--+ Emile's Ultimate Guide to Finding People +-- [ by Emile Phaneuf ] [ emilephaneuf@hotmail.com ] [ see www.travelersunite.com ] ********************************************************************************** ----INTRODUCTION: A long time ago, I found someone I had been looking for in New Zealand half way around the world from where I was living. I realized it was about time that I wrote a little text about how to find people so that hopefully someone could find the information that I collected from different places as useful. I am in NO way responsible for anything ILLEGAL or otherwise that you do with this information. Check the index at the beginning of this document for categories. Note: The process of copying & pasting some of the URLs to this text file was done several years ago when I first wrote this text. Since then I have not taken the time to check for dead-URLs and replace them with their new locations. If you find a dead URL please report it to me and keep in mind that they may have just changed it to a different location on their server. So by changing a URL located at http://www.some-random-place.net/whitepages/listings/index.html to http://www.some-random-place.net/whitepages/ or even to http://www.some-random-place.net/ then clicking a few appropriate links on their site might help you to find the results you are looking for. Also see http://www.travelersunite.com/links.html for related sites that can aid you in finding someone. ********************************************************************************** ********************************************************************************** ----INDEX: 1. 555-1212 numbers 2. reverse listings 3. search-by-name listings 4. area codes 5. social security numbers 6. drivers license numbers 7. internet protocol addresses 8. businesses 9. international resources 10. advanced search techniques & caching (IMPORTANT!) ********************************************************************************** part 1. [ 555-1212 numbers ] For United States ONLY: In the past, 1411 phone directory didn't have national listings, only state-wide... If you know the area code for the person or business you are looking for, then dial 1-(area_code)-555-1212. Example... Say you know that a person or business is in Nevada. You would dial... 1-702-555-1212. If you were looking for an 800 number listing, you would dial 1-800-555-1212. Tell the operator who you're looking for and- bingo: You've got your number! (assuming the person didn't ask to remain unlisted when he/she set up his/her phone number). part 2. [ reverse listings ] For United States ONLY: Most listings just have a place where you input a name and it gives you their information. What if you don't know their name but you know something else about them? some references for the input you can find information for. Notice: these OF COURSE are subject to change! INPUT: What you get: Location: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | a phone number | name, address, map, more | http://www.webcrawler.com/reference/reverse_telephone/ | a phone number | name, address, find businesses nearby, map, phone, more | http://www.infospace.com/info/revphone.htm | a phone number | name, address, map, more | http://www.anywho.com/telq.html | an e-mail address | name, organization, location | http://www.iaf.net/ | an e-mail address | name | http://www.bigfoot.com/RUN?FN=BFD_SEARCH_ADVANCED&locale=en&ver=1.0.0&COOK=&dyn=NoRef:21832 | date of birth | address, contact information, work and education | http://www.populus.net/populus/search-by-birthdate.shtml | address | name, address, find businesses nearby, map, phone, more | http://in-105.infospace.com/info/revaddr.htm | area code | city, state, location, time zone | http://in-105.infospace.com/info/npa/npa.html part 3. [ search-by-name listings ] You could have found these by yourself, but I went ahead and put this part in here. Remember, the input in all these will be the their name. What you get: Location: ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | address, map, more | http://www.anywho.com/ | address, phone, e-mail, area map | http://www.switchboard.com/bin/cgiqa.dll | address, phone, driving directions, map | http://www.whowhere.lycos.com/phone.html | address, phone, map | http://www.infospace.com/info/index_ppl.htm | address, phone, map, e-mail | http://people.yahoo.com/ | address, city, Providence, phone | http://canada411.sympatico.ca/ (FOR CANADA ONLY!) part 4. [ area codes ] For United States ONLY: This list was originally made by L0pht's (http://www.l0pht.com/) Brian Oblivion. It is his credit, not mine. I do not know where he got the list from. I have made additions to this list that he has started. The following numbers are useful if you have a phone number and want to know which state it comes from. This list is not 100% up to date, but if you cannot find the area code you are looking for, take a look at the link at the bottom of this section. They should have what you are looking for. 011 [ International Access Code ] 201 Morristown, and Newark, (Northeast) New Jersey 202 Washington, District of Columbia 203 All parts of Connecticut 204 All parts of Manitoba, CANADA 205 All parts of Alabama 206 Seattle, Tacoma, and Vancouver, (Western) Washington 207 All parts of Maine 208 All parts of Idaho 209 Fresno and Stockton, (Central) California 212 New York City (Manhattan and Bronx) New York 213 Los Angeles, California 214 Dallas, (Northeast) Texas 215 Allentown, Chester, and Philadelphia, (Southeast) Pennsylvania 216 Akron, Cleveland, Massillon, and Youngstown, (Northeast) Ohio 217 Springfield, (South Central) Illinois 218 Duluth, (Northern) Minnesota 219 Gary, Hammond, Michigan City, and South Bend, (Northwest) Indiana 301 All parts of Maryland 302 All parts of Delaware 303 Denver, (North and West) Colorado 304 All parts of West Virginia 305 Fort Lauderdale, Key West and Miami, (Southeast) Florida 306 All parts of Saskatchewan, CANADA 307 All parts of Wyoming 308 North Platte, (Western) Nebraska 309 Peoria, (West Central) Illinois 312 Chicago, Illinois 313 Detroit and Ann Arbor, (Eastern) Michigan 314 Saint Louis and Columbia, (Eastern) Missouri 315 Syracuse and Utica, (North Central) New York 316 Dodge City and Wichita, (Southern) Kansas 317 Indianapolis and Kokomo, (Central) Indiana 318 Lake Charles and Shreveport, (Western) Louisiana 319 Dubuque, (Eastern) Iowa 401 All parts of Rhode Island 402 Lincoln and Omaha, (Eastern) Nebraska 403 All parts of Alberta, CANADA 404 Atlanta and Rome, (Northern) Georgia 405 Oklahoma City, (South and West) Oklahoma 406 All parts of Montana 407 Orlando, West Palm Beach, (Eastern) Florida 408 San Jose and Sunnyvale, (Silicon Valley) California 409 Galveston, (Southeast) Texas 411 [ Directory Assistance ] 412 Pittsburgh, (Western) Pennsylvania 413 Springfield, (Western) Massachusetts 414 Green Bay, Milwaukee, and Racine, (Eastern) Wisconsin 415 Oakland and San Francisco, (Bay Area) California 416 Toronto, (South Central) Ontario, CANADA 417 Joplin and Springfield, (Southwest) Missouri 418 Quebec City, (Northeast) Quebec, CANADA 419 Toledo, (Northwest) Ohio 479 NorthWest Arkansas 501 Little Rock, Hot Springs, (Central) Arkansas 502 Louisville and Paducah, (Western) Kentucky 503 All parts of Oregon 504 Baton Rouge and New Orleans, (Eastern) Louisiana 505 All parts of New Mexico 506 All parts of New Brunswick, CANADA 507 Rochester, (Southern) Minnesota 508 Worcester, Framingham and New Bedford, (Eastern) Massachusetts 509 Spokane, and Walla Walla, (Eastern) Washington 512 Austin, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio, (Southern) Texas 513 Cincinnati and Dayton, (Southwest) Ohio 514 Montreal, (Southern) Quebec, CANADA 515 Des Moines, (Central) Iowa 516 Hempstead, (Long Island) New York 517 Lansing and Saginaw, (Central) Michigan 518 Albany and Schenectady, (Northeast) New York 519 London, (Southwest) Ontario, CANADA 601 All parts of Mississippi 602 All parts of Arizona 603 All parts of New Hampshire 604 All parts of British Columbia, CANADA 605 All parts of South Dakota 606 Ashland and Covington, (Eastern) Kentucky 607 Binghamton, Elmira and Ithaca, (South Central) New York 608 Beloit and Madison, (Southwest) Wisconsin 609 Atlantic City, Camden, and Trenton, (Southwest) New Jersey 611 [ Repair Service ] 612 Minneapolis and Saint Paul, (Central) Minnesota 613 Ottawa, (Southeast) Ontario, CANADA 614 Columbus, (Southeast) Ohio 615 Chattanooga and Nashville, (Eastern) Tennessee 616 Battle Creek, and Grand Rapids, (Western) Michigan 617 Boston area, (Eastern) Massachusetts 618 Alton and Centralia, (Southern) Illinois 619 San Diego and the Imperial Valley, California 701 All parts of North Dakota 702 All parts of Nevada 703 Arlington and Roanoke, (North and Western) Virginia 704 Charlotte and Salisbury, (Western) North Carolina 705 North Bay, (Northern) Ontario, CANADA 706 Tijuana, (Northwest) MEXICO [equivalent to +52 6X XXX XXX] 707 Eureka, Napa, and Santa Rosa, (North Coastal) California 708 Aurora, Elgin, Evanston, and Waukegan (Northeast) Illinois (as of 11-89) 709 All parts of Newfoundland and Labrador, CANADA 712 Council Bluffs, (Western) Iowa 713 Houston, Texas 714 Orange County and Palm Springs, California 715 Eau Claire and Wausau, (Northern) Wisconsin 716 Buffalo, Niagara Falls, and Rochester, (Western) New York 717 Harrisburg, Scranton, and Wilkes-Barre, (Central) Pennsylvania 718 New York City (Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island) New York 719 Colorado Springs and Pueblo, (Southeast) Colorado 801 All parts of Utah 802 All parts of Vermont 803 All parts of South Carolina 804 Charlottesville, Norfolk, and Richmond, (Southeast) Virginia 805 Bakersfield, Ventura, and Simi Valley, (South Central) California 806 Amarillo, (Northern) Texas 807 Thunder Bay, (Northwest) Ontario, CANADA 808 All parts of Hawaii 809 Bahamas, Bermuda, Puerto Rico, and the Virgin Islands 812 Evansville, (Southern) Indiana 813 Fort Myers and St. Petersburg, (Southwest) Florida 814 Altoona and Erie, (West Central) Pennsylvania 815 Joliet, and Rockford, (Northwest) Illinois 816 Kansas City and Saint Joseph, (Northwest) Missouri 817 Fort Worth, Temple, and Waco, (North Central) Texas 818 San Fernando (Suburban area near Los Angeles), California 819 Sherbrooke (South Central and Northwest) Quebec, CANADA 870 Various parts of Arkansas 901 Memphis, (Western) Tennesee 902 All parts of Prince Edward Island and Nova Scotia, CANADA 903 * Unassigned * 904 Jacksonville, (Northeast) Florida 905 Mexico City, (Northern) MEXICO [equivalent to +52 5 XXX XXXX] 906 Sault Ste. Marie, (Northern) Michigan 907 All parts of Alaska 908 * Unassigned * 909 * Unassigned * 911 [ Police/Fire Emergency Service ] 912 Macon and Savannah, (Southern) Georgia 913 Salina and Topeka, (Northern) Kansas 914 White Plains, and Poughkeepsie, (Southern) New York 915 El Paso, (Western) Texas 916 Sacramento, (Northern) California 917 * Unassigned * 918 Muskogee and Tulsa, (Northeast) Oklahoma 919 Greenville, Raleigh, and Winston Salem, (Eastern) North Carolina -- 200 Local testing, used by many telcos. 410 Western Union Telegraph Company - Northeastern USA 510 Western Union Telegraph Company - Eastern USA 610 Western Union Telegraph Company - Canada 700 Value Added Information Services, per individual OCC 710 Western Union Telegraph Company - Southern USA 800 In-WATS 'toll free' calling 810 Western Union Telegraph Company - Mexico 900 Mass Calling Information/Value Added Services 910 Western Union Telegraph Company - Western USA (from Chicago westward) Here are some related links... Category: Location ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | area code decoder | http://decoder.americom.com/ The link above is an excellent (free!) resource for finding area/country codes. If you are looking for Japan's country code (for example) just type 'Japan' (without the quotes, of course) in the search field and it will report back that Japan's country code is 81. However, if you have a country code such as 81 and don't know which country it belongs to type '81' in the search field and you will find that 81 is Japan's country code. The site does the same thing for United States area codes. Example: Typing 702 in the search field will report certain parts of Nevada. part 5. [ social security numbers ] For United States ONLY: If you know someone's social security number, you can find out where they were born (or at least where their parents registered them with the U.S. government) by the first three numbers. This list was published by 2600 magazine and that's where I got the list. It is their credit, not mine. Example... say your social security number is 247-xx-xxxx, you were more than likely born in South Carolina. Alabama 416-424 Alaska 574 Arizona 526-527, 600-601 Arkansas 429-432 California 545-573, 602-601 Colorado 521-524 Connecticut 040-049 Delaware 221-222 District of Columbia 577-579 Flordia 261-267, 589-595 Georgia 252-260 Hawaii 575-576 Idaho 518-519 Illinois 318-361 Indiana 303-317 Iowa 477-485 Kansas 509-515 Kentucky 400-407 Louisiana 433-439 Maine 004-007 Maryland 212-220 Massachusetts 010-034 Michigan 362-386 Minnesota 468-476 Mississippi 425-428, 587-588 Missouri 486-500 Montana 516-517 Nebraska 505-508 Nevada 530 New Hampshire 001-003 New Jersey 135-158 New Mexico 515,585 New York 050-134 North Carolina 237-246 North Dakota 501-502 Ohio 268-302 Oklahoma 440-448 Oregon 540-544 Pennsylvania 159-211 Possessions 586 Puerto Rico 596-599 Rail Road Retirement... (valid, but outdated) 700-728 Rhode Island 035-039 South Carolina 247-251 South Dakota 503-504 Tennessee 408-415 Texas 449-467 Utah 528-529 Virginia 223-231 Virgin Islands 580 Washington 531-539 West Virginia 232-236 Wisconsin 387-399 Wyoming 520 Here are some related links... Category: Location: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | SS Search Death Index | http://www.ancestry.com/ I used to have more links above that you could search for the first three number of a SSN and it would tell you which state they registered in (whether by birth or by coming from another country). Unfortunately they started charging money to look up Social Security Numbers so I took them off of this list. I searched the internet for more sites that offer this free service but it appears that everyone wants to charge for every little thing these days. If you want to find more yourself, search your favorite search engine for 'SSN lookup' (or something like that). part 6. [ drivers license numbers ] For United States ONLY: I'll admit it, I don't know a whole lot about drivers license numbers exept that every drivers license I have ever seen had a nine-digit number. What I did here is give you some links that might be helpful in your search(es). If you know of any other helpful resources please let me know... Category: Location: ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Your Local Revenue Office | Of course the phone #'s varies from state-to-state. | | This is where you register your drivers license. | Drivers License Search (costs $$) | http://www.adlservice.com/drivers_license_search_by_name_or_number.htm | Drivers License Search (costs $$) | http://www.driverslicenseguide.com/ | Drivers License Search (costs $$) | http://www.dmvdirect.com/searches/Driver_License.htm | DL Search (& other stuff, costs $$) | http://dmvsearch.com/default.html | Wisconsin Drivers License Records | http://merlindata.com/prodinfo/WWwidrivers.html | Drivers License Qualifications | http://www.o-c-s.com/epilepsy/license.htm part 7. [ internet protocol addresses ] Here is a real situation that I have documented during an Internet Relay Chat (IRC) session. In this situation a user on IRC is nicknamed HowWonderful and I am looking for his/her information by typing commands into the channel (IRC's word for 'chat room') using my IRC client program. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /dns HowWonderful *** Retrieving information for HowWonderful *** Attempting to resolve 209.117.148.244 *** Resolved 209.117.148.244 to t2-44.visitus.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- /whois HowWonderful *** HowWonderful is ~sgtphou@209.117.148.244 (Sergeant Phou (ff-ow)) *** on channels: @#puberty *** on IRC via raptor.ab.ca.dal.net ([0.0.0.0] Western Canada's Only DALnet Server) *** HowWonderful is away: I am starving! [54m 46s] ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- I made a trip to www.visitus.net and found it was an ISP (which leaves out the possibility of it being a proxy or gateway (most of the time)). Next I went to the tech-support section of the site (http://www.visitus.net/setup_visitus.htm) looking for the mail server that they supply for their users. Found it!... mail.visitus.net This may seem pointless because we already have his identity (sgtphou@209.117.148.244)... This next step is to check for proof that it is not a spoof (fake IP address). Here is a telnet session from a UNIX shell account that I used to connect to this person's SMTP server. What you type is not echoed back by the SMTP server. So the 'vrfy' and the 'quit' command are of course what I typed. %telnet visitus.net 25 Connecting to host mail.visitus.net...Connected 220 mailnews.visitus.net NTMail (v4.20.0009/NU7348.00.b455e200) ready for ESMTP transfer vrfy sgtphou 250 sgtphou@visitus.net quit 221 Goodbye [200.13.19.240] ...NOTE: I got the sgtphou from the /whois command that I used on IRC (remember the sgtphou@209.117.148.244?). ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The line: 250 sgtphou@visitus.net tells us that he exists on that system. Now that you have positively identified a user and a domain you may want to go to http://www.visitus.net/ and look for a phone number of the company then call them to get a hold the user's information or report abuse. I suggest you do not break any laws by lying to the Internet Service Provider about who you are. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Have you ever seen a web site that looks something like www.something.ru or something.de? The .ru and .de are country codes. This can help you pinpoint someone's DNS (Domain Name System) to a particular country. So if you see the DNS: ~garik@cosmigo.de, you can lookup .de in this list and know that the person is more than likely in Germany. Please see http://www.domainnotes.com/nics/article for a complete(?) list of NICs (Network Information Centers) belonging to certain countries for IP address information. (That is where i got the following list below from, it is their credit, not mine). Here is the complete(?) list of every country's internet country codes... .A ... .AC - Ascension Island .AD - Andorra .AE - United Arab Emirates .AF - Afghanistan .AG - Antigua and Barbuda .AI - Anguilla .AL - Albania .AM - Armenia .AN - Netherlands Antilles .AO - Angola .AQ - Antarctica .AR - Argentina .AS - American Samoa .AT - Austria .AU - Australia .AW - Aruba .AZ - Azerbaijan .B ... .BA - Bosnia and Herzegowina .BB - Barbados .BD - Bangladesh .BE - Belgium .BF - Burkina Faso .BG - Bulgaria .BH - Bahrain .BI - Burundi .BJ - Benin .BM - Bermuda .BN - Brunei .BO - Bolivia .BR - Brazil .BS - The Bahamas .BT - Bhutan .BV - Bouvet Island .BW - Botswana .BY - Belarus .BZ - Belize .C ... .CA - Canada .CC - Cocos (Keeling) Islands .CF - Central African Republic .CG - Congo .CH - Switzerland .CI - Cote d'Ivoire .CK - Cook Islands .CL - Chile .CM - Cameroon .CN - China .CO - Colombia .COM - Worldwide Commercial .CR - Costa Rica .CU - Cuba .CV - Cape Verde .CX - Christmas Island .CY - Cyprus .CZ - Czech Republic .D ... .DE - Germany .DJ - Djibouti .DK - Denmark .DM - Dominica .DO - Dominican Republic .DZ - Algeria .E ... .EC - Ecuador .EDU - Worldwide Education .EE - Estonia .EG - Egypt .EH - Western Sahara .ER - Eritrea .ES - Spain .ET - Ethiopia .F ... .FI - Finland .FJ - Fiji .FK - Falklands Islands .FM - Micronesia .FO - Faroe Islands .FR - France .FX - French, Metropolitan .G ... .GA - Gabon .GD - Grenada .GE - Georgia .GF - French Guiana .GG - Channel Islands: Guernsey, Alderney & Sark .GH - Ghana .GI - Gibraltar .GL - Greenland .GM - Gambia .GN - Guinea .GOV - United States Government: non-military .GP - Guadeloupe .GQ - Equatorial Guinea .GR - Greece .GS - South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands .GT - Guatemala .GU - Guam .GW - Guinea-Bissau .GY - Guyana .H ... .HK - Hong Kong .HM - Heard and Mc Donald Islands .HN - Honduras .HT - Haiti .HU - Hungary .I ... .ID - Indonesia .IE - Ireland .IL - Israel .IM - Isle of Man .IN - India .IO - British Indian Ocean Territory .IQ - Iraq .IR - Iran .IS - Iceland .IT - Italy .J ... .JE - Channel Islands: Jersey .JM - Jamaica .JO - Jordan .JP - Japan .K ... .KE - Kenya .KG - Kyrgyzstan .KH - Cambodia .KI - Kiribati .KM - Comoros .KN - Saint Kitts and Nevis .KP - Korea, Democratic People's Republic of .KR - Korea, Republic of .KW - Kuwait .KY - The Cayman Islands .KZ - Kazakhstan .L ... .LA - Laos .LB - Lebanon .LC - Saint Lucia .LI - Liechtenstein .LK - Sri Lanka .LR - Liberia .LS - Lesotho .LT - Lithuania .LU - Luxembourg .LV - Latvia .LY - Libyan Arab Jamahiriya .M ... .MA - Morocco .MC - Monaco .MD - Moldova .MG - Madagascar .MH - Marshall Islands .MIL - United States Department of Defense .MK - Macedonia .ML - Mali .MM - Myanmar .MN - Mongolia .MO - Macao .MP - Northern Mariana Islands .MQ - Martinique .MR - Mauritania .MS- Montserrat .MT - Malta .MU - Mauritius .MV - Maldives .MW - Malawi .MX - Mexico .MY - Malaysia .MZ - Mozambique .N ... .NA - Namibia .NC - New Caledonia .NE - Niger .NET - Worldwide Network .NF - Norfolk Island .NG - Nigeria .NI - Nicaragua .NL - Netherlands .NO - Norway .NP - Nepal .NR - Nauru .NU - Niue .NZ - New Zealand .O ... .OM - Oman .ORG - Worldwide Organization .P ... .PA - Panama .PE - Peru .PF - French Polynesia .PG - Papua New Guinea .PH - Philippines .PK - Pakistan .PL - Poland .PM - St. Pierre and Miquelon .PN - Pitcairn .PR - Puerto Rico .PT - Portugal .PW - Palau .PY - Paraguay .Q ... .QA - Qatar .R ... .RE - Reunion .RO - Romania .RU - Russia .RW - Rwanda .S ... .SA - Saudi Arabia .SB - Solomon Islands .SC - Seychelles .SD - Sudan .SE - Sweden .SG - Singapore .SH - St. Helena .SI - Slovenia .SJ - Svalbard and Jan Mayen Islands .SK - Slovakia .SL - Sierra Leone .SM - San Marino .SN - Senegal .SO - Somalia .SR - Suriname .ST - Sao Tome and Principe .SV - El Salvador .SY - Syria .SZ - Swaziland .T ... .TC - Turks and Caicos Islands .TD - Chad .TF - French Southern Territories .TG - Togo .TH - Thailand .TJ - Tajikistan .TK - Tokelau .TM - Turkmenistan .TN - Tunisia .TO - Tonga .TP - East Timor .TR - Turkey .TT - Trinidad and Tobago .TV - Tuvalu .TW - Taiwan .TZ - Tanzania .U ... .UA - Ukraine .UG - Uganda .UK - United Kingdom .UM - United States Minor Outlying Islands .US - United States .UY - Uruguay .UZ - Uzbekistan .V ... .VA - Vatican City State .VC - Saint Vincent and the Grenadines .VE - Venezuela .VG - Virgin Islands (British) .VI - Virgin Islands (US) .VN - Vietnam .VU - Vanuatu .W ... .WF - Wallis and Futuna Islands .WS - Samoa .Y ... .YE - Yemen .YT - Mayotte .YU - Yugoslavia .Z ... .ZA - South Africa .ZM - Zambia .ZR - Zaire .ZW - Zimbabwe ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are some related links... Name: Location: --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | NeoTrace | http://www.tucows.com/ <-- Go to one of these and search for NeoTrace. NeoTrace | | http://www.download.com/ <-- is a traceroute program that appears to have been | | bought by McAfee. | | Neotrace's original website (www.neoworx.com) now | | shoots to McAfee's website when you go there. However, | | sites like CNet's download.com and tucows.com should | | still be able to locate you a copy. - I cannot stress | | how awesome this program is! Not only will it create a | | map from your IP's location to the destination IP but | | it lists every gateway in between and gives you useful | | information. DOWNLOAD THIS PROGRAM!! | ARIN WHOIS Database | http://ww1.arin.net/whois/ <-- WHOIS database (IP address lookup: America). | RIPE WHOIS Database | http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/pub-services/db/whois/whois.html <-- WHOIS database (IP address lookup: Europe). | APNIC WHOIS Database | http://www.apnic.net/search/index.html <-- WHOIS database (IP address lookup: Asia/Pacific). part 8. [ businesses ] I didn't want to add this section because I want this document to focus on finding people, not businesses. I added this section in case finding a business could lead to you finding a person. Most of these are for the United States so if you're looking for a business outside the United States then see part 9 of this document [international resources] because the URLs listed there have both yellow and white page listings. To search for: Location: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | toll-free listings | http://www.tollfree.att.net/tf.html | category (e.g.: plumming) | http://yp.ameritech.net/ | domain registration info | http://ds.internic.net/ | government web sites | http://www.business.gov/Search_Online.html | European businesses | http://www.europages.com/ | FedEx package tracking | http://www.fedex.com/cgi-bin/track_it | UPS package tracking | http://www.ups.com/tracking/tracking.html | business license lookup | http://www.ci.escondido.ca.us/buslic/index.html part 9. [ international resources ] Many of the resources listed so far have been for the United States. This section will help you find people world-wide. Some of the best websites that I have found that offer FREE international listings are WebCrawler, Infobel & InfoSpace. If you are looking for a person that lives in a country with yellow or white pages in a language you cannot translate, take a look at the links at the bottom of this section. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- WebCrawler... World Directories: http://www.webcrawler.com/_1_8GRTKS03IRU9H8__info.wbcrwl/wp/intl/index.htm Canada listings: http://www.webcrawler.com/_1_8GRTKS03IRU9H8__info.wbcrwl/index_ppl_ca.htm United Kingdom listings: http://www.webcrawler.com/_1_8GRTKS03IRU9H8__info.wbcrwl/index_ppl_uk.htm ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Infobel... World Directories: http://www.infobel.com/teldir/ North America & Caribbean http://www.infobel.com/teldir/teldir.asp?page=/eng/namc Europe http://www.infobel.com/teldir/teldir.asp?page=/eng/euro South & Central America: http://www.infobel.com/teldir/teldir.asp?page=/eng/csam Asia & Middle East: http://www.infobel.com/teldir/teldir.asp?page=/eng/asia Africa: http://www.infobel.com/teldir/teldir.asp?page=/eng/afri Australia & Pacific: http://www.infobel.com/teldir/teldir.asp?page=/eng/apac ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- InfoSpace... World Directories: http://www.infospace.com/home/white-pages/world/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- If you wish to search for an someone internationally over the phone, one way to achieve results is to simply call an operator in his/her country/city and ask for the person. In the past when I have done this, I simply called my own local operator and asked to be connected to an operator that can help me with an international listing in City-X, Country-X. The operator then connects you to an operator in that region of the world. In my experience, you'll be connected to someone who speaks the language you are speaking, or you can at least say the word "English" in English or in the dominant language of the country you're calling. Someone will be able to assist you. If you don't wish that the person you are looking knows that you are looking for him/her, simply wait until the operator confirms or denies that a listing exists with a phone number/address to match the name you gave. If you need the number/address, write it down, but ask to not be connected. If the operator connects you automatically, quickly hang up. Note: Sometimes the operator will be able to admit that someone exists in that area with the name you provided but wont be able to tell you their contact information because that person has requested that it not be available for privacy reasons. Here are some related links... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | Google Language Tools | http://www.google.com/language_tools?hl=en <-- These sites automatically translate web pages from | Altavista's Babel Fish Translation | http://babelfish.altavista.com/ <-- one language to another. This is very handy if you | are looking for a person or business that require | you to search through yellow or white pages that | are not in your prefered language. part 10. [ advanced search techniques & caching (IMPORTANT!) ] If I could only use one of the techniques listed in this document, this technique would be the one I would choose. This section teaches not only to use search engines and databases but also teaches how to find people through web pages that don't even exist anymore! Let's start with search engines. Search engines are now more powerful than ever. Which to use? I use Google, Google and more Google. Let's face it, Google is the search engine that all others aspire to be. It has advanced techniques built-in in order to produce the best results for your search query. Furthermore, many people search for the person they are looking for strictly using websites that specialize in White Pages. I NEVER stop there. Next time you're looking for someone, try Googling their name (assuming you know their name). Many times, you can find out everything from where a person went to school, his/her Facebook/MySpace/Orkut account, personal/business website, past extracurricular activities and much more. Sometimes this information may simply have the person's name in a much larger list of names. But this information can generally lead you to more information that will ultimately become the key to finding the person you're looking for. Even if you have only partial information, search for the name(s) that you DO know (with multiple common spellings & misspellings) with any information that you may have. Example: "John Springfield High School" or "Smith IBM sales representative Texas". Obviously your search results will become more narrow when you add more words to the search query. This can be good and bad. If you come across too few/many results, simply add/remove information in your query to produce better results. You will find that people whom are more career-motivated and people who live very active lives will tend to be much easier to find. But what about information that USED to be on the web that has been removed by its owner? In this case, don't worry. It is probably still on the web - safe and sound. Sometimes, for example, when you click one of your desired results from a Google search, you will find that the web page with the information you need no longer is on the website! What to do? Go back to the previous page with Google's search results and click "Cached" under the link description. Many people never pay attention to this option or don't even know what it is for. Google "caches" (saves) a copy of all the text (not the pictures) that were on the page before it was taken down by its owner. Random considerations: 1) Google will generally provide several promising search results on each search result page. Consider opening each of these in new tabs/windows in order to move much quicker. 2) If the person's name is not very common, you'll have a much higher chance of finding him/her. 3) Try searching for the person in Google Images (http://images.google.com). Sometimes the face of the person you're looking for will pop up on your first few results pages. If this happens, you know you've found a page that is definitely going to give you information about the same "John Doe" that you were looking for. 4) To narrow your search even further, know that most search engines on the WWW have an "Advanced Search" available that will allow you to be extremely specific and produce higher-quality results. The next outstanding resource is called the Wayback Machine (URL below). http://www.archive.org/web/web.php The Wayback Machine caches just about any web page that you can find on the WWW and allows you to see what that page looked like (including pictures) on certain dates. This can be particularly helpful when it appears that a web page has been altered in some way that would make the person you are looking for less findable. For an example of how web pages and their information change drastically over time, search Wayback Machine for this web site (www.travelersunite.com). The one downside to caching machines such as the Wayback Machine is that they are sometimes restricted to a common security measure known as robots.txt. A file named robots.txt is simply placed at the webserver's root directory (i.e. http://www.some-random-place.net/robots.txt as opposed to http://www.some-random-place.net/whitepages/robots.txt) which states which kind of web spiders (automated scanning & caching programs used by search engines, etc) are able to probe their servers and cache targeted information. For example, as of the time of this writing, I am unable to use Wayback Machine to show what my friend's MySpace page used to look like. This is probably because MySpace knows that people sometimes place sensative information such as home addresses and credit card information on the WWW and MySpace wants to protect their users from abuse of this type of sensative information. ********************************************************************************** ----CREDITS & INFORMATION: Written and compiled by Emile Phaneuf (emilephaneuf@hotmail.com), other sources were accreditted throughout this document. ----LAST UPDATED: November 18, 2007 This document's main location is located at http://www.travelersunite.com/find_ppl.txt. If you found this tutorial on another site, check the above URL for updates. PLEASE send ANY useful information, corrections, or dead links to emilephaneuf@hotmail.com. **********************************************************************************