Since we have received a few emails as of late asking how you can find out who owns a particular phone number, we wanted to show you a way that you can find out full details on someone when all you have is a phone number.

There are several different times when this can be useful. You could be getting crack calls from a number that you don't recognize or perhaps there is a phone number that keeps showing up on your spouse's or partner's cell phone that you want to look into.

There are businesses that specialize in building directories that hold information on every phone number out there. They pay to have access to all the phone records and then put together these databases that people can use to "investigate" any phone number.

These databases are then offered to be used by law enforcement, detective agencies and anyone else who wants to "investigate" a particular phone number. To do this, you just have to visit a website, type in the phone number you are curious about and then the person's full information is automatically shown to you on your screen. I'm always amazed with just how much information is available about someone when all that you have is their phone number. Not only can you get their name and address, but you will usually get more detailed information about their background information as well.

You probably already know that there is a fee for using a service like this, but it isn't expensive. There are even companies that will let you run as many searches as you want for a one-time "membership" fee. This is the best option as you can conduct a search whenever you need to without having to worry about paying again.

We wanted to point out a trick that you can use to potentially get the same info at no cost. We realize the paid service doesn't cost much, but you might as well see if you can get the same details for free.

You can go to Google and type in the phone number that you are "investigating". Use this format: "555-555-5555" (including the quotation marks) and then hit search.

What you are hoping for is that this phone number has been published online at some point. If it has ever made its way onto a webpage, Google will bring it up for you. If this is the case, there's a good chance the webpage will display the information you are looking for.

This trick will sometimes work for you, so you may as well try it before you pay for a reverse phone lookup. If it doesn't work, you can fork out a couple of bucks for instant access to the information you need.

Using this type of search is a good trick to have up your sleeve that you can use whenever you need to find out information on who owns a certain phone number.