Locate online information about people for free!

Covert online investigation on other people. Seriously, it's really not as bad as it sounds and it is your right to know everything about the person you met at an online dating site and are corresponding with. Since there are dishonest people out there you might as well use all the free online resources available at your disposal. You can use one or all of the below ideas and web site links. All the links will open up a new window for you, and are to sites that provide this information to you for free. If by chance they start charging for the information, please let me know via my contact page so I can remove them from below. Likewise if you have a web site that provides free research, investigative, or database information and you'd like it listed here then please send us a link to your site. Once we check out what your site has to offer, it's confirmed as useful here and it's free, we'll post your site.

First... we recommend you check out People Ferret. They have all the free tools you'll ever need to locate people, telephone numbers, their real age, value of their house and a bunch more. Once you're finished there you can then use any of my (ahem) sneaky tools below to find out exactly who that really is behind that dating profile!

Googling People via the Google Search Engine. Yes you heard right, and in case you've never heard about "Googling" someone here's the inside scoop on what it's about. Google is the most popular search engine online and has literally billions of pages of online web pages and information stored on it's search engine hard drives. To you this means there's a very good chance that the person you're corresponding with has information about themselves listed out there somewhere on the Internet whether they realize it or not. Their information could be listed at an online club, blog, forum, guestbook, or really anywhere. In order for this to work correctly for you takes a little bit of search savvy plus some investigative skills on your part. In the long run the time that you invest in "Googling" someone could prove to be well worth your time as it could prove that the person you're writing to "is" really who they say they are. And on the other hand it could also save you ton's of time (and possible heart ache) if you find out that this person has been lying to you or is not really who they say they are. OK here's what you'll need, most of which you can expect to be able to gradually collect over a period of time through their email correspondence or on their profile:

First Name and Last Name. This is the minimum, however if his name is Bob Smith for instance, then there will be too many search engine listings for the information to be of any value to you. To further define the search engine results, you can add the additional information below (from your emails, chat, their profile, phone conversations etc.) in various combinations.

Other search items: City, address, age, profession, hobbies, occupation, email signature line, email account host, things passionate about, etc.

Go ahead and try a search now, even if using your own name (first and last) or the name of a friend, family member or co-worker of yours. On the next page you can return back to this page easily via the "back" button.

What you might confirm from your Google research is that Bob Smith is in fact an attorney, living in Dallas, he is 32, has made postings at the "save the whales" web site (his email signature showed "save the whales" below his name in his last email to you), and he has a profile listed at Yahoo (his email account host) that mentions his love of basket weaving which he does to relax after a hard day at the office - hmmmm you didn't know that about him did you, but you do now. On the other hand you could find out absolutely nothing about him (no information about him online, or not enough information collected by you). On a bad note you could also find out that through the information you've collected and the Googling you completed that he's really 21, lives at home with Mom and Dad, uploads comedy videos all day on the You Tube Top Rated site (actually one of my favs, hence the link), and works at McDonalds, part time!

So don't expect immediate Google miracles however, do understand that the more information you have on your potential mate and the more time you spend Googling, the better your outcome on your search results.

Locating Online Dating Members through Classmates. If the person you're corresponding with mentions his or her state and high school, grade school etc. then there are huge database resources of the people that went to these schools. Some of the free members there have not only photo's posted, but they talk about growing up in their town, their goals earliert in life, and many even say what they're living and doing now and how to contact them! You've likely seen the Classmate banner ads on the Internet, most people think they have to pay to become a member and search for other people there however, it's a free service. At Classmates you'll be required to register somewhere during your search for other people, however the form is short and just like an online dating profile... you can input the minimum amount of information and remain anonymous if you choose.

Research your potential future mate through the Reunion web site. It's very possible that your new online friend has mentioned his or her first & last name and very possibly even the state they live in. With this information you can locate information on their family and also on them too. So your new online friend has mentioned that their family is made up of royalty? Well, then expect to see a family tree of theirs that takes you back to the nobility in Britain. If he's told you in a recent email that he's single, never married and has no children? Then why has he listed his reunion profile with a wife (possibly ex-wife) and his 5 children. There's also other interesting information there for you to poke around in plus you're very likely to find information on your family tree and maybe even relatives you never knew you had. This site is also free so you'll be OK - put your wallet or purse away.

Get some of the most detailed information at People Finder. If you really want to dig down and find out who you're corresponding to, then this is the web site I recommend. Before you go there you need to know that to do a general search to verify a persons state and age plus other family member's states and ages etc. it is free. In this case People Finder can be used for free to "verify" a city and age for free. If you want to do what I did when a couple of my online dating relationships started to move to the more serious "first date" stages, then you can pay for details such as phone number, email address, criminal records, whether a sex offender, marriage and divorce information plus property information and more. Long ago I paid $9.95 for this detailed information however I just checked out their site again and as of this writing they list the cost at $2.95 with $10 cash back which I assume means you'll receive your first three searches for free. You'll need to check this for yourself to be sure though. Update, it's now free: I wrote the above earlier, now I see at their site where you can get the detailed results on a person for free when you click on their "check out free" button. You choose one of their offers and then you receive your free detailed report on the person you want more information about, nice.

Social Media Web Sites. In the past few years the social media sites have been the rave if you wanted the world to know about you and your life, in fact you might already be a member at one of these sites. Wikipedia covers this subject in more depth for you. There are many dozens of these social media sites out there with a couple new sites popping up every week. It would be very difficult for me to list them all here for you so what I've done instead is list some of the more popular social media sites then provided a special search link so you can view, search and locate the newest ones on the block. You should know that most all will require you to register in order to view other peoples web page though all are free to join.

www.myspace.com	www.livejournal.com	www.del.icio.us	www.buzznet.com
www.squidoo.com	www.stumbleupon.com	www.technorati.com	www.linkedin.com
www.facebook.com	www.orkut.com	www.friendster.com	www.xanga.com

You can also search for many of the newer social media sites fast & easy:

So, if you want to check out the person you're corresponding with, or if you just want to get the "inside scoop" and learn more about someone you know (friends, coworkers, associates etc.) then be sure to use any or all of the free people research resources above! » More The Do's and Don't of Online Dating

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