Do cellphone reverse number lookups work? It’s hard to be sure, unless you are the CIA. In many cases when someone calls from an international line, the number does not show up on your telephone. It is possible to call your service provider and begin tracking the call, but this will inevitably result in more costs than it would just to wait for them to call back. In South Africa mobile phones don’t automatically come with caller line identification. This is often something that you pay for as an additional service. A landline doesn’t often have this service either, but sometimes when you have a voice mail machine it does give you the number. If you check through your contacts and can’t find who it is, then an online search might help.
If you have received a call from a number you don’t recognise you might be asking yourself ‘do cellphone reverse number lookups work?’ and have no idea what the answer is. An online search can be really useful, but in some cases you won’t get any results at all. Mobile phones or landline phones can’t always be your solution, especially when it is an international caller. If you recognise that the number is from South Africa you can always just call the person back.
If a number is repeatedly calling you and leaving rude or harassing messages you can always report the number to the police. If the number isn’t showing on your mobile phones or landline then you can ask your service provider for assistance in preventing the calls from continuing. South Africa is developing anti-harassment legislation and Womensnet has an excellent online resource called ‘Take Back the Tech’ where you can learn more about how to get help.