This blog is all about joy. Or at least, all about the joy of finding people and doing free background checks. But unlike most blogs, this one will show you how to do these things even when you don’t know their name, want to confirm their name, or when their name is an extremely common one like “John Smith.”
The fact is we’re far too obsessed with names. Too often, this means we overlook how to get beyond a name, and get straight to the core of their identity. So I recommend you try these reverse searches on both yourself and anyone you want to learn more about. When you’re done, you’ll see that privacy in the US is a myth, and you’ll probably start walking the streets with a bag over your head. But don’t say I didn’t warn you!
Now you may think I’m exaggerating. But people use false names all the time. They’re also constantly changing their names, intentionally misspelling their names or even hiding behind their middle names! And then there’s the fact that you may not even remember how to spell their name. Or if you can, you’re still stuck weeding out the Google hits of dozens of total strangers who share the same name.
Beating the Name Game But wouldn’t it be great if you could find something unique about that person aside from their name? Something like a fingerprint, which could easily track them down with no confusion, so you know it’s truly them.
Well you’re in luck. Here are the free ways to cut through the name game. Below, I’ve included the powerful reverse lookups which can be used to find old friends, expose the frauds on dating sites, or to learn more about potential tenants, roommates, employers or business associates. Just remember to leverage what you find by plugging it into Google and the other reverse searches. A+B leads to C, and A,B,C leads to D,E,F…all the way through Z!
Photo Reverse Lookups You’re about to be scared. But also empowered. With facial recognition, you don’t have much privacy. But neither does the guy who’s photo you snapped as he was kicking in your car door.
Next time, try uploading their photo to Face Check ID. Face Check ID is the best free photo lookup I’ve ever seen. To test it, I snapped a new pic and uploaded it to their website. And unlike Google reverse images, it was able to pull up similar photos of me. Even better, it pulls up websites and sometimes usernames, the latter which can be plugged into reverse searches to learn even more about them! Note that this site works best for caucasians, and with faces staring straight at the camera.
Removing Unwanted Objects in Your Photos
Ever want to do a reverse lookup of just one person in a group photo? Or perhaps, your image search isn’t working because there are unwanted things in the background? Well, you just hit the jackpot! Here are 3 easy to use tools that are completely free, none of which require downloading.
First is the Windows Snipping Tool which allows you to extract only the person or object of interest. You simply trace a box over the head of the person in the photo and it will automatically be saved to your clipboard. From there, you can save the revised photo to your desktop and later upload to any reverse photo search engine.
Or if you like, you can use Remove.bg to nix any background such as trees or furniture, and then use the snipping tool.
Finally, If you’ve done all the above but still need to clean up the background a bit, the free erase tool on Cleanup.pictures will wipe away anything missed by the others. You don’t have to know Photoshop! You don’t have to select from a pallet of colors. You just brush over anything unwanted and it disappears!
Email Reverse Lookups Ever want to learn more about an old friend but have only a defunct email address? Old email or new email, now is the time to see the sites they’ve registered with and if it leads to new sites, new names, new addresses, new usernames, or a new marital status.
My favorite site is Osint.Industries. With their free signup, you can plug in an email address to get their photos, usernames, marital status, hobbies, where they shop or their professional occupation. The sole drawback is you must perform 2 annoying captchas per search.
When I tested with a friend’s email address, I confirmed where he works, who he’s married to and some of the websites he has accounts with. I knew most of this already, mind you, but I like to test these sites with the people I know. This is a great resource to find out what your old girlfriend is doing. But it’s also perfect for exposing con artists e.g. the guy whose email pulls up multiple names or the photos of different people.
This site claims to do the same with phone numbers; but when I tried a few, all I got was if they had a Skype account. Note that if you want to try this yourself, the format for US phone #s is xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Cell Phone Reverse Lookups Aside from Google, there are a number of free reverse search engines for phone numbers, including defunct ones. Many of these pull up the person’s full name or a middle initial. (Things that can be Googled later of course.) Some even pull up their age, relatives, emails, and addresses. Now how about that! My favorites are CallerName.com and CyberbackgroundChecks.com (Reverse Cell Phone Lookup).
With the former, submit the cell # and then scroll down to “Caller ID” to see the name of who it belongs to. With CyberbackgroundChecks, it may pull up not just the person’s name, but also other contact info such as described above. CyberbackgroundChecks can also search by address, email, and name as well.
Username Reverse Lookups People like to reuse the same email addresses and usernames over and over again. This means you can search for old friends by their funky old email address and simply convert it into a username. For example, you could search for snicklefritz, which was from their old email address snicklefritz@aol.com.
Username reverse lookups are great for finding their photos, their new name, and their profiles on various social media. My favorite site is IDCrawl, which is simple to use and quite powerful. When I entered the username sleuthforthetruth, it found me on Instagram, Youtube, and even pulled up my posts on Reddit.
Street Address Reverse Lookups Old street addresses can pull up new names and list their current addresses. I’ve used these types of reverse searches to find roommates of 20 years ago, including those who had foreign hard to spell names!
My favorite address reverse search website is Cyberbackgroundchecks.com (USA Only). Just type in a new or old address to find who lived or lives there, along with their more recent cell #s, email addresses and physical addresses.
Domain Name and Other Reverse Lookups Do they have a website? Or perhaps they reserved a domain name but never did anything with it. Either way, there are some powerful tools which use a name, a company name, a domain name or an email address to see what they registered. Often this reveals more phone numbers, more email addresses, and even other information about them.
Conclusion The bottom line is that there’s tons of free info to confirm someone’s name, get their middle name, or just find out more about them, all without even using Google. But leverage whatever you find. Trust but verify; and above all, be sure to always enjoy the ride!
More Blogs on Background Checks (Sleuth For The Truth)
Imagine you’re in a huge, cavernous hall packed with crowds of silent people. You’re told you have just one hour to find your old friends and family or you’ll never see them again! Worse, you suddenly realize you’re blindfolded and deaf! You can only identify them by your meager sense of touch.
So how would you go about finding them? And how long would it take you? Chances are, you could look forever. For when blindfolded, all those noses, hair, eyes, clothing and even faces, would give you many false leads.
Bereft of your senses, you would be unable to identify the person you’re looking for. There’s just too many misleading similarities and not enough helpful clues.
This is your world when searching for someone with a common name. And all to often you won’t have the benefit of a photo. Sure, you’ll find Joan Smith. But chances are it’s not the Joan Smith you’re looking for. Worse, Joan could have married, divorced or remarried, which means you may be looking for the wrong name!
But what if in the above scenario, your loved one wore a special bracelet, or perhaps, a unique signature hairdo that no one else had? At that point, they would stand out in the crowd. And even with your limited senses, you’re odds of finding them would skyrocket.
This is where emails and usernames come in. Email addresses and usernames often act like a special bracelet or a signature hairdo. And better yet, because people are creatures of habit, they tend to use the same signature words or monikers they once used 20 years ago. That’s right! You can find your friends with even old and now defunct email addresses! Indeed, an old email address may contain their current username on social media. It could also pull up a new email address with the same signature phrase!
Email Searches, Extracting Their Username From an Email and How To Guess Usernames for Rare Names OK, the person you dated 20 years ago may never have had a username. But times change and they almost certainly have one now. So to find old friends by their email or username, simply:
Go through your old email list of contacts, and look for friends with rare names OR unusual email addresses. For example, I found an old friend with the ancient address of alot*sugarjet@bellsouth.net.
Search in Google or Bing with their full email address in quotation marks. For example, Googling “g_firestone@yahoo.com” could lead to other postings which include new contact information and other leads.
Try a Reverse Email Search using their whole email address, which can pull up their new name, plus new contact information, including new usernames, and other social media accounts. If you get a middle name or initial, be sure to Google their full name in “quotes”. These sites are hit or miss so use several of them for good leads. In my case, when I used a long dead email address it found my old friend with her current age, a new last name and plenty of phone numbers and addresses. (the last two I could plug into Google or do reverse searches on, for even more leads.)
Google an old username (with no spaces) e.g..the first part of an old email before the @sign. For example: sleuthforthetruth. Also try with quotes e.g. “sleuthforthetruth”
Plug this username into the most popular social media sites such as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok, Reddit, etc. This sometimes works with old email addresses as well.
For people with rare names like myself, try to guess their username with combinations like: grahamfirestone graham.firestone graham-firestone graham_firestone gfirestone g_firestone g-firestone.
Use the Free Username Lookups that will tell you which usernames are NOT AVAILABLE on Social Media. These often will provide you a link to those NOT AVAILABLE, which can lead you to the person who has this name. But even if they don’t provide a link or the link leads nowhere, see if you can go to the social media site and search for them directly. Indeed, you may discover someone with the same first name and different last name, or get clues to where they live or who their friends are. These sites are hit or miss. I recommend using several of such for more leads and to see how they work: The best ones are those with the fewest false positives.
Did you know that Facebook scammers depend on you to help them with their credibility? And that once you “friend” them, it opens the door so they can dupe all your real friends along with all your friends’ friends?
Worse, Facebook actually helps them do it! Once you’ve friended them, Facebook automatically reaches out to your other friends and suggests that they too become friends with the scammer!
But don’t freak out just yet. This blog is all about spotting the fake Facebook profile! And when you’re done, hopefully you’ll be extra careful about accepting a stranger’s friend request, even if they are friends with someone you know.
Why Make A Fake Profile In The First Place?
Scammers make fake Facebook accounts for many reasons. But the most convincing scams need to look legitimate; Which means they need real live people as friends, preferably those who are respectable European or American professionals.
One of the most common scams is identity theft. For example, once you friend them, they now can send you and your friends viruses that infect your phones and laptops. These viruses can then extract your banking and credit card information or send out even more viruses to all the people in your address books.
But scammers don’t have to send you viruses. They just need to get the personal information that you and your friends post online. And what better way than being on your friend’s list!
A typical scam is to impersonate you and message your friends that you’re in trouble and need money. “Please help!” the scammer will claim. “It’s Graham, I’m stuck in London, I was just robbed and they took my wallet and passport!” If you ask how to help, they’ll give you wiring instructions. But of course, you’ll never see the money again. And neither will your friend.
Another con is to fake you into an online romance with them. Often they’ll reach out to you on Facebook saying they really like your profile. Of course you check out their Facebook page, see an attractive person with a bunch of reputable looking friends, (some of whom you know) and then are lulled into thinking all is well. But all is not well.
As they tell you about themselves, they’ll claim to be American. But in truth, they’re actually from India, Russia or Pakistan! Or maybe they admit they’re from overseas. But they have such a compelling story. And once you’re hooked by their gorgeous fake photo and their declarations of love, suddenly they hit you for money! They may claim it’s to get a visa so they can see you. Or maybe it’s about their poor sick babushka who needs a heart transplant. But whatever the reason, you are being scammed.
Think about it: Why would a stunning young model from Russia want to date a balding middle aged New Yorker? Aren’t there plenty of balding men in her own country? Legitimate people look for love in their own backyard. They don’t need to travel abroad to find “good men.” And if they’re as beautiful as their photo, they can find good rich men. Why risk contacting a total stranger in a foreign country?
Exposing the Fraud
These scams always have one thing in common: The person you are messaging isn’t real. It’s not their photo. It’s not their true name. And it’s not their real story. The gorgeous widow from Georgia is more likely a fat guy from India. And the hot Russian babe you connect so well with… she could very well be a man!
So to avoid heartbreak, check them out on Google and the links below. Also be sure to Google any phone numbers, names, usernames, photos, and email addresses. This may turn up their other fake profiles, or reveal that the photo belongs to someone else.
Spotting the Fake FacebookProfile: A Checklist with Free Links To Expose Their True identity
Profiles Are Just a Few Years or Months Old, based on the date of their earliest photos. So are they living under a rock? If they claim to be a middle aged professional, and just got on Facebook, were they raised in a cave all their lives?
Photo is Too Beautiful, Too Good To Be True Beware of fake Facebook profiles with no comments, or lots of comments from “friends” on how good they look. But the person never responds or posts comments themselves. It’s also a red flag if there are no recent comments. Most people spend time sharing their experiences or responding to events, comments, etc.
Person has MORE than 2 Facebook accounts, often with conflicting personal information, such as their hometown or occupation.
You can’t find them in the Occupational Lookups when they claim to be a US doctor, lawyer or accountant. If they really lived or worked there, they should have an active license or at least an expired one.
Their friends are international or unconnected to each other, as if picked hodgepodge, and they do not list relatives (people with their own last name).
They claim to be American, but most of their friends aren’t. Or they don’t show any friends at all.
They have few photos of themselves or the photos are of strange foreign places that seem to have been put their without rhyme or reason.
Very few profile photos. (Most people have more than one or two.)
They post very little personal information about themselves.
Their cell #, username, email address or physical address brings up a different name or photo in Google or the free reverse lookups.
Their Facebook Internet address has an entirely different name than what’s on their Facebook profile. For example: the Facebook profile for Graham Firestone should have an Internet address of https://www.facebook.com/graham.firestone. Be on the lookout if ends in an entirely different name such as https://www.facebook.com/Prashad .swami.
Their account is updated infrequently.
Very few likes or comments. (even their friends could be faked)
Foreign language is found on their page or on the windows tab up top or at the bottom of your screen. See screenshot below and how window in yellow highlight shows weird foreign characters.
Notice the strange name in the Facebook URL above in red, or in the yellow highlight below? Ganesh Gosavi (AKA Josh Anthony) is obviously an Indian posing as an American.
Of course, not all profiles are this obvious. So I decided to look through his profile photos to see if any of his American pics turned up elsewhere in a Google Reverse Photo lookup.
So I put my mouse over the photo, right clicked and then selected “Copy Image Link.” I then clicked on Google Image Lookup, clicked on the small Camera icon to the right and pasted in the URL.
At first I was disappointed because all I saw was this below.
But when I scrolled down, I saw that the same photo was listed on various romance scam lists! Apparently, this guy gets around with lots of different names.
Extracting Text From Images And Then Translating Such Often images can reveal the names of places, streets or towns. Here’s how to extract the text from images, even if it’s in another language! From there, you can Google the places or names mentioned, or to see if there are connections, try Googling the place along with what you think his real name is. For example: Bapti Swami Punjabi University. Key is that you download the image to your desktop.
Once you’ve save a copy of the image, check out this free text extraction site at https://www.i2ocr.com/# (no signup!) If you don’t see this screen below, close your window and try again in a new window. Be sure to ignore all ads and ignore the box that says “accept cookies.“
For step 1 above, choose the language you think the image is in. Usually this is English, but here I wanted to extract and translate something from Hindi.
After you click on “Extract Text” you should see something like this below.
From there you can copy this text into Google Translate or perhaps use their own tool to get there. See translation below!
How To Stop Fraudsters So now you’ve proven it’s a fake profile, and you may even know his real name, or where he works and lives. Sadly, often the best you can do is get Facebook to take down the fake profiles. This is especially true if the person is from a third world country where the police are unlikely to take action. The good news is that while anyone can cobble together a fake profile, it takes months and sometimes years to cultivate a credible one. So you are setting them back at least a few months if not years in some cases.
Sometimes Facebook might not listen to you about removing the fake account. But if the photo turns out to be of someone rich or famous, you can always enlist them to help you remove the fake profile! After all, it’s their likeness and it’s their reputation. You’ve just done them a big favor!
Sample of What To Post to the True Owner of the Photo via Facebook, Email or through Their Website Warning: Someone is using your photos to set up fake social media accounts under the name __________________. He claims to be an American doctor working for the UN in Abu Dhabi. However, everything in the profiles are total lies which he uses to lure older women into bogus online relationships.
We believe the con artist is ______________from India; he may also go by the name of ___________________. May I suggest you have your lawyers contact Facebook, Twitter and Skype to demand these profiles be removed. No doubt more of these fake profiles are yet to be discovered. Sadly, we know of at least two victims who have been heartbroken. My guess is that he strings them along through texts and then asked them for money. Your photos can be found in the fake profiles below.
FACEBOOK
(List links here)
SKYPE
(List links here)
TWITTER
(List links here)
Friend or Alter Ego (found on his friend’s friend’s list)
(List links here)
Contacting the Fraudster’s American Facebook Friends and Warning His Family They May Be Investigated by the Police If you know the person lives overseas and is unlikely to drop by soon, you may be able to deter them through FEAR and SHAME. At the very least, it may cause all his reputable American friends to unfriend him, and thus strip his profile of any credibility.
In the case of one Indian scamster who pretended to be American, I found a list of his family members through one of his earlier bogus Facebook accounts. The strange surname in his Facebook URL was a rare one. So I simply looked for those on his friends list with the same last name as his.
I also Googled his name with the name of an Indian engineering college found in his photos. Turns out he is almost certainly a teacher there. Once I identified the college, I was able to find his name on a 2020 teacher’s list. And guess what? His name was listed with a phone number and email address! A nice little gift to send to Interpol.
Women: For the sample letter below, you may want a male friend of yours to send it through their own Facebook account so it’s not traceable to you.
Sample of What To Post So Family and Friends Will De-friend Him on Social Media Please be advised you are being contacted because you are listed on Facebook as either a friend or relative of Gupta Mudalla Singh. Mr. Singh is notorious for using fake social media profiles which he uses to scam American women into giving him money.
These fake profiles can be found at:
A list of his family and friends has been submitted to Interpol and the FBI for further investigation. Expect to be contacted soon.
Let’s not kid ourselves. Finding a company email address is rarely easy. Sure, if you’re lucky enough, you can get to their customer service department. But what if you want to write to the top decision makers?
How can you reach the vice president you charmed at the coffee shop? Yes, the one who’s desperate for your resume, even though she doesn’t know it yet.
Or what about the home improvement contractor who never repaired your leaky basement? You paid their outrageous bill for $3,200, dutifully screamed at their voicemail, and then followed up with frantic texts for them to finish the job . But for reasons most mysterious, they can never find the time to return your calls. Or for that matter, to return your money.
Don’t let a mean ole website keep you from the big shots. And don’t waste your time yelling at a company voicemail. Here are the tricks to find company emails. Now you can send the VP at Starbucks your stellar resume.
Or if you like, you can email your home repair guy about the terrible dream you just had. Yes, the one where you take him to court, ruin his reputation, and then revoke his contractor’s license.
Live Search in Action! Contacting the Top Decision Makers in AquaGuard
AquaGuard is a midsized to large roofing and waterproofing company in Georgia, also known as AquaGuard Foundation Solutions. According to Zoominfo.com, it has about 243 employees.
Now suppose you wanted to email the owners of AquaGuard but couldn’t find their contact info on the AquaGuard website. For the moment, I will assume you knew that the owner of AquaGuard is Thomas DiGregorio(Tom DiGregorio). And that unlike me, you found him simply by scrolling down their homepage or looking at their “contact us” page.
Or perhaps you couldn’t find his name there so you got it through the free corporate filings at the GA Secretary of State. Indeed, it was here I learned thatThomas DiGregorio also owns AquaGuard Properties, LLC,AquaGuard Water Proofing Contractors, Inc. and probably even AquaGuard Roofing Solutions, LLC.
Note that while the AquaGuard website also lists Joe Rusk as a co-owner, I was unable to confirm such through official government records.
The Low Hanging Fruit (Free Email Extractors) There are two types of free email extractors. First there’s the typical free people searches that pull up emails along with other data. I recommend Cyberbackgroundchecks.com or using Fastpeoplesearch.com as a backup.
Just enter the person’s name and state and scroll down for emails. Some sites, even allow you to search by a person’s cell phone number or old email address for similar results.
Second, there’s the websites where you type in a web address to see a collection of company emails.
For smaller companies like AquaGuard, it could mean you find the email address of the owner, vice president, or talent recruiter. But for big companies like Microsoft or Amazon, there’s much less a chance of that.
But don’t fret on this. If you know the name of your contact, you can guess their email address simply by looking at the format of all the other email addresses on the list.
Note, each site may require you type in the address in a different format. So with AquaGuard as an example, you may need to enter it as: aquaguard.net. or www.aquaguard.net or https://www.aquaguard.net
Using CyberbackgroundChecks.com To Hunt for Business Emails With CyberbackgroundChecks, you simply search for the owner’s name along with their state. When I did this for “Tom Digregorio” and Georgia, I found the emails of two of his active businesses below.
Using Email-format.com To Get Emails from the AquaGuard Website My next step was to use Email-Format.com to search for other emails associated with AquaGuard.
When I typed in aquaguard.net I found these additional emails below. People come and go in large companies, so look for the newest confirmed email addresses. (See those I highlighted in yellow.)
Be sure to Google these to see if you can get their full names as well. To see if they’re still any good, you can also plug these into an email verifier. But always Google them as well. Email verifiers aren’t perfect.
Another way to find the names of key players is to do a Google search within signalhire.com. See below. Note: You must replace Aquaguard and Georgia with the specifics for your company, but leave all else the same. As noted below, be sure to ignore all the Google ads.
The great thing about the Signal Hire website is that it lists the names of employees along with their job titles! It won’t reveal their email addresses, but you can always find these through Google and the other sites already mentioned.
Sending the Email When You Don’t Know Which Address Is Valid Sometimes, such as when lodging a serious complaint, you don’t want them to know you’re just guessing at their contact information. To hide this fact, simply email yourself and put all the numerous other email addresses in the “bcc” box. So, if the recipient gets your email, they’ll only see your address and assume you knew theirs all along. And once they respond, you certainly will!
Still Can’t Find Their Email? Then Get Them To Contact You! Many businesses enjoy top ratings with the Better Business Bureau. And even those that don’t will often hate to see bad reviews posted online.
So if you can’t reach them directly, simply look up the company by name or phone number in the Better Business Bureau Complaint Database. After you lodge a complaint, the BBB will contact the business and encourage the business to get in touch with you. Often this works far better than simply suing them in court.
Note that if you can’t find a business using the BBB Complaint Database, try Googling the business with “BBB.” Sometimes Google works better at finding BBB complaints than even the Better Business Bureau! And once you see the write up, look for how you can file your own complaint.
Free Resources
For free links to find corporate and personal emails check out Find Email Addresses (Consumer-SOS)
Back in law school I knew three people who went by different names. There was Pat, who’s first name was really John. There was Steve, who’s friends and business associates called him “Greg.” And then there was Mike Davis, who spent 9 years in a Texas prison for a quadruple homicide. Later when it hit the newspapers that Mike had quietly enrolled in our humble law school, we soon learned he was the notorious Walter Waldhouser.
Pat and Greg turned out to be law abiding citizens…mostly. Walter Waldhouser, not so much. He’s now back in prison on five counts of third-degree money laundering.
In the first two cases, Pat and Steve preferred using their middle names. They did this for innocent reasons (I suppose). But whether innocent or not, a name switch tends to mess up a good background check.
So here’s how to pull the beard off Santa and expose the fraud. Here’s how to spot the person who gives out a false name, or who uses their middle name to hide from their own wrongdoing.
Right from the start: Take any contact information (old or new) and plug it into Google and the various free reverse lookup sites. Then see if the name they gave you matches the name that turns up in your results. If it’s different, it’s time to do another background check!
Grab The Low Hanging Fruit (Emails and Cell Phone #s)
These days, virtually everyone sends texts. And this means almost everyone gives out their cell phone number. Free websites such as OKcaller.com, Cyberbackgroundchecks.com and Spydialer often pull up a name based on a cell phone number. For more See Consumer SOS: Reverse Cell Phone Searches.
You can also get their full name simply by knowing their Gmail address. And it’s all for free! For more, see my handy dandy collection of free email reverse searches.
Ever want to get in touch with an old housemate but have no clue how to reach them? Or what about your frat brother with the weird ethnic name no one could pronounce? Yeah, you remember; the guy who everyone called “The Schmoo!”
There are plenty of excellent reasons to reach out to a former roommate. Perhaps they owe you loads of money. Or maybe you just want to send them wads of their old magazines.
As a recruiter, sales person, or wannabe Ponzi schemer, it’s always good to explore new and sometimes very old connections. Same goes if you’re looking for alumni donations or are in charge of your class reunion!
But whatever your reasons are, I’m here to show you how easy it is to reach out to those who previously shared your home address. And it works even when they have a new surname, you forgot their last name, or you have no clue how to spell it!
Backgrounding All The Places You’ve Lived At
Let’s break this down nice and easy. First, you’ll need to find a free Orwellian website that just happens to list all your prior addresses with links to all or most of the people you once lived with.
From there, simply click on the prior address where you both were housemates, so you can see a list of present and former residents. A good site will have their names in hyperlinks, and provide exciting personal information about them such as their ages, middle initials and new surnames. From there it’s just a game of point and click!
How I Used PeopleSearchNow To Locate My Indian Roommate of 25 Years Ago
I’ll start with one of my favorite free websites. The very best is Cyberbackgroundchecks.com. Second best is PeopleSearchNow.
Note: If you know the person’s name and it’s a rare one, simply look it up directly in the Name search box. Or if you know an old address of theirs, you can enter it here and then when it lists all tenants, you can look for the link to their name. Or you can use the top links in the website to do a reverse search on emails or phone numbers. For a backup site, checkout Search For Free (by name) or Search For Free (by address)
Otherwise, look up your own name so you can find the address you both lived at. Below I’ll show you how I found “Sameer” when I had no clue how to spell or even say his last name! But as you can see, I found not only his last name, but probably also his current cell phone number.
First, type in your own name and hit enter. If your name is a common one, you may want to narrow your search with a city and state. Note that you’ll see a partial list of addresses, sometimes with the top address being old and not your current address.
The goal is to find and click on the address that you and your former roommate lived at. To see more addresses, click View Details.
Still can’t find the address you both shared? Well, then scroll down until you see more addresses. And click “Show More” for even more addresses. Don’t bother clicking on court records or other links-they’ll just wanna charge ya! Now click on the address you both lived at.
Once you’ve clicked on an address, there may be several pages of people who have lived there. So be sure to search all pages until you find them.
Here I found Sameer from my old address at 2422-D Morosgo Ct, Atlanta GA. (There was no way I could spell that surname!)
When I clicked on View Details, I was able to see his cell phone numbers, and places he’s lived at. Note that his current address may be wrong, but who cares? You can always confirm his address through reverse lookups, property records or various other means.
So you started your new business, trademarked your name, and kept Googling it to see how you rank on the Internet.
Then one day, it happens. You find someone else is using
your trademark. And worse, they’re in the same line of business as you are!
“How can this be?” you cry. “I paid good money for my trademark. It’s on all my business cards. It’s on all my letterhead and now they dare use it on their title page?” Is there no decency? Why would they do such a thing?
I’ll sue! I’ll call in the navy. I’ll bring back corporal punishment in high schools! My wrath will be of Biblical proportions. If they don’t take it down, the sky will darken, and frogs will bark like spiders. They shall rue the day when they tried to take from me what is rightfully mine!!!
Welcome to my world. This is exactly what happened to me a few weeks ago. And it can happen to you too. So this blog is all about finding the trademark infringer and how to police your trademark without an expensive lawsuit.
First You Must Identify The Infringer
In my case, the Sleuth For The Truth trademark was being used on a “woman owned” website called ***snoops.com (full name concealed for privacy reasons). And like me, they also did online background checks.
The infringer was slick. She never listed her name and contact information. If you wanted to reach out to her, you were stuck filling out a form on her “CONTACT” page. And worse, the domain name was a “private registration.” So a regular Whois lookup showed nothing but that it belonged to GoDaddy. She had paid to keep her identity top secret.
So following the steps in my earlier blog Expose The Business Owner Behind A Website, I found clues to who she was through the Wayback machine. But I still had no contact information.
So my next step was to do a nationwide corporation search. While it’s always smart to search for a business name in corporate filings, there are many businesses that never file as a company. Nor do they have to. However, here she had listed herself as an LLC. And I knew that all LLCs, INC.s and Corps. must be licensed somewhere.
This is where it got interesting. A multinational search for her business name turned up NOTHING. This business had no corporate filings in the US or abroad.
So this person was infringing on my trademark, hiding behind her website, and falsely claiming to be an LLC. Was there any hope of me finding out who she was? And even if I found her, how could I convince her to stop this horrible evil wrong she was doing?
The good news is I hit paydirt with the special website reverse lookups. Yes, the ones which can sometimes find even private domain registrations. And in her case, the smoking gun was an old email of hers!
From there finding her was easy. When I plugged her email address into Google and Pipl.com, suddenly I had her full name, her age, and her professional licenses. The lady had lots of pots on the stove. She was a notary, a licensed realtor and involved in many nonprofits.
A short time later it got even juicier. It turns out that my trademark infringer also works for the federal government.
This was important, as it meant she could be held accountable for things she did on her off hours. Things like falsely advertising she had an LLC, when she didn’t, and of course, her failure to respect my most excellent trademark.
My next stop was the occupational licensing boards. Always a great place to find the contact info for licensed realtors and notaries. Now I had her private cell phone number, home address, her business email and more.
It was time to act. But with great power comes great responsibility. I could do a lot of damage. But it’s just a trademark. And she should be given the benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise.
Contacting The Infringer
I’m a guy who hates conflict. And if I can, I’d like to be friends, especially if the person is as talented and driven as she was. So I emailed her at two of her private email addresses and let her know there was a trademark issue.
I never mentioned a lawsuit or that I was a lawyer. I also encouraged her to call me and indicated that I had two of her phone numbers.
To remain nonconfrontational, I gave her a few days to process this information. I then followed up with a pleasant message on her cell phone about how I would be happy to trade tips with her but she still needs to call me about the trademark issue. The next day I posted a similar message on her website’s contact form.
At this point I waited a week. And it was a very long week. But I heard nothing from her. Meanwhile I considered all the harsh things I could say. Things that if I wasn’t careful, could get me into trouble.
Legal Reasons Not To Be Nasty
I could talk all day about the golden rule and do unto others. But the fact is that many of you just don’t care. You want the job done and may even feel it’s your corporate duty to be a hardass. Fine.
But if you’re too much of a hardass, it could backfire. Courts hate trademark bullies. Put enough heat on the infringer and you could find yourself being sued as a defendant.
Yes, if you threaten to sue them, make over reaching claims as to what your trademark covers, or start contacting the infringer’s clients, they could file a declaratory judgment against you. And suddenly you become the defendant, and they are the plaintiff.
So if you weren’t ready to sue or wanted to sue in a nice and friendly jurisdiction, suddenly you’re in their home court and forced to present your case NOW and in hostile territory!
I believe in the Golden Rule. I’d play it nice. (And there was no way in hell I’d be stuck in central Louisiana!)
Using Their Public Image To Keep Them Accountable
I was pretty pissed she never contacted me. And I knew where she worked. I also knew that because she was a notary and a realtor, her reputation with her licensing board was critical. Falsely claiming you’re an LLC when your not, would not sit well with them.
To treat her with dignity and avoid defamation, I didn’t call her names. I just spelled out the problem and gave her guidance how she could make it well and good again. I also implied that she could get into a lot of trouble if she didn’t stop what she was doing. But I made no outright threats.
Except one.
I told her I’ve posted this letter (with her name and contact info) on the Internet. I emailed her the link and explained that if I didn’t hear from her, this post may remain online indefinitely.
She responded in a few hours. Two days later she removed my trademark.
Here is the letter I sent to her workplace and posted online. Since she did the right thing, names and places have been changed to protect her privacy.
————————————————————————————-
Sally Surrah
US Dept. of Energy
495 Shreveport Highway
Houston, TX 17136
Phone: 678-587-9228
Email: Sally.Surrah@govmint.gov
November 3, 2017
Ms. Surrah,
I was hoping we could resolve this with a phone call. However, in spite of my earnest attempts to contact you, it appears you have no interest in getting in touch with me. I have reached out by phone and left a voicemail, I’ve posted to your website and emailed you at two of your other email addresses.
It is only as a last resort that I am now emailing your workplace. To undo the damage already caused by the misuse of the Sleuth For The Truth trademark, I am also posting this letter online at sleuthforthetruth.com.
If you desire to resolve this matter amicably, please call me at 678-587-9228.
Graham Firestone
President of Sleuth For The Truth
————————————————————————————-
(Blog Title that will appear in Google:)
Sally Surrah (AKA ***snoops.com) Please Cease & Desist From Using The Sleuth For The Truth Trademark
Ms. Surrah,
The website address ***snoops.com has been traced to you through your old email sankasaves@yahoo.com. There is no question that this site belongs to you.
You are running a business off this website called I am stealing your trademark, LLC which among other things, specializes in document retrieval, investigations and background checks. It is also
operating in violation of both state and federal law.
As a business owner myself, I feel you should know of at least two concerns.
1. You have falsely designated your business as an LLC even though you have never registered with the Texas Secretary of State. In fact, I have been unable to find your business “I am stealing your trademark, LLC” registered anywhere in the US or abroad.
Passing yourself off as an LLC when you’re not is a violation of Texas false advertising laws. See Sec. 71.05 _ _(Assumed name restrictions).
Given your background and accomplishments, I am somewhat puzzled by this oversight. You are a detective, a licensed realtor and you work for the United States government. You are also highly educated and have a background in law enforcement. So if there’s anyone sensitive to the law, hopefully it would be you.
For your own peace of mind, and to comply with the law, I suggest you remove the “LLC” designation. However, this is between you and the state of Texas.
Unauthorized Use of The Sleuth For The Truth Trademark 2. As you must know from my numerous attempts to contact you, ***snoops.com is using the Sleuth For The Truth trademark without permission from Sleuth For The Truth, Inc. I have reached out to you twice by email, once on your website’s form page and once by phone.
Each time, I’ve referred to my registered federal trademark and asked you to call or email me. However, I have received no response from you.
Your failure to get back to me is not a good sign this can be resolved amicably.
By law, I am required to actively police the Sleuth For The Truth trademark. If I don’t, it means I could lose the right to enforce it.
I can understand your desire to post controversial opinions while concealing your identity. However, being anonymous does not mean you can blithely ignore federal trademark law.
Although ***snoops.com was filed under a private domain registration, I was able to trace it back to you because of your email sankasaves@yahoo.com. Your ownership of this website has also been confirmed in various other ways.
Proper and Improper Use of Sleuth For The Truth (See Screenshots Below For Further Guidance)
As I’ve explained in an earlier email, I do not have a monopoly on the words “sleuth for the truth”. For example, you are free to use “sleuth for the truth” in a sentence such as “We sleuth for the truth.”
The problem occurs when you start using it as a brand name. The more it stands alone, is in big print, bolded or in caps, the more likely it will be seen as something that identifies your services. You also run into similar trademark issues when Sleuth For The Truth is being used in your title.
In your case, the misuse is even more serious. For you are a business that also does background checks. So you are using the same brand name, for the same services, and we are being found on the Internet by the same people.
This is a recipe for confusion in the market place. Please see Screenshot #2 which shows how SLEUTH FOR THE TRUTH is being misused as a brand name.
In addition, you have inserted the SLEUTH FOR THE TRUTH trademark into your HTML title tags.
(See Screenshot #3 for how this appears in Google, See Screenshot #4 for the actual HTML code on your website)This is extremely misleading to the general public. It means that people who Google for Sleuth For The Truth will see a link to your site titled SLEUTH FOR THE TRUTH I am stealing your trademark, LLC.
But once they click on this link, they see your title as something entirely different. The catchy words of my trademark vanish from the screen and do not appear in your title. They can only be seen in Google.
So it looks like you’re doing a bait and switch. Google shows one thing. Your site shows another. And my federal trademark is used as the bait to lure consumers to your business.
While you may not have meant to misappropriate my trademark, adding SLEUTH FOR THE TRUTH in your title code was done on purpose. It was not computer generated.
As you can see from Snapshot #4, the phrase Sleuth For The Truth was intentionally embedded in the HTML. If it were otherwise, your title on the site would appear exactly like it does on Google (see #3.)
Put another way, somehow the code was made so that Google would see it, but it would be invisible on your title page. This does not happen by accident. (Compare screenshot #1 with #3 and you’ll see the difference.).
To police my trademark, and undo any damage for potential confusion, I am posting this correspondence online at
sleuthforthetruth.com for all to see.
Please let me know if you choose to comply with this takedown request. If I don’t hear from you or your representative, this post may remain online indefinitely.
Regards,
Graham Firestone
President of Sleuth For The Truth
678-587-9228
Snapshot of ***snoops.com with Misuse of LLC & SLEUTH FOR THE TRUTH Trademark
How infringing website appears in a Google search for Sleuth For The Truth
Sleuth For the Truth Trademark Embedded in Title Tags on ***snoops.com.com website
So it’s time to call your new client. Or maybe it’s the hot date you met at Trader Joe’s. The only problem is you can’t read their phone number! Staring at the napkin, you try to decipher if it’s an 8, or a 1, or a 0. Or worse, you can read all the numbers just fine. But why are there only 6 digits?
So what do you do? Where can you go for help? Who can you call?
I decided to write this blog because a few days earlier, this is exactly what happened to a friend of mine. My friend is a no good, lousy duck stuffer (a taxidermist).
He came to me because he needed to call a new client about a bird he just mounted. But the client’s handwriting was so crappy that he couldn’t make out a digit in the phone number. I was able to find the number anyway using Google. However, it was not your typical Google search.
How To Google A Number That’s Mostly Right Sadly, Google did away with its reverse phone number lookup. And if you enter a 6 digit # or 8 digit # with dashes, Google thinks it’s a subtraction problem!
But Google can pull up plenty of phone numbers if you give it some hints. This includes lots of business numbers and even some cell #s. And remember, you want to find the number they gave you. Not the old landline they discarded 10 years ago. Here’s how:
Say you’re looking up Graham Firestone and the number you have is
678-58?-9228. Or maybe you got sloppy and wrote 678-587-92228.
Or worse, the guy gave you a bum phone number and no last name.
But don’t you fret. All is not lost! Simply Google their name along with the area code and first three 3 digits of the phone number. OR, if you think that too could be wrong, try their name along with the last 4 digits at the end of the phone number. You can also search for part of the phone number along with their name in quotation marks. Don’t know the last name? Try with just their first name. Did you get too many hits? Then refine your search with a city or state.
Google Search Examples With Partial #s
When Unsure of Last 4 Digits (Google 1st 3 digits w/ or w/o area code)
Graham Firestone 587 (rare name: not sure of the last 4 digits) Greg Napster 404-394 (for more common names add an area code) “Greg Napster” 404-394 (Narrow search with name in “Quotes”) Graham 678-587 Roswell (first name w/ city) Graham 587 lawyer (first name w/ profession) Firestone “587” Roswell (last name w city)
When Unsure of First 3 Digits (Google last 4 digits)
Graham Firestone 9228 (rare name, last 4 digits) “John Smith” 9228 (common name in quotes) “John Smith” 9228 Roswell (add a city)
Graham 9228 Roswell (first name w/ city) Graham 9228 Morosgo (first name w/ rare street) Graham 9228 lawyer (first name w/ profession)
Or Use Asterixes for missing #s! And Add a first Or Last Name if Known
But What If I Can’t Find It On Google? Look, life’s tough. And you can’t always get what you want. Partial number searches don’t seem to work on Facebook, Pipl, the Whitepages or on Linkedin. But they may work on your emails, or in Excel or in a Word document.
Or, if you know which digit is missing, plug in numbers
0 -9 and put the whole phone number in a reverse cell phone lookup. Sites like OK Caller or SpyDialer will often return a full name once they have the right phone number.
Scroll to the bottom to see the Sentencing and Imprisonment of Elisabeth Greenhill and Jonathan Greenhill who operated the fraudulent travel agency Mission Trip Airfare and stole over $1.3 million from over dozens of Christian Ministries. (The subjects of this blog which was written 3 years before, while they were still hiding behind their website.)
The great thing about living in a small town is that you know everyone by name. You know their reputation and you know where to find them, especially if they’ve done you wrong. And so you’re less likely to be taken in by a pretty face, as you already know their true character.
Not so on the Internet. On the Internet the big bad wolf can masquerade as a happy sheep. And the ugly duckling can look like a beautiful swan!
Don’t get me wrong. I like beautiful swans. Especially when they’re all so pretty soft and white. But if they’re an ugly duckling, I want to know about it. Because if the ugly duckling took all my money and won’t give me a refund, I’m going to go duck hunting.
So let’s talk about business websites. No, not the large companies that are publicly traded and easily found. But the small businesses. The ones that make nice professional web pages, where for some reason, the owner’s contact information is completely missing.
Yes, the websites where you’re unable to talk to a live person. And if you have a problem, you’re stuck filling out a complaint form which goes into the corporate abyss.
But what if you could find the business owners behind the website? Perhaps express your joy to them at their personal email address? Or maybe even send a bouquet of flowers to their house while they’re eating dinner?
Do you feel guilty for being so mad at them? Why not tell them all about it on their private cellphone! They may need to know about the awful dream you keep having. You know, the one where you repeatedly sue them and put a lien on their home.
Reaching real live owners is important, especially when there’s no evidence the business has been incorporated. If it’s not an official company, it means the owners could be personally liable. And so the more owners you can find, the more houses and property you can put liens on!
So this is a blog about hard to find businesses. Businesses that might not be incorporated and might not even have a bad reputation. (Yet) The only thing you know for sure is that they owe you money and you need to reach real live people. People who can be held accountable for the wrongs they’ve done.
As an example, I will show you how to find the owners behind missiontripairfare.com. (AKA MTAF and Mission Trip Airfare) Missiontripairfare.com is a great example of a site that doesn’t have easy to find contact information.
Just recently, Atlanta’s Fox 5 News reported they owe people over $500,000 for airline tickets. (They took the money, never bought the tickets and never refunded the money). Others have reported Mission Trip Airfare to be a scam and a fraud. And now the FBI is investigating them! (On April 5, 2018, the owners of Mission Trip Airfare, have beenindicted for fraud).
Once, their contact information used to be out in the open. But for some reason, it’s now all been neatly removed. So here I will use real public data to show you who the owners are and (if you like) how to reach them.
But before we begin, I must warn you: There’s a lot of information out there. So don’t get lost in it. Always keep in mind the following:
When You Get Their Names & Websites It Will Lead To Their Contact Info. When You Get Their Contact Info, It Will Lead To Their Names & Websites. (So Everything Can Be Used To Find Who Owns What!)
Four Happy Tips
Get their name and ways to reach them through theirwebsite, website address and older versions of their websites.
Google any contact information you find, including their business names, plus any business or personal emails, addresses and phone #s.
Use their names to get their contact info and their contact info to get their names. (Gather all the info you find. Even old emails and phone numbers could lead to other owners and hidden associates.)
Confirm you have the right contact information. Plug your info into the free validators for their current emails, physical addresses and cell phone numbers.
Now Here’s How To Find Them:
Scour Their Current Website For Owners Names & Contact Info Typically, ownership and contact information can be found on their “Contact Us”, “About Us” or bio section. Copy any contact info into Word or notepad even if it’s just a first name. You’ll be Googling it later.
Sadly, through this method I could find nothing about the owners of missiontripairfare.com. The website was devoid of any helpful names, emails or phone numbers!
Scour Their Old Website For The Owners’ Names & Contact Info Here’s where I hit paydirt! With the Way Back Machine, you can go back in time to what the website looked like in the days of yore.
In other words, you may be able to see owner information before they got crafty enough to remove it! So with missiontripairfare.com, I was able to browse through 10 years of changes to find one of the website owners and how to reach her!
Here’s what missiontripairfare.com looked like in 2007. Note the contact info up top is now missing from the current website. But there’s no fooling the Way Back Machine!
The owner of Mission Trip Airfare is Elisabeth Greenhill, also known as Beth Greenhill. Her photo and bio is here (site as of 2005). I was also able to find a working cellphone # for her at 404-353-6824 (confirmed by the cellphone validator below). As late as 2016, she was still on the website as the founder and owner.
Lookup The Website’s Domain Name Registration For Names & Contact Info: Also Look Up Related Sites With .org & .net Yes! Did you know that every website must register their domain name and provide contact information? Often this information can be found for free through a domain name lookup.
For large businesses, a domain lookup is pretty much useless. The reason is that any contact info you get is apt to lead to their IT department. And who wants to talk to IT people!
But it’s a goldmine for looking up small business owners. Often a domain registration gives you their name, their phone number and their email address. Sometimes you’ll even get their personal cell phone number. How about that!
But I was not so lucky with MTAF. For some reason missiontripairfare.com has concealed their domain registration. Sometimes people will pay extra for a private (or hidden) domain registration which can only be revealed through a court order.
But fear not! Sometimes you can look up a domain history which will tell you who owned the web address before they concealed it. This is how I found Beth Greenhill’s email address, which is bagreenhill@msn.com. Too bad it’s no longer valid.
For even more leads, try looking for who owns the same domain name but with the .net and .org suffix. Often people will reserve several domain names even if they’re never make them into websites. And sometimes, they will leave their contact info unprotected!
Through this approach I was able to uncover that Jonathan Andrew Greenhill owns missiontripairfare.org and missiontripairfare.net. WOW. He has the same last name as Beth Greenhill.
Is that a wild coincidence? Or could they be business partners? Whether they’re siblings or husband and wife is a separate issue. But read on and I’ll show you that too! But right now I’m just looking for liability. And the more partners the merrier!
Google All Names & Contact Info For More Leads Even if your website has virtually no contact information, be sure to do at least two Google searches.
You’ll always want to Google the business name and then do a separate search for the website address. In my case, I jumped the gun and Googled too quickly. I didn’t have the owners’ name yet. So I was overwhelmed with hundreds of useless hits.
If I knew the owner’s name earlier I could also have Googled Beth or Elisabeth or Beth Greenhill separately or in the same search box along with the website or the business name.
Also, I could have Googled any email addresses, physical addresses and phone #s to see what else comes up.
A Google search for“elisabeth greenhill” Georgia found she lives at 225 Warm Springs Circle, Atlanta, GA 30075. She owns this property as indicated in the Fulton County property lookups.
Check For Hidden Relationships Note: To find hidden relationships between two people, I could have Googled Beth Jonathan Greenhill. Or I could have searched for their names along with a company they might own together.
In this case I confirmed that Beth and Jonathan Greenhill are brother and sister, not husband and wife.
And guess what? In the middle of the page, Mama Greenhill boasts all about her 3 three sons and her daughter, the travel agent! Now ain’t that special!
Find Owners Through A Company Name Search, Both Local and National. Off the bat, I found nothing for missiontripairfare.com. But that doesn’t mean you won’t find your business. And how I searched will help you.
Be sure to search several states and in the various ways described below in red. If you find an incorporation, see if you can open up the original company filing. This will often have the owner’s cell phone number!
Searching Several Ways For A Business For missiontripairfare.com, I did a preliminary national search making sure not to include a city or state. The free national search is good just to see what states have companies with the same name as the one you’re looking for.
If you find one in a certain state, click on the company name for their contact information. But don’t stop there. Even if you get their address, it could be an old one.
Now that you know the state where the business could be incorporated, go back to the free listing of Secretary of States and look up the most current contact info.
The national search ain’t perfect. It could miss records. So to figure out where they might be incorporated, I also would do a search where the owner lives and has lived, plus California and Delaware, which are where a lot of people incorporate.
So in the case of Mission Trip Airfare I checked with the Secretary of States in GA, DE, IL, SC and CA. Sadly, none of these had anything for MTAF, Mission Trip Airfare or MissionTripAirfare.com. In GA, I also searched for Beth Greenhill and Elisabeth Greenhill both as a registered agent and also as the officer/owner of any company. Nothing.
Now you might be asking what does it mean if your business is not incorporated? In short, it means the owner can be personally liable for any debt incurred here.
Even when a business has incorporated, the owner may still be liable if they used the business to defraud people. So be sure to get legal advice on Piercing the Corporate Veil.
And this is where the fun begins! If more than one person is involved in the business, it could be a partnership where everyone is liable. This means you want to find all owners, so you can put a lien on all their houses! Now ain’t that something!
Plugin Names To See If They Own Other Businesses Which List Their Contact Info If you find the names of people connected to the business, do a national search by their names too. Remember that names lead to contact information and contact information will lead to more names.
It may be they are the officers or agents of other companies. Companies where you can find where they live and send them a beautiful bouquet of flowers.
Find Their Contact Info Through The Better Business Bureau Complaint Database. The BBB allows you to search by website, business name, phone number or email address. Keep in mind that a new business may not have complaints. I recommend a search with and without their state. It’s possible their new business in GA has no complaints, but the old one in AL does. This only works if the owner used the same name for both businesses (not uncommon).
WIth MTAF, I was able to use the BBB to locate their virtual office which is located at 10 Glenlake Pkwy STE 130 Atlanta, GA 30328-3495. They also listed “Ms. Beth Greenhill, Founder“
Find Their Contact Info Through Other Domain Names They Have Yes, you can get their private cell phone number, physical address and email addresses based on other domain names they’ve registered for. And you can do it simply by plugging in their old and new contact information. You don’t even need to know if they have a website!
So now all the contact info you saved is paying off!
Through a Reverse Whois Lookup you can find their other websites and domain names.This works by plugging in any of the following:Their name, the name of their company, their user name, or an email address of theirs.
Now let’s get back to Jonathan Greenhill of Mission Trip Airfare. With just his name I learned he owns the following web addresses:
To find his current address, look for the latest website/URL. In this case it’s the one I marked in red. They don’t have a website up yet. But it’s always worth checking because an up and running website might have contact information.
Note that as late as 2016, Jonathan Greenhill listed his contact address as 1425 Rock Springs Circle, and his cell phone as 404-822-4185. Here’s a photo of the property where he lives.
Are you a shy person who is too afraid to shake his hand? Well in that case, why not email him at jag1777@gmail.com? I’m sure he’ll be very glad to hear from you. The email is still valid. But if you need several more, just grab them from one of his other domain registrations.
Note: If my link to who owns a domain name doesn’t give out details on how to find him, you may need to go to GoDaddy or where ever the domain name is registered. Then use their WHOIS to find the owner’s contact information.
Confirm You Have The Right Contact Information By now you have a slew of emails, phone numbers and physical addresses. But which ones are current? Does the cell phone number work? Who owns it? Is the email still good? And how can you know if they even live there anymore?
For emails, check to see if it’s a working email address. For physical addresses, do a reverse lookup to find if they still live at that location. You can also verify the name of the property owner.
For phone numbers, check out OKCaller.com and Spydialer.com. Both can tell you who’s behind the phone number. And Spydialer allows you to hear their voicemail without them ever knowing who called.
On October 18, 2019 Elisabeth and Jonathan Greenhill both pled “Not Guilty” to all counts. Elisabeth Greenhill’s pleading shows her current phone number and address. If it were Jonathan’s I’d have published it in a heartbeat. But perhaps Elisabeth should get some grace here. She’ll need it.
Elisabeth Greenhill On February 3, 2020 Elisabeth Greenhill changed her plea from “not guilty” to guilty of count 1. But she then tried to withdraw her plea, blaming her lawyer of course, for never explaining things to her. The judge didn’t buy it, and Elisabeth was penalized for perjuring herself and showing no remorse for her awful and dishonest crimes which hurt at least 41 people.
On March 23, 2021 Elisabeth Greenhill was sentenced to 7 years and three months in a Florida federal prison, plus 3 years supervised release with special and standard conditions. She must pay $1,310,102.00 in restitution and has reported to prison atFCI Marianna SCP on Noon, April 29, 2021 to begin service of sentence. She is appealing, but I doubt she’ll win this one.
Jonathan Greenhill Jonathan Greenhill was found guilty after a three day trial, which he appealed of course. Jonathan actually got a much lighter sentence than his sister Elisabeth, even though he has a decade plus history of being sleazy, unscrupulous and downright deceitful. Perhaps this is because unlike his sister he wasted far less of the court’s time with legal duplicitousness and chicanery. Plus he probably blamed his conduct on being a victim of substance abuse, as his sentencing suggests he has a drug problem.
On April 1, 2022, the court sentenced Jonathan Greenhill to 3 years and one month in federal prison; plus 3 YEARS SUPERVISED RELEASE and $969,102.00 IN RESTITUTION. The court also recommended to the Bureau of Prisons: (1) That the Defendant be allowed to serve his custodial sentence in the BOP facility at FPC Montgomery, Alabama, and (2) That the Defendant be recommended for participation in the RDAP program if he qualifies. Unlike his sister, he has no set time yet to surrender himself to the Federal Bureau of Prisons. As of May 11, 2021 Good ole Jonathan is now in federal prison at Montgomery FPC.
We’ve all been told “just Google it!” Well, here’s how!
Below are the best ways to Google arrest records, mugshots, criminal convictions, lawsuits, their marital status, divorces and more!
Googling For Criminal Conduct Use variations of the person’s name along with the words arrested, convicted, sentenced, charges, charged, felony, fraud, guilty, misdemeanor, mugshot, NOLO, pardoned, paroled and probation.
1. Jason Smith convicted 2. Jason Smith arrested 3. Jason Smith guilty 4. Jason Smith NOLO 5. “Jason Smith”conviction (name in quotes)
6. “Jason R Smith” charges (with middle initial) 7. “Jason Richard Smith” sentenced (full name in quotes) 8. Jason Smith sentenced Georgia (common name, with state) 9. “Jason R Smith” sentenced Georgia 10. Name above with the term felony or misdemeanor
Remember to search with the name in quotes and also without quotes. If your name is a common one, be sure to include a state as well.
Googling For Federal Crimes Use variations of the person’s name with the words indicted, convicted, sentenced, charges, charged and federal.
1. Jason Smith indicted 2. Jason Smith federal convicted 3. Jason Smith “federal prison” (one term in quotes) 4. “Jason Smith” “federal prison” (both terms in quotes)
5. “United States” v “Jason Smith” (both terms in quotes) 6. Jason Smith charges federal 7. Jason Smith sentenced federal 8. Jason Smith sentenced federal Georgia 9. “Jason P Smith” sentenced federal Georgia (middle initial) 10. “Jason Parker Smith” sentenced federal Georgia (full name)
Google For Civil Lawsuits (State or Federal) Use variations of the person’s name (with and without quotes) along with terms like plaintiff, defendant, liable, lawsuit, suit, settlement, settled or litigation.
1. Graham Firestone Plaintiff OR Defendant (OR must be in caps) 2. “Graham Firestone” Plaintiff OR Defendant (“” narrow results) 3. “Graham Firestone” v (as plaintiff)
4. v “Graham Firestone” (as defendant) 5. v “Graham B Firestone” (as defendant, middle initial included) 6. v Fonzerelli (defendant, one word so no quotes) 7. v Fonzerelli “New York” (refines the search by state)
MARITAL STATUS
Google For Marital Status of Men & Women When You Don’t Know of Possible Spouses If you only know the person’s maiden name or if they once were married, but you have no record of possible spouses, Google them as follows. For someone named Joana Smith, Google her name with words like married, husband, wife, spouse, wedding, registry, betrothed, divorce, divorced and custody.
Google To See if the Guy is Married to the Woman Who Appears in a Background Check
Say you’ve looked up who owns his house and there’s a woman with his surname on the deed. Is it his sister or his wife? Or maybe on an age lookup you see a female relative that arouses your suspicious nature? So who is she?
To find out, start with broad searches with the first names of both people along with the guy’s last name. You can narrow it down with a state or other key words if you get too many hits.
You can also use the search above along with words like married, husband, wife, spouse, wedding, registry, divorce, divorced and custody. If they’re listed as husband and wife, are they still married? Find out by Googling their names with the word divorce OR divorced OR custody. (A child custody issue between them would make the answer obvious).
Or try searching for their first names and last, but with the results limited to only the past year or two.
See the search examples below:
1. Harold Karen Gruberman (his & her 1st name and last name) 2. Harold Karen Gruberman Georgia 3. Karen Harold Gruberman Georgia (names switched around) 4. Harold Karen Gruberman Georgia wife OR married(use OR in caps.)
5. Harold Karen Gruberman custody 6. Harold Karen Gruberman wedding 7. Harold Karen Gruberman registry 8. Harold Karen Gruberman divorce OR divorced
Google For Divorces Start with broad searches and refine if you get too many hits. See the examples below where I search with and without quotes.
Searching with his name and divorce might work. Or it could pull up every divorce attorney in town! Here’s how to bypass those annoying ads from divorce lawyers and still get the meat!
1. “FIRESTONE v FIRESTONE”Richard (use quotes, may pull up several of his divorces) 2. “FIRESTONE v FIRESTONE”Richard Susan 3. “FIRESTONE v FIRESTONE” Richard Susan Georgia (WARNING: Adding GA could exclude his divorces in other states)
Googling A Name Try various combinations. Note that each variation can yield different results. See examples below:
Name Alone Michael Cohen (can pull up middle initial) “Michael Cohen” (“” for an exact phrase, good for bus. records) “Michael R Cohen” (middle initial, good for mugshots) “Michael Robert Cohen” (full name, good for death records)
Name With Other Info “Michael Cohen” “New York” (narrow hits by state or city) “Michael Cohen” architect (narrow hits by profession) “Michael Cohen” ukulele (narrow hits by hobby) “Michael Cohen” Microsoft (narrow hits by employer) Michael Roberta Cohen(narrow hits by spouse or relatives)
Googling Phone Numbers Try various combinations. Note that each variation can yield different results. See examples below:
1. 404-867-5309 (dashes) 2. (404) 867-5309 (parentheses) 3. 4048675309 (raw number) 4. 404.867.5309 (points instead of dashes) 5. “867-5309”Graham (root # with a first or a last name)
Googling Partial Phone Numbers Graham Firestone 587 (rare name and not sure of the last 4 digits) Graham Firestone 9228 (rare name and not sure of the first 3 digits) “John Smith” 9228 (put common name in quotes) “John Smith” 9228 Roswell (city added to narrow your search) Graham 9228 Roswell (first name w/ city and partial Phone #)
Googling An Address Less is more. Do not attempt to put the whole address into Google as it may exclude valid results. Here’s how to Google 515 Wyncourtney Ct NE, Atlanta, GA 30328.
First Enter 515 Wyncourtney
If you get too many hits or irrelevant returns, try “515 Wyncourtney” (“” keep phrases together)
Other Searches: “515 Wyncourtney Ct” “515 Wyncourtney Court” “515 Wyncourtney Ct” Atlanta “515 Wyncourtney” Atlanta
Googling A Business Owner Google his name or company (do both) and then do it again with the following words: suit, lawsuit, litigation, complaints, fraud. . At first, search without limiting it to a particular state. You may discover he’s had the old business in other states where people have complained about him. Too many hits? Then add your state too.
