How to Find Someone’s Cell Phone Number Online
Ever wonder why it’s so hard to look up someone’s cellphone number? It goes back to the 1980s when cellphone users were charged by the minute for incoming calls. Telecom companies eventually agreed to keep cellphone numbers private so their customers wouldn’t pay for unwanted calls.
These days, most people no longer pay by the minute for cell calls—but cell numbers, for the most part, remained private. For these reasons, how to find someone’s cell phone number isn’t always easy, but there are several ways to search that may turn up the number.
5 ways to find someone’s cell phone number online
In 2022, a record 71% of US households had wireless phones rather than landlines, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. That makes it all the more challenging to find someone’s phone number when you need to get in touch. You may need to try a few of the methods outlined below.
#1 Check cell phone numbers with a Web search engine
Google and other search engines index a lot of information about people, so you may be able to get a phone number with a simple browser search. If you have more information to narrow down the results, such as a ZIP code or email address, you might get better results. But because cellphone numbers may be private, your search may not turn up the number.
Pro tip: If you include a ZIP code or email address, put the first and last name in quotes to further narrow your results.
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#2 Use social media to search for a cell phone number
People often link their social media accounts to their cellphone numbers, so you may be able to find them on their profile page. This, however, isn’t a foolproof method. Some people limit sharing their phone numbers to those that are designated as their “friends” on the platform—or don’t list their numbers at all.
Start by entering the person’s name and the social media site you want to search in the search bar. In our example, we’re showing you how to look up a phone number on Facebook:
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Click on the result that best matches who you’re looking for; if you don’t know the person’s middle name or initial in the example above, then choose the first result.
Select the profile for the person you are looking for and click the “About” tab.
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Click “Contact and Basic Info” from the menu on the left. If the person has made their phone number public, you’ll find it there. If you’re friends with the person, you’re more likely to see their contact information.
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On the platform LinkedIn, the “Contact info” button is on the profile page beneath the person’s photo:
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Other social media sites generally don’t include contact information, but if you have an account with Twitter or Instagram, you can message the person directly and ask for their cellphone number.
Pro tip: You have a better chance of finding a cellphone number on social media if you’re connected to that person. If the person’s information is private, try sending them a friend or connection request if you have a legitimate reason for reaching out. If they accept, check their contact information again.
#3 Search online cell phone directories
Unlike landlines, there’s no free cellphone directory to track down someone’s number.
The National Cellular Directory is a paid service. According to its website, it has the most “useful, current and updated” cellphone number information available. To use the service, enter the person’s first and last name, plus city and state if you have that information, in the search bar.
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Pro tip: If you don’t want to pay for the search, you can follow the company on Twitter to see when they have “Happy Hour.” During Happy Hour, you can search for a cellphone number free of charge.
#4 Use a people search lookup tool
If you have the name of the person you’re trying to reach, you may be able to look up their cellphone number using a people search tool. To start a search, enter the person’s name in the search bar and select your option for viewing the results. If the tool digs up past and present phone numbers for that person, they’ll be listed under the “Contact Info” section of your report even if the numbers are otherwise private or unlisted.
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Pro tip: Entering a city and state of residence helps narrow down your search results.
#5 Search cellphone number through a working directory
If you know where the person works, you may be able to access an employee directory online. If the person uses their cellphone for work, it may be listed along with their office number. It isn’t the most reliable method since many businesses limit the information they publish externally about employees online.
Pro tip: Even if you can’t find someone’s office number but you do have their work email, you can use an email lookup tool to try and track down their cellphone number.
Conclusion
There’s no surefire way of finding someone’s cell phone number online, and there are many reasons a person may want to keep their number private. That said, if you have legitimate reasons for looking up someone’s cellphone number, there are both free cellphone number lookup tools and paid services that may make your search a whole lot easier.
Can You Freeze Your Location on Find My iPhone?
Tracking the location of your iPhone and other Apple devices is a great way to give yourself some peace of mind if your device is lost or stolen, but sometimes you need privacy. Perhaps you’re planning a surprise party and don’t want a family member snooping or something more serious is at stake. Knowing how to pause location on Find My iPhone can help put you into stealth mode temporarily or even permanently.
Zelle Scams: What You Need to Know to Best Protect Yourself
The global pandemic transformed many aspects of our daily life, including our reliance on digital modes of financial transactions. Peer-to-peer payment providers, such as Zelle, Venmo, and PayPal, have seen tremendous growth in the last two years, with Zelle reporting a 49% year-on-year increase in 2021. However, the increased convenience has attracted scammers to steal your hard-earned money. In this article, we talk about some of the most common Zelle scam techniques, how to identify them, and how to best avoid falling prey.
What are the common types of Zelle scams?
Zelle is an online digital payment service that allows you to transfer money to and from bank accounts. Zelle transactions are encrypted, making it difficult for anyone to hack an ongoing transaction. However, scammers often target humans behind smartphones rather than hacking into Zelle’s servers by extracting your personal information using fraudulent ways.
Almost all of the common Zelle scams involve a scammer trying to trick you into sending them the money using psychological bait. Therefore, identifying and avoiding Zelle fraud boils down to recognizing a scammer through some common scammer traits.
Here are some of the most common Zelle scams and ways to avoid them:
Impersonation scam
Imagine a close friend or a relative asking for urgent money because of an emergency. What would be your reaction? Because the request comes from a person you know, there is a high chance you would immediately send the money without even thinking twice. But what if it is a scammer on the other side? This particular method of scamming people is known as an imposter or impersonation scam—such as a fraudster pretending to be a grandchild in need of help.
There are many versions of the impersonation scam besides those involving family or friends. Sometimes the scammers pretend to represent a bank, credit card company or government agencies such as the IRS or the Social Security Administration. Scammers may contact you through social media or email and ask you to pay them through Zelle.
Culprits try to create a sense of urgency in their targets because people often miss the obvious red flags.
Sometimes scammers pretend to be from Zelle, sending an email with a subject line that says, “Your transaction has been refused.”
“This is a hoax since a Zelle transaction cannot fail because there is no such thing as a failed transaction,” said Klara Dumancic, a marketing specialist at private online B2B marketplace, InvestorsClub. “If you do receive this email, please delete it as soon as you can.”
The best way to protect yourself against this type of scam is to stay calm and verify the payment request directly from the person or organization, not through contacts provided by the potential fraudster. If a scammer pretends to be a family member or a close friend, it is best to contact them first and verify.
Romance scam
Remember Netflix’s headline-grabbing crime documentary, “The Tinder Swindler” in which Simon Leviev baits his Tinder matches by pretending to be a billionaire? That show depicts a textbook example of a romance scam. You are approached on a dating app by an attractive person. Things progress, and once trust is established, suddenly there’s an emergency situation that requires cash sent through Zelle.
In this scam, too, fraudsters try to develop a sense of urgency so you miss some obvious red flags and end up losing your money. The worst part about a romance scam is that it preys on loneliness: Victims face both financial and emotional scars.
The best way to protect yourself against a romance scam is to carefully verify all the information from your match’s profile, and if money is mentioned, think twice.
Phishing scams
Phishing scams dating back to the early years of the internet when hackers posed as AOL employees and collected login credentials. The scammers provide you with bait and expect you to share your personal details or make urgent payments in response to the bait.
Similar to impersonation scams, swindlers might pretend to be from a well-known bank or business, government agency or utility company. They contact you through phone or email and solicit a payment—in this case, through Zelle. Scammers may try to convince you to share your Zelle account details claiming your account has been hacked.
Alternatively, they may ask you to make urgent payments while threatening to cut off your water or power supply—a scenario former New York Mets first baseman Keith Hernandez described while giving play-by-play at a game earlier this year.
“Got a note that looked like it was from [the power company] … and they said I had 30 minutes to pay or they would shut off my power,” Hernandez said. “I had to pay through Zelle, and I never heard of Zelle.”
Because Zelle payments are made directly from your bank account, it is relatively difficult to recover the loss compared to credit card fraud.
The best way to avoid falling for a phishing scam is to directly contact the business or organization the fraudster claims to represent. For emails, always verify the sender’s email address before clicking on any link or sharing your details. Often scammers use real-looking email templates but send emails from untrustworthy and alien email IDs that may not correspond to your bank or the agency mentioned in the communication.
Fake invoice scam
If you run a business, you probably go through many invoices each day. However, be careful when you click on an invoice link in the future because it could be a targeted invoice scam. In a fake invoice scam, the scammer sends you a fake invoice link that lands you on a fraudulent website that looks exactly like the company’s website.
The website asks you to enter your login credentials to access the invoice. If you enter your credentials on such websites, you essentially hand them over to the scammers and give them complete access to your business accounts.
Lottery scams
Lottery scams are a special category of phishing scams where the bait is a fake lottery prize. The scammers send you an email or personal message congratulating your lottery win. They ask you to enter your Zelle account credentials to claim the lottery amount. As soon as you hand over your credentials to the scammers, they drain your bank account using Zelle.
“The most prominent Zelle scam on payment services like Zelle, Venmo, and PayPal is the ‘send money to get money’ scam, which tricks someone into sending a small amount of money to access a larger amount in their name,” said Tanya Williams, CEO at Background Check Repair, a non-profit aimed at informing everyone, especially minorities, about targetted scams.
Malware scams
A malware scam is when you click on a fishy link that installs malware on your computer. These malware scams can perform a spectrum of functions, including monitoring your online activity, stealing your login credentials from your Zelle account, and much more. Sometimes the malware even uses your computer’s resources to mine cryptocurrency.
One of the best ways to protect yourself against a malware scam is to cautiously verify a link before clicking on it. Hover your cursor over the link to view the URL at the bottom of your screen or in a popup. Using incognito mode on a spare browser could also help ascertain unknown links. Also, never enter your secret credentials on a website that is not directly associated with Zelle, or you may end up being scammed.
Goods and services scam
Watch out for goods and services scams if you frequently use online marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace or OfferUp. Although these marketplaces come with their own payment gateways, scammers often ask their buyers to pay outside these platforms through digital payment platforms like Zelle.
You should never agree to pay outside these platforms because you may never receive your products or your money. When you pay outside platforms like Facebook or OfferUp, they will not be able to help you because they won’t have any records of your payment.
How to best protect yourself from Zelle scams?
You may easily protect yourself against Zelle scams if you keep some points in your mind:
Don’t respond to unsolicited emails or text messages
Scammers often send scam emails with malicious links. Clicking on these links can expose your device to malware from these websites. Avoid any suspicious links if you receive by email or text.
Never share your personal information online
Sometimes it is hard to identify whether the person on the other side is legit. Therefore, it is best to avoid sharing personal information with people you come across online, no matter how needy and destitute they may sound.
Use two-factor authentication wherever possible
Two-factor authentication (2FA) is a second security layer to your online accounts and can massively reduce hacking risks. You should enable two-factor authentication wherever possible to ensure that you get a second warning while making any payments or approving login attempts.
Use Zelle only with trusted friends, family or businesses
Avoid making digital payments to strangers or people who don’t know through Zelle. If the scammer tries to create a sense of urgency, you should carefully pause to determine if the threat is real—call the person directly. Zelle recommends you only make payments to people you know and can trust.
Can Zelle refund my money if I’m scammed?
Zelle lets its users make peer-to-peer payments. These payments occur between two people and only materialize when the sender authorizes it. That’s why it is unlikely you will receive your money back if you fall prey to a scam. However, you may still get your money back if someone hacks into your Zelle account and makes payments on your behalf.
If you have been scammed on Zelle, here are a few things you should immediately do:
- Make sure you inform the authorities about the scam as soon as possible. Contact both law enforcement and Zelle’s customer line for better chances of getting your money back.
- You can dial the FBI’s toll-free fraud hotline at 833-FRAUD-11 and contact Zelle’s customer support at 844-428-8542.
- You can also fill out Zelle’s online form for reporting fraud.
Conclusion
Zelle scams can quickly drain you of your money if you don’t identify the red flags. However, it isn’t as complicated as it seems to identify these, and you can easily avoid scams if you keep a few key points in mind. Try to hold your nerves when a scammer creates a sense of urgency by impersonating a close friend or a government organization. Also, avoiding suspicious links can massively reduce Zelle scams.
Cash App Flip Scams: What You Need to Know
Cash App is a payments app for peer-to-peer (P2P) transactions, allowing users to send or receive money on their mobile devices. Besides exchanging money, Cash App also lets users invest in stocks or buy cryptocurrencies. This has given rise to what is known as the Cash App flip scam.
In this scam, a fraudster tempts victims by claiming they can “flip” a small amount of money into a larger sum. These fake offers are often made through social media. Because these scams only use Cash App as a medium to send money, there is little that customer support can offer to scam victims. Here are some simple tips to help you avoid the Cash App flip scam.
What are Cash flip scams?
Curiosity pulls people into scams and that is the starting point of most Cash App flip scams. Scammers target Cash App users with unrealistic promises of making sometimes five or even 10 times your original investment. Scammers sometimes refer to this money as a clearance fee or account verification payment, while others claim the victim has won a fake giveaway—and they can send you the money for a small fee.
“These scammers usually have legitimate looking profiles displaying strangers with a large sum of cash resulting from their participation in the fraudulent activity,” said Sandra Breault, a public affairs specialist with the FBI.
How does the Cash App flip scam work?
Just like every get-rich-quick scheme that makes bogus claims and ends in disaster, it is the same with Cash App flip scams. Here are some common tactics to lure victims:
Luring ads
Cash App flip scams scout for their victims through various means, the most predominant of which is social media. Cash App scammers show how they have been able to flip cash for scores of people with fake testimonials and made-up visuals.
Scammers lure the victims by flipping small amounts of money. Victims gain confidence by flipping smaller sums, but bigger investments of $100 and even $1,000 or more never come back.
Direct messaging
Cash App flip scammers also message victims directly. A fraudster goes to a user’s profile and chats with their potential victim. This method is known as prospecting—they send messages and monitor responses. One such message suggests there is a Cash App reward system and claims to have connections with the company’s customer representative.
These claims make the user believe the scammer can help them make more money off their transactions, thereby making them prey.
Fake giveaways
Another method deployed by these scammers claims the victim has won instant cash. Scammers pretend to run giveaways on behalf of Square—the founders of Cash App. While that is the appetizer, scammers feast on those who didn’t win the giveaway but can be easily tempted into believing they might have a second chance.
Cybersecurity expert Eric Florence said scammers piggybacked on Cash App Fridays, a sweepstakes Cash App runs that requires entrants to post on Twitter or Instagram.
“Cash App Fridays turned from a fun way to promote Cash App and help their customers out into a scammer’s dream in short order,” said Eric Florence, a cybersecurity consultant. “Customers who post their Cashtag get messages from scammers posing as Cash App employees telling them that they have won, but have to pay a fee for the funds to be released.”
The $1,000 scam
“I’ve seen so many Cash App flip scams, but one that stands out for me is the $1,000 scam,” said Andrew Lokenauth, the founder of Fluent in Finance.
This is how the scam works: You are notified your Cash App account has been credited $1,000. You check your account and find the $1,000 sitting there. You then receive a message from a scammer that they have credited the wrong account and ask you to return the money, which—if you’re honest—you do.
The original credit to you, however, is made from a stolen or cloned credit card, which will eventually be disputed and reversed. But the money sent by you to the scammer is legitimate. This means the scammer now has your $1,000, and you bear that loss.
How to avoid money flip scams
Here are some of the ways to avoid being scammed:
Don’t send money with promises of free money in return
The first principle is to know a legitimate person is highly unlikely to offer money upfront. Scammers can easily forge proof of valid payments and present them as rewards won by other people. Don’t be lured into it.
Only send cash to people you know and trust
Only accept requests to send money using Cash App to people you know personally.
Avoid sharing your personal information with anyone—including acquaintances—on social media. Never share your personal details on public forums or as comments on social media posts, even when there is a chance to win a handsome reward.
Lastly, make sure you enable two-factor authentication (2FA) for your account.
Check the recipient information and profile before sending
Scammers will always have a legitimate-looking profile to appear more credible. If you must transfer money to another account using Cash App, always ensure you sift through the recipient’s social media profile. Look for older posts or comments to ensure this is not a freshly created account.
Additionally, beware when someone claims to be a Cash App representative and asks you to share your details. An official representative will not ask for passwords, birth dates, social security numbers, or any codes that may arrive on your phone. More importantly, an authorized agent will never reach you themselves or suggest continuing the conversation outside the app on platforms like Facebook or WhatsApp.
“Individuals should be aware that Cash App will never request a sign-in code, PIN, Social Security number or the downloading of a remote access app, which you should always avoid,” said Steven Weisman, a New York-based cybersecurity expert and the author of “Scamicide.”
If it sounds too good to be true it is
No matter how lucrative the exchange offer sounds, do not give in to the temptation of getting free money.
If you see posts about millionaires giving away free money, it is highly likely to be a trap. The same also applies when you see someone giving away free cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin, via Cash App or any other payment app. Remember, if it’s too good to be true, it’s probably fake.
Never share IDs or respond to unwarranted payments
Technology has made forgery easy. A scammer can reproduce not only phony proofs of payments but also fake your documents based on the details you unknowingly share with them. Do not send pictures or copies of critical documents like your driver’s license, social security number, passport or other ID.
What to do if you are a victim of a Cash App flip scam
It is unfortunate if you fall victim to the Cash App flip scam. It’s never a good season to lose some bucks. Thankfully, not everything is lost when you get scammed on Cash App, but it is crucial to act promptly. Here are the steps you can take to stall the continuity of this activity:
- Go to Cash App.
- Tap the Profile icon in the top right corner of the app.
- Tap Support.
- Select Report a Payment Issue.
- Select the payment and follow the prompts.
If the scam is associated with a particular scammer profile instead of a specific payment, report and block a possible scam account by following these steps:
- Launch the Cash App.
- Tap on a Customer Avatar to view a profile. You can also search for a profile by entering a name, $Cashtag, phone number or email.
- Scroll to the bottom of the profile and tap on “Report” or “Block.”
- Select one of the options and follow the next steps.
Additionally, you can reach out to the Cash App support team online or call 800-969-1940. You may also get in touch through Cash App’s social media accounts on Instagram, Twitter, or TikTok.
BeenVerified – Tax Season
Tax Season is approaching—be wary of tax scams! Scams from bogus IRS officials claiming victims owe back taxes have been a perennial threat. This past year, fraudulent tax claims grew 55.4% with a few new wrinkles. Check out these links on BeenVerified’s Instagram page to learn more.
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