Being able to look up international phone numbers is becoming more and more important today, with an increasing number of people needing to communicate globally. It’s often crucial to be able to contact people in other countries, but this can be complicated and often involves including additional digits in front of the standard number format for your country.
This can make it hard to figure out what a number should look like on your phone, and if you’re seeing those digits on your caller ID, it can also lead to confusion. Whether you’re trying to get in touch with a business, a colleague, or an international friend or family member – or expecting a call from one of these parties – phone numbers can be confusing.
It’s also important to be aware that as global communication has become easier, more and more criminals are taking advantage of this to make international spam and scam calls, knowing that they are far more difficult to trace if they take this approach. In many cases, police are limited in tackling international crime on this scale, and this protects scammers – making international phone calls an attractive option.
Whether you’re trying to look up a legitimate contact or protect yourself from dangerous fraudulent calls, being able to look numbers up internationally can be a key part of functioning in today’s world.
We’re going to use this blog post to make sense of the various options you might use for international phone lookups, and explore some tips that will help you use these effectively. You will soon have both the understanding and the tools necessary to deal with international calling confidently and successfully.
What International Phone Lookup Options Are There?
There are quite a few ways you can look up international phone numbers, but here are some of the most popular options you might want to try.
Country-specific Online Directories
Many countries offer an online phone directory that you can use to find numbers in that country. Often, this will list businesses, so it can be a good way to verify a business contact, or to check whether somebody calling you is from a legitimate business – and not a scammer of some sort.
Which option you have will depend upon which country you’re trying to call into, but some of the most popular directories include things like White Pages, Yellow Pages, and 118. These services can give you phone numbers for places like the UK.
If you’re looking for a number for a specific country, check whether they have a free online directory available for you to use, as this is often one of the quickest ways to get the number.
International Phone Directories
An international phone directory could be a good option if the country-specific directories aren’t working for you. There are quite a few websites that provide international directories and allow you to find numbers in a wide range of countries.
These will also tell you the country code of the place you are trying to call, so you can enter the number more easily.
Some of the top options to pick from include International White and Yellow Pages, Phonebook of the World, and AnyWho International. For example, on International Yellow Pages, you can check the country code for over 100 countries, simply by glancing down their comprehensive list.
Reverse Phone Lookup Services
Reverse Phone Lookup
Get the Owner’s Name, Address & More!
A reverse phone lookup service may also work if you’re trying to figure out who called you – which may help you to track down a business that has been in touch, or a scammer who has been calling you from another country. Reversing the number can make it easier to tell when the person on the other end of the line is legitimate, and when they are not.
There are quite a few services that offer this, and often, all you need to do is enter the number that called you into their search. They will then run through their databases and check whether the number is matched with any identifying information.
Some of the services you might want to try are TrueCaller, Spy Dialer, and Number Tracker Pro. These will all help you figure out where a number has come from, even if you don’t have any information beyond the person’s phone number!
Number Tracker Pro is a particularly effective and simple option that also lets you use SMS tracking URLs – which we’ll cover next.
SMS Tracking-URL
SMS tracking-URL is another option for looking up international phone numbers and identifying who owns a particular number. It involves using a unique tracking link or a URL. For this to work, a pixel or a tracking code must be embedded into a link. When the link is clicked on, it will let you track user behavior and collect certain kinds of data relating to that user.
You can only do this by creating a tracking link or a URL including the phone number that you want to track. This link can be shared in a variety of ways, such as via social media, email, or another channel.
Once the link has been shared, you can start tracking clicks on that link. As soon as somebody clicks on it, the tracking code starts to collect data about their location, their IP address, and more. You can use this data to narrow down who owns a phone number, or possibly to categorically identify the owner, depending on what information you get.
You may be able to check what area the owner of the number is in, which can help you to figure out who the number belongs to. For example, if it’s a business number and it’s located in the right area for that business, it’s more likely to be legitimate than if it’s in the wrong area but claiming to belong to that business.
This information often isn’t a definitive way of figuring out who a number belongs to, but it can help. However, you should be aware that some of these services will charge a fee, or have a subscription cost associated with them. Some may let you perform basic activities without paying, but will then require a fee for you to check certain results or find out more about the number.
Remember that it can really help to cross-reference the information you get from this kind of source with other information to confirm whether it is accurate or not. It’s also worth being aware that if the link does not get clicked on, you won’t be able to track the information relating to it, so this isn’t a perfect method for finding out more about international numbers.
Social Media
In some cases, a social media platform may be able to help you find the source of a number, or confirm who it belongs to. Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook all offer the option for you to search using a phone number.
You can look for international numbers, as well as ones that are local to you, but make sure you are aware of what’s coming up and whether country codes are involved.
If the number comes up associated with a business profile or an individual, this will tell you who it belongs to.
If you think you know what business the number belongs to but you just want to double-check, you can also try searching for that business and see if they have a listed phone number that matches the one you are looking for.
If it does, you will have confirmation that the phone number is linked to that business.
Conclusion
Being able to look up a phone number using a reverse phone lookup tool can be really helpful for a whole range of reasons. If you’ve had a call from an international number and you want to know who has been trying to get in touch, checking online using the variety of methods above can be very effective.
It can be tricky to search for international numbers the normal way because of regional codes, but the services above should make it easier to undertake your search successfully. You don’t need to struggle with Google or guesswork in order to check who a number is linked to. You can also use multiple approaches to increase the chances of the information being accurate.
Doing this sort of reverse searching can help you to avoid scams and fraudulent calls because you’re more likely to be able to tell who is calling you from an international number.
Of course, it is important to think about the ethical and legal aspects of searching for this information when you use reverse phone lookup tools. Bear in mind that different countries will have varying data protection and privacy laws, and you should only look up phone numbers that you have a legitimate need to know more about.
Reverse phone lookup tools can help you overcome the challenges of our international phone system and make it easier to keep in touch with the people you care about or the businesses you need to deal with – as well as helping to protect you from scams and fraudsters trying to call you from other countries. Sign up today to begin your international phone lookup.