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7 Best Reverse Email Lookup Services to Consider in 2024

Do you want to discover who sent you an email but have no idea how to begin doing so? Have no fear! In this article, we'll look at some of the best reverse email lookup services currently on the market. 

If you have only an email address to go on, you can use these resources to easily and quickly find out who the sender is. You can use these resources for anything from reuniting with a long-lost buddy to checking the legitimacy of some online user. 

>> Run a Reverse Email Lookup With BeenVerified >>

7 Best Reverse Email Lookup Tools

BeenVerified – Best Reverse Email Lookup Overall

Even if you have a spam filter, your inbox can still get flooded with messages from unknown senders. To find out more about an unfamiliar email address and whether it belongs to a known fraudster, we recommend BeenVerified

All you have to do is type in the email address, and BeenVerified will do a full search of its source to find any pertinent information on that address. The identity of the sender, their company, and any accounts on social media they may have connected with the email could all turn up in the search results. 

As a whole, the reverse email lookup service is superior to a standard Google search when trying to determine the true identity of a mysterious email sender.

Pros

  • People search returns detailed reports
  • Relatively transparent for a background search company
  • Membership offers a wide array of features
  • Straightforward pricing model
  • Quality mobile apps
  • Attentive customer support

Cons

  • Search results aren’t always reliable
  • Occasional long waiting times for search results
  • No free trial on offer

Pricing

Individual reports aren’t available for purchase on BeenVerified. Rather, you must subscribe to a package to access all available reports. There are two subscription plans available on BeenVerified:

Reports for all features are limitless across both pay tiers. Also, you can use any one of the seven available search options and membership plans. You can choose to get an alert whenever a report you're following undergoes any kind of update by checking the corresponding box.

Read: BeenVerified Review

>> Run a Reverse Email Lookup With BeenVerified >>

PeopleLooker – Best for Quick Results

Almost twenty percent of daily emails were spam for the typical person. Spam emails were frequently being sent to people. PeopleLooker's goal is to make it simple to identify the sender of spam emails to reduce their frequency. 

Using this tool to conduct a reverse email lookup is a great way to guard your own personal privacy. For the most up-to-date information about a person, PeopleLooker compares data from millions of sources.

PeopleLooker will search through public records to reveal the true identity, contact information, and background reports of the prospective owner once you've inputted the details you know about them.

Pros

  • Mobile apps for Android and iOS
  • User-friendly interface
  • Good-looking interface
  • Searches are confidential

Cons

  • Takes a lot of time to process a request
  • Additional charges on some of the information
  • No live chat support

Pricing

PeopleLooker's price structure offers two options so you may pick the one that works best for you.

  • The 1 Month Plan is the starting point. The monthly fee for this package is $18.28 per month. This plan's perks are extensive, and they include access to an abundance of useful resources like criminal and traffic records, phone numbers, emails, addresses, and other people's public data.
  • The subsequent schedule is for three months. It costs $14.62 each month for three months. The monthly pricing is lower than the one-month plan because you’re charged in advance for 3 months.

As an alternative, you can try out the PeopleLooker service for $1 for five days. So that you can learn everything there’s to know about PeopleLooker.

Read: PeopleLooker Review

>> Run a Reverse Email Lookup With PeopleLooker >>

TruthFinder – Best Best for Non-Digitized Searches

Based on an inputted email address, the TruthFinder Reverse Email Lookup returns a report including relevant personal data. This is achieved by scouring online and offline public data sources for information on individuals known to exist in the form of public records. 

Everybody may access the information contained in public records. The quantity and quality of data provided by reverse email lookup resources are crucial factors to think about.

While several of these methods can provide you with names, they aren't great at tracking out additional information on the sender. TruthFinder ranks first for such an inquiry due to its extensive source of over 150 million items. 

TruthFinder provides more than just a reverse email lookup service. It also conducts people searches, background checks, and even cell phone lookups. 

We think this service is useful because it’s quite user-friendly and because it collects a substantial amount of information on the individual hiding behind an email address.

TruthFinder uses public records including social media posts, arrest records, and court documents to verify the information. TruthFinder differs from similar tools since it also searches private sources for useful information.

Read: TruthFinder Review

Pros

  • Add-on is available for Dark web scan
  • Highly-detailed reports

Cons

  • Spends only a short amount of time on report making
  • You can only get it in the US

Pricing

TruthFinder doesn’t offer a premium service where users can conduct unlimited reverse email searches. To see all of TruthFinder, you'll need to upgrade to a paid subscription.

>> Run a Reverse Email Lookup With TruthFinder >>

DISCLAIMER: You may not use TruthFinder or the information it provides to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or any other purpose that would require FCRA compliance. TruthFinder does not provide consumer reports and is not a consumer reporting agency. (These terms have special meanings under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq., ("FCRA"), which are incorporated herein by reference.)"

Intelius: Best for Checking Educational Information

Even though Intelius lacks a reverse email lookup feature, it’s a valuable tool in many other situations. You can use Intelius to discover all the data you need from an email's sender if you have their name, mobile number, or residence address. 

Valid emails you can trust will have a clear sender and recipients, such as a name and a company address. Intelius is well-recognized as a leading brand in its field.

It features a sleek design that conceals its ease of use. Compared to similar sites, this one stands out because of its emphasis on presenting the user with the individual's academic background. 

Intelius can help with various tasks, including people searches, background checks, criminal and traffic record checks, and public record searches. This site will help you learn more about the people who email you. 

Read: Intelius Review

Pros

  • Reputable company
  • Prepares results quickly
  • Provides education history

Cons

  • US-only results
  • Pricey
  • Pricing plans aren’t transparent

Pricing

Intelius is a quick way to conduct a simple internet search. People search reports and history reports are available via separate subscriptions. Intelius offers the following service tiers for unlimited reports on individual users.

  • Monthly Plan: Starting at $24.86 per month
  • Bi-monthly Plan: Starting at $21.13 per month (Charged at $42.25 every two months)

>> Run a Reverse Email Lookup With Intelius >>

DISCLAIMER: You may not use Intelius or the information it provides to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or any other purpose that would require FCRA compliance. Intelius does not provide consumer reports and is not a consumer reporting agency. (These terms have special meanings under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq., ("FCRA"), which are incorporated herein by reference.)"

Instant Checkmate: Best for Detailed Searches

Instant Checkmate can be an excellent option if you value precision and cost-effectiveness equally. If you have the person's name or phone number, you may use this tool to learn more about them. You'll require more than just an email address, exactly like with Intelius, but if you have the information, this is a fantastic alternative. 

Instant Checkmate is a public records search engine with the largest source and the quickest search speeds available. Marriage and property records, criminal histories, court filings, and any other public record can be found in its reports.

Each plan at this search engine includes an unlimited number of searches. Instant Checkmate also places a premium on user anonymity, so your search for a specific person won't be intercepted. 

Read: Instant Checkmate Review 

Pros

  • Reliable results
  • Advanced search filters
  • Access to numerous public records

Cons

  • High subscription fee
  • Single reports aren’t available
  • Slow searching process

Pricing

While Instant Checkmate may not be the most inexpensive background check site, it provides excellent value for the money if you want to use it for an extended period. Only premium membership plans, where all Instant Checkmate features are unlocked, are available. 

  • 1-month unlimited reports plan – $35.12/mo
  • 3-month unlimited reports plan$28.09/mo

>> Run a Reverse Email Lookup With Instant Checkmate >>

DISCLAIMER: You may not use Instant Checkmate or the information it provides to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or any other purpose that would require FCRA compliance. Instant Checkmate does not provide consumer reports and is not a consumer reporting agency. (These terms have special meanings under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq., ("FCRA"), which are incorporated herein by reference.)"

Spokeo: Best for Long-Term Use

Spokeo is the ideal choice if you need more details than just who is behind such an email address. Spokeo's search features include a comprehensive email lookup section besides services for finding people via phone number, street address, and name. 

A person's real name may not be immediately obvious from an email address, but a lot of other details can be uncovered. Spokeo compiles information from several sources, including social networking sources and public records such as deeds, city directories, registration filings, surveys, and court documents. 

This reverse email lookup service thoroughly searches its extensive source for any data that may be pertinent to the email you enter. 

This tool may be used for a wide variety of email lookups, and the UI is very user-friendly. Even though Spokeo is a top-notch reverse email lookup service, it has the lowest rates in the industry. 

Pros

  • Affordable
  • User-friendly interface
  • Offers detailed background checks on the sender

Cons 

  • Available in the US only
  • Some results may be inaccurate
  • Too reliant on social media

Pricing

Spokeo has earned a reputation as the most cost-effective email search tool available. With a paid membership, you can conduct as many searches as you like, including those for people's phone numbers, addresses, and names. Membership plans are priced as follows on a monthly basis:

Read: Spokeo Review

>> Run a Reverse Email Lookup With Spokeo >>

PeopleFinders – Best for Affordability

A simple and quick method to learn more about the owner of an unidentified email address is to conduct a search for that address on PeopleFinders. Check out if an email address relates to someone you know. Alternatively, you could learn that it came from suspicious sources and could be used in phishing or other email fraud.

Contrarily, let's imagine you only have someone's email address to contact them. If so, you can use that to track down other means of getting in touch with that person, such as an up-to-date address, mobile number, and profile on social media.

PeopleFinders' source is chock full of public records and information, such as email addresses, social media handles, etc. Besides a person's name, address, and contact number, an email address can learn more about them. 

The number of regular email users in the United States is over 250 million. And most (but not all) of them will have an associated email address. There’s no way to verify a person's identity while creating an email address. Therefore, fictitious names and addresses can be used. 

Analyzing data and tracing an email address back to its rightful owner requires the data aggregation expertise we offer at PeopleFinders. That's why the PeopleFinders reverse email lookup feature is helpful for counteracting scams.

Read: PeopleFinders Review

Pros

  • Multiple search options and membership plans
  • Affordable
  • Large source

Cons 

  • Limited information for some email addresses
  • Subscription required
  • Not all information is up-to-date

Pricing

The reverse email lookup service PeopleFinders provides is available at various price points. There are both one-time search options and subscription packages available. The company's price structure is as follows:

  • Monthly subscription: This plan allows you to perform an unlimited number of searches for a monthly membership fee of $24.95 per month

>> Run a Reverse Email Lookup With PeopleFinders >>

Ranking Methodology for the Best Reverse Email Lookup

Here are some criteria we use to determine the order of the top reverse email lookup services:

  • Source Size: A larger source is more likely to have information about a specific email address.
  • Information Accuracy: The tool should provide reliable and up-to-date information about the email address owner.
  • Search Options: The tool should provide multiple search options and membership plans (e.g. search by name, phone number, or address) to increase the chances of finding information.
  • User-Friendliness: The tool should be easy to use and navigate.
  • Additional Features: Some tools may offer additional features such as background checks or dark web monitoring, that can be useful.
  • Price: The tool should be reasonably priced and offer various subscription options.
  • Customer Support: You should be able to contact and get help from the tool's customer care team if you run into problems.

You may construct a thorough ranking of the finest reverse email lookup services and select the one that matches your demands by considering the aforementioned elements. You can also try to do a reverse email search free.

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Free Reverse Email Lookup Methods 

There are several free reverse email lookup methods to perform a reverse email search free:

Social media search: You can reverse email search free by searching on Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. You may learn more about the person who owns the email address if you can track down their social media profiles.

Google search: Conducting a Google search is the best way to do a free reverse email search. See if any results appear when you search Google using the email address. This can be anything from a blog to a social networking page to a thread in an online forum. This is the most popular free reverse email lookup method to reverse email search free.

Email header analysis: The sender's IP address and email server can be determined from the email header if you can access it. Often, the sender can be determined based on this data, which allows you to reverse email search free. However, this free reverse email lookup method to reverse email search free is mostly accessible to tech-savvy people.

Free Reverse email lookup services: Email-checker.com, hunter.io, and mail-tester.com are just a few examples of sites that provide free reverse email lookup services to perform reverse email search free. These services will tell you things like the domain associated with an email address and whether it’s a real one even the reverse email search free can do that.

Searching on forums or message boards: This is the most common reverse email search-free method. If you search for the given email address on one of these sites, you may come across the account owner in question and, thus, do a reverse email search free. 

Remember that the email account owner might not have made some information public. Thus, some of these free reverse email lookup ways to conduct a reverse email search might not reveal information on the owner of the email address. This is the principal disadvantage of doing a reverse email search free.

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What Is a Reverse Email Lookup?

If you receive an email from an unfamiliar or potentially malicious address, a reverse email search service, whether a reverse email search free or paid, is a helpful online resource for learning more about the sender and the nature of the communication.

It can also research prospective employees or customers (for marketing and sales professionals). Both paid and free reverse email searches are viable for this.

The information received may be as following:

  • All social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.)
  • Senders’ real full name
  • Full current address
  • Senders’ photos
  • Their phone numbers, both mobile and landline
  • Aliases, if they have any

Why Use Email Lookup Tools?

Email search technologies have become indispensable nowadays. There are three main reasons why they resort to these methods:

  • Marketing: Marketing and sales teams must verify that the email addresses they have obtained are active. It's essential to verify that you're communicating with actual people as soon as possible for your email marketing newsletter to reach its intended recipients.
  • Background checks: Often carried out by experts who need to learn more about someone. Some people use this feature, and their reasons range from wanting to know everything there’s to know.
  • Risk analysis: In the context of fraud protection, risk assessment, and cybersecurity, reverse email search can be helpful for enterprises of all sizes.  

Although the groups above of people are most likely to use these resources, anyone from those industries or even the public may find them valuable at some point. Of course, not every answer is the same. 

Let's consider some things before you commit to trying a paid service or a reverse email search free.

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What Are the Limits of Reverse Email Lookups?

The first restriction is inherent to several email search apps' freemium business models. Several of these businesses base their business model on your search, which is free, but the results cost money. So, therefore, they're not free reverse email lookup methods. 

For marketers, remember that it's not always easy or possible to validate webmail addresses. For instance, hunter.io makes it obvious that it’s intended solely for business use.

After that, there are timing problems to consider. An online retailer, for example, has no choice but to integrate an API for email analysis if it wants to check the validity of customer emails in real-time. It takes risk analysis tools essentially no time at all to get results. 

While using competing services, users must manually enter addresses and wait up to five minutes before seeing any results instead of a reverse email search free.

Email searches and email finders aren’t the same things as reverse email search tools. To discover an email address from a given name is the opposite purpose of an email address search engine. 

The problem is shaky information, especially when using the reverse email search free. One should always prioritize the most recent and reliable information available. 

A simple test, however, indicates that many of the tools suggested here, especially the reverse email search free tools, require going through old sources to gather their public record information details, which defeats the intent.

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What Data Can I Get From an Email Search?

Among the many benefits of email for user research is the abundance of data that can be gleaned from an email address. This is why conducting an "email background check" is another name for using these resources. 

They’re far more particular than, for instance, looking up data related to a device or IP address.

Email Address Validity

To start, a reverse email search can tell you if the given email address is legitimate. Specifically, an SMTP check is performed to ensure this. 

To sum up, the software will request the domain associated with the email address (@gmail.com or @yahoo.co.uk, for example) to see if the address is valid.

Email Domain Type and Quality Verification

There are reputable sites, and some are less reputable. It's all due to how challenging it is to sign up for an account. For instance, despite its professional sound, gmail.com costs nothing, and making an account is a breeze. 

For added safety, certain service providers need extra steps, such as an SMS verification, during the verification process.

The email's age can then be verified as well. It might be more suspect if it was just made. It's possible that a more established address is also more secure, albeit this assumes that it hasn't been compromised by a data leak (see below).

Mywebsite.com and other custom domains' availability can be quickly and easily verified. When this is the case, you may also find out when the domain name was first registered. 

This is standard practice for private and professional websites and email, but scammers can use either.

Email Address and Social Media Lookup

Looking up whether an email address has been used for social network signups is a powerful approach to verifying its authenticity in the modern era. 

This method, which is also referred to as social media profiling, involves seeing if the given email address is associated with any active accounts on sites like LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook.

This is because it’d take an enormous amount of time to manually collect the name, location, workplace, and bio of numerous people. In contrast, a social network lookup tool can do this in a matter of seconds.

Email Address Found on Data Breaches?

The address can be checked against data breach lists with the use of a reputable tool. If an email address turns up in one of these breaches, it can tell us how old it is and how often it's been used, but it might also suggest that a fraudster has gained access to it.

Email Blacklists Check

Looking up the address on public spam watchlists is another approach to see if it has been used by criminals before. 

It's possible that the account holder no longer has access to the inbox, therefore, block anyone who registers with a known spammer address or manually verify their other details, or worse, it could be a malicious address.

Email Address Quality Evaluation

Finally, a piece of information that can be difficult to quantify is the likelihood that the email address was generated by a human as opposed to a bot, or a fraudster, both of which need action quickly. The caliber of the address in question is the email address.

A reliable email profiling software should use string analysis to determine whether an email address appears to have been manually entered or produced automatically. Using a lot of zeroes or other uncommon characters, for instance, can raise eyebrows. 

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Best Practices to Avoid Phishing Email Scams

The sender of an email might not be a friend of yours. Sometimes phishing efforts will get through your spam filter, no matter how effective it is. 

A subset of such people are cyber criminals out to steal sensitive information like bank account details or Social Security numbers. Other people want to plant viruses on your site and hold your data for ransom. 

Unfortunately, there are people in the world who are just as likely to cause damage online as they are in real life.

  1. Never open an attachment or click on a link in an email from someone you don't know and trust. (This is why it’s so important to use a reverse email finder to learn more about the sender.) Infectious malware can be found at some of these links.
  2. Some may seem to lead to a legitimate website, but remember that the URL displayed on your screen may not be the actual one you'll be directed to. It's possible to see the actual destination by hovering over the link, but only if you keep your finger steady.
  3. You should be wary of any emails that claim a huge amount of money has been charged to your credit cards or that your card details need to be updated. Most of the time, they're just phishing attempts designed to trick you into giving out sensitive information to malicious parties. The sender's address in one of these phishing emails will typically be a name or a random string of characters, making it immediately obvious that the message is fraudulent. If you suspect a problem with your Visa account, close your email client, launch your browser, navigate to the legitimate website for your Visa provider, and sign in as you would to view your statement.
  4. In no circumstances should your password be shared with anybody. Not a single respectable group would ever request such a thing.
  5. Don't reuse passwords across several accounts, especially ones that include critical information.
  6. Do routine upkeep on your phone or other electronic equipment. Even though it's a pain, keeping up with all the security patches is essential to ward off the latest threats.
  7. Avoid using insecure websites for financial transactions. All secure websites have a padlock emblem in their address bars and use the format //https:. If the URL begins with //http:, the site isn’t encrypted.
  8. Make sure you're using anti-phishing features in your security software. It’s available from most security suites and checks downloaded files (including any attached ones) for malicious software.

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Best Reverse Email Lookup Tools – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Where Does Reverse Email Lookup Information Come From?

Most email search engines use public sources (OSINT) to improve their results. The device, IP, and social media data are compiled using reverse email lookup programs.

Are Email Lookup Tools Legal?

This is tool and service-specific. Every data used by the top reverse email search engines is GDPR-compliant, meaning they follow all EU regulations and are lawful to use.

Will the Person Know I’m Searching for Them?

The preceding validations don’t affect the user. It's important to remember that, based on the user's privacy settings, viewing their profiles directly may alert them if they use a service like LinkedIn.

What Does an Email’s Domain Type Actually Tell Me?

It's important to remember that the domain can tell us even more about the data we have. Since disposable domains are used for temporary email accounts, they’re especially vulnerable.

Additional scrutiny of custom domains may be warranted because fraudsters might use this tactic to get whitelisted. 

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Best Reverse Email Lookup Tools – Bottom Line

You can choose from several high-quality reverse email lookup programs on the market today. BeenVerified, PeopleLooker, TruthFinder, PeopleFinders, Spokeo, and Intelius are just some of the best options available. 

These resources provide a wide variety of benefits to their users, including thorough search queries, precise and up-to-date information, user-friendly interfaces, various search choices, background checks, and more.

Some of the most useful resources cost money, but others, like searching social media sites online, analyzing email headers, and using reverse email lookup services, are completely free. 

It's possible that the free reverse email lookup options won't be entirely reliable or provide very little information about the person behind the email address.

The greatest reverse email lookup service for you will ultimately be determined by your requirements and budget. Before committing to one tool over another, it's a good idea to review user feedback and compare their features.

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All product names, logos, brands, trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.

DISCLAIMER: You may not use the non-FCRA approved services mentioned in this article or the information they provide to make decisions about consumer credit, employment, insurance, tenant screening, or any other purpose that would require FCRA compliance. These services don’t provide consumer reports and are not consumer reporting agencies. (These terms have special meanings under the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 USC 1681 et seq., (“FCRA”), which are incorporated herein by reference.) 

The information available on our website may not be 100% accurate, complete, or up to date, so do not use it as a substitute for your own due diligence, especially if you have concerns about a person’s criminal history. The services we mention do not make any representation or warranty about the accuracy of the information available through our website or about the character or integrity of the person about whom you inquire. For more information, please review each service’s Terms of Use.

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