The reverse cell phone directory can be a useful resource to enhance Internet dating safety. When you meet an attractive stranger online, you don’t know if anything they tell you is true, including their name. If a correspondent gives you his cell phone number, you will be able to use the reverse cell phone directory to learn his last name, or to affirm the name he gave you is authentic.

I recently encountered a woman on a dating site whose profile indicated that she lived near me. When we met, she disclosed that she considered us incompatible since she lives over 90 miles away.  I could used a reverse telephone directory and learned the truth much sooner.

Some reverse telephone directories provide a name and city or town free of charge, and offer more detailed information at a fee.

When an acquaintance or business contact provides you with a landline number which leads you to an answering machine, the question arises: how can I find someone’s cell phone number? While there are no white or yellow pages of cell phone numbers, there are several  options. The most obvious–a Google search–can often yield results. There are also free cell phone directories compiled from information submitted by members, which require you to submit your own name and number to access the service.If you often find yourself looking for for cell phone numbers, subscribing to a National Cellular Phone Registry is a great idea. A subscription at $20-40 per year will provide access to millions of cellular records.

I recently met a woman named Lisa from a dating website for coffee. We exchanged telephone numbers, except she didn’t divulge her last name or address to me, a man she barely knew. The following afternoon, I was awoken from a nap by the telephone. {The caller ID indicated that the caller’s first name was Lisa, raising my hopes}.

Female Caller: “Alex?”
Me: “Yes.”
Female Caller: “It’s Lisa.”
Me:“Hi.”
Female Caller: “How are you, hon?”
Me: “???? Okay…”
Female Caller: “Can I call you right back?”
Click.

I held the phone in my hand, baffled. The caring woman’s voice sounded different from the woman I met the day before, however my curiosity was overwhelmingly piqued. Then I remembered free reverse lookup service. I typed in the number my date gave me, and a last name (that was different from that of my mystery caller’s Caller ID tag) appeared in seconds. A couple of weeks later, she sent me an e-mail “I will give you my last name since I know know that you are not in prison and aren’t a stalker.”

Well, she was right about the prison part.