How to Run A Reverse Email Search

Everyone knows how to do a reverse phone number search—just enter a mysterious number off your caller id into the google search bar and press enter. You'll know who called you in seconds, especially if it's a business phone number. But with email, it's a bit trickier. There is no central listing of email addresses like phone numbers are listed in a phone book. When you sign up for a phone number and service, you must supply verifiable personal information like your social security number. But with email, you don't have to provide a full name at all, let alone your real name. Even honest people who have no intention of misusing their email account often sign up for accounts using only their initials or a nickname for security reasons.

This is what makes it so difficult to run a reverse email search on your own. You can try typing the email address into Google or another search engine, but unless the person has listed their complete email address on a web page or site, you are unlikely to get any useful information. There are free email search websites that can look up a specific person's email address or look up who owns an email address, but most of the time you're not going to get a lot of valuable information from a free search. There is also the option of going to the main page of the email provider and seeing if the website has an email directory with a reverse search function. While there may be a few of these directories you will find that it is not the most reliable source for finding the information you are looking for.

One sure way to get the information you're looking for is to enlist the help of an internet service that specializes in this kind of cyber–detective work. Navigating the internet isn't the easiest thing to do when you're looking for semi- personal information like the name of an email address owner, but internet investigation companies know where to look- and who to talk to.

The process may be as simple as going to a reverse email search website and paying a small fee to do an advanced search. These internet services have access to special databases and are far more likely to retrieve the information you need than a free search. This type of website typically offers you the option of paying a small fee for a one—time search or paying a slightly higher membership fee for the option to run as many reverse email searches as you like. This second option is probably your best value, as if you need to do one search, chances are you'll need to do more searches in the future. You can think of this minute expense as a type of internet insurance policy to make sure you're never in the dark about who is sending you emails. This can give you peace of mind while you're web surfing, and you'll likely be very happy to have purchased the membership.