern caller ID and spam-protection features built right into smartphones are getting better all the time (and they’d better be, now that we’re getting iPhone models with numbers like “15” at the end of them).  In many cases, your phone can identify numbers that you don’t have saved in your contacts, especially if the phone number in question is a matter of public record, such as one belonging to a business, service, or government institution.  All you need to do is ensure that your caller ID is turned “on” in your phone’s settings.

But there’s often a little more to it than that.  On Android, you can even enable the “Announce caller ID” option under your device’s settings, and your phone will announce the caller’s name (if it’s on record) when your phone rings.  Almost the same deal goes for iOS, too – just enable “Announce Calls” under your “Siri & Search” settings, and Siri will announce who’s calling whenever possible.

Plain Old Google

Surprisingly, the yellow pages phone book – that famously thick tome of business phone numbers that seems to be more of a punchline than an actual thing nowadays – is still in circulation.  In fact, advertising in the yellow pages is still a billion-dollar industry, and according to Localogy, U.S. consumers referenced the book more than 3.1 billion times in 2022.   

But even if you’re still part of that admittedly dwindling analog crowd, there’s no guarantee you still have a phone book on hand, let alone a current one.  And even then, it’s not the best reverse phone lookup, free though it may be.  

You know what is pretty decent, though?  Just plain old Google.  Virtually any number that might be inked in the yellow or white pages (the former of which is for businesses, the latter for individuals) is floating around somewhere on the internet.  Copy and paste the number right from the missed call on your phone, or manually type it into Google – just make sure you use quotes around the number (like “5553211234”) to get an exact match.  Even if you don’t get a direct hit, you might find others in online forums like Reddit or Quora mentioning that they’ve gotten the same call, which typically means you’re dealing with spam and are safe to smash that “block” button.   

Another Old-School Trick: *69

This one might date us a bit, but in the pre-Google, definitely pre-TikTok days, three words answered the question, “Who’s calling me?”  Those three words were “star sixty-nine.”  

A useful staple of the pre-smartphone era, *69 is formally known as “Call Return.”  Dial *69 on almost any smartphone or landline, and what this feature does is redial the number of the last incoming call that you missed (so be ready for the possibility of having to ask a human “Who called me?”).  It clearly had a ton of utility during the long reign of landlines, but it’s not without its usefulness these days, either.

Oftentimes when you get called from a strange number, your  phone won’t even show said number, instead displaying “Unknown” or “No Caller ID.”  In some cases, this is because your provider’s caller ID services simply don’t recognize the number; in other cases, the caller has intentionally chosen to keep their number anonymous.  That’s where *69 comes into play.  

A word of caution, though.  Sometimes, callers keep that number anonymous because they’re up to no good.  If *69 leads you to a phone call that seems remotely suspicious, hang up before you divulge any identifying details. 

(And, sadly, dialing “411” or “0” to access a phone directory or operator probably won’t do it these days.  That service went offline for millions of Americans in early 2023.)

The Social Media Method

This one’s a bit of a long shot, but on the off-chance that your mystery missed call came from someone you actually do know, but you just don’t have their most up-to-date number, it sometimes does the trick.  

Try searching for those digits on social media.  In some cases, social sites allow users to tie their profiles to their phone numbers.  Facebook, for instance, gives users the option to make their profiles discoverable via a phone number search to possible connections, friends of friends, or friends.  Likewise, on FB and other platforms, phone numbers might be listed publicly on business pages, too, so it’s worth a shot if you’re super curious. 

Your Phone Company

Your ideal answer to “how to find someone’s phone number” might not be “call someone else” (especially if you have phone anxiety), but if you’re really at the end of your rope, that is indeed another free option.  There’s a small chance your phone service provider may be able to shed some light on the mystery, especially if the number belongs to a public entity, or if it’s a spam call that’s been making the rounds recently.  Here are ways to contact some of the more popular cell service providers:

• AT&T:  Call 1-800-331-0500
• Sprint:  Call 1-888-211-4727, or dial *2
• T-Mobile:  Dial 711
• Verizon Wireless:  Call 1-800-922-0204, or dial *611

PeopleWin, the Easy Way

If you’re calling *69, ringing up your service provider, or scrolling Facebook for phone numbers, your chances of figuring out who’s calling aren’t non-zero, but they’re also not that great.  But what if you could just use the internet’s best reverse phone lookup, free of charge?  Turns out, you totally can. 

Enter PeopleWin, our free online search tool that combs through over 12 billion public records from thousands of US sources – including county, state, and federal government records, social media, and other public databases –  in just seconds, giving you the information you need in an easy-to-digest report.  

How to Find Someone’s Phone Number on PeopleWin

Hey, PeopleWin, who’s calling me?  We’re so glad you asked.  

To find out, all you need to do is:

• Pop over to PeopleWin.com
• On the main page, click “Phone Lookup” (you can also look people up by name, address, and  email, but that’s for another day) 
• Enter your mystery phone number in the blank field 
• Hit that big green “Search” button.  

Bingo.  Instantly, you may get confirmation as to whether PeopleWin has found names, addresses, similar  phone numbers, and even demographic info, all for free.  If others have previously searched the same number, you might even see comments from past searchers, revealing valuable insight on potential spam or sales calls. 

Click the “View Details” button on the report page if you want to go even deeper.  With a special trial offer, you can get even more details – such as the phone number owner’s full name, names of family members, address history, phone carrier, and more – for pennies on the dollar.  Like all of our searches, reverse phone number searches are confidential, too; PeopleWin won’t notify the person you’re searching, so you can sleuth with full peace of mind.  

Say goodbye to phone number anxiety with PeopleWin, the best reverse phone lookup.  Free.  Turns out, you win, too.

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.