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Although cell phone numbers are still considered private information and are not found through guidance services, many of them have been leaked on websites and on Internet databases and you can check them if you know where to look. According to the Federal Communications Commission, using a cell phone number for telemarketing purposes is an illegal practice unless the cell phone owner has requested the information and provided the number to a particular company for that purpose.
Preparation
Write down the names to which the mobile number can be assigned. If you are looking for a cell number for a list of possible names you will surely get a result faster than if you did it for a single name. While legal names are often used when acquiring a mobile account, you may find that person’s number under a nickname or an apocope of their real name, depending on the source you are consulting.
Determine a general location for the person. If you know what state that person resides in, you can narrow down the search. This is especially useful when the person has a common name whose search yields cell numbers from multiple states. If you know in which city he lives, you will be able to locate the cell phone number more accurately.
Write down everything you know about the person. It includes the place where you work, organizations or associations where you probably work, your interests and groups to which you belong, as well as websites that you can frequent. Cell phone numbers could appear in contact listings or guides of organizations and companies to which the person could be associated.
Where to look
Search the online guide for the company you work for. If you manage to find out the place you occupy in the company, you can locate your mobile number in a staff guide or through marketing, advertising or public relations materials.
Search websites that the person frequents. Many people enter their cell phone number when they establish their contact information. Business websites – such as LinkedIn or Elance – and social websites – such as Facebook – often publish contact information that they extract from their users.
Check the email site that the person uses. Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo and others can publish contact information provided by the user, such as a mobile number.
Find the person’s curriculum. The contact information of the curricula usually includes the person’s cell phone number.
Search websites to which that person is connected. It may be the site of a church, the site of an organization linked to a hobby or personal interest, a business association or a site on certifications if the person has certification of some kind. Directories in these types of sites may contain cell numbers as a contact mode.
Locate the person through a free online people search site. Free people search sites provide all kinds of information, including legal names, addresses, family names and phone numbers. In this type of searches you can include a mobile number.
Use the white pages online. White pages are often used to list residential landline numbers. However, as there are so many people who use their cell phones instead of their landlines for home use, white page guides may well contain cell numbers provided by the owners.