Ever Google a common name like “Jason Smith” to find there’s thousands of them? Or suppose you want to learn more about Carol Jones, the hot vendor who moved into the office next door? Google lists over 100 millions hits for her.
So which one is the pretty blond without a wedding ring? And is she really single? Or does the wedding ring vanish, but only when she’s selling to her mostly male customers?
There are many reasons to do a background check. For example: If Carol is single, just knowing what she does for fun could put you miles ahead of the competition. Imagine her surprise when she hears you talk about her one true passion. Which of course is to see the Special Olympics Unicycle Ukulele relay race. (Now I don’t recommend you lie. But if you truly have similar interests, you’ll feel a lot bolder when you talk to her!)
So how can you find out this info? And do it quickly without false leads?
By the way, this blog is a short add on to People With Common Names-How To Background Them and to the blog Age, Relatives & Middle Name: The First Stop In Any Background Check. In those blogs, I spoke about finding people by their unique identifiers, such as their age and middle name. But I assumed you only had their first and last name to work with.
Sometimes you have more. For example: you could have their old or current email address, an old or current cell # or a prior home address. You might even have an old user name of theirs from when you met them on Match.com. Obviously you waste nothing by plugging this into Google. For more on that see Google Like A Pro (Quick Tips & Tricks).
But even before Google, you’ve got a powerful tool you may not have thought of. Through reverse lookups, you can cut to the chase and find your exact Carol Jones in an instant.
Reverse Lookups (Searching By Contact Info)
When Googling for common names, you know from my other blogs that it’s best to have at least a middle initial or maybe even a state where they once lived. From there you sift through all your hits. Usually you will find your target. Usually.
But with reverse lookups or Reverse Searches, you can shortcut this process. Key is finding the right FREE websites where you can plug in whatever piece of information you got. The best of these instantly give you more information than what you started with. They don’t take forever to load; and they don’t string you along. Key is that they hone in on your subject, not someone else with the same name.
Well, guess what? I just gave you these links both above and below! And they’re organized based on the type of contact info you’re most likely to have! Emails, phone numbers, addresses and user names.
For example: this link in That’sThem.com searches based on my email address of g_firestone@yahoo.com. Now click on a few of the links and you can find my middle name, my Twitter and Facebook accounts, my age, my profession, etc. What’s more, the hits you get are linked directly with this email address. So you know you got the right Graham Firestone. Not that there was any doubt. I’m the only Graham Firestone on the block. OR in the world! But it matters when your name is a common one.
For phone numbers, you could get similar hits to the above. Or you may just find the invaluable middle name. But Google whatever you get for even more results.
Note that you can always plug an email, phone number or user name directly into Facebook or other social media. Sometimes it even works!
So stop lollygagging and start searching! And don’t forget to comment if you have thoughts, feelings or suggestions. Doing so makes me feel warm and fuzzy. And I like warm and fuzzy.
Good luck!
| Emails | Phone #s |
| Photos/Images | Street Addresses |
| User Names/Dating Profiles | Websites/Intellectual Property |