You have probably run into a situation where you saw a phone number but didn't know who the owner of the number was. Today we wanted to show you a way that you can find out exactly who owns any phone number out there.

This is a trick that come in handy in many different situations. You might have a phone number that keeps showing up on your call display that you want to look into or maybe you are wondering why a certain keeps showing up on your spouse's cell phone.

Whatever the reason, there's a way that you find out someone's full name, address, location details and background information when all the you have is their phone number. It's the same trick used by law enforcement and detective agencies - let's have a look!

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.

How do you run a search? You just have to type in the phone number you want information on at the company's website. The details on who owns the number is then instantly displayed on your computer screen.

Obviously these companies charge a fee for this service, but it's only a couple of bucks. The better companies will offer the option of paying a flat, one-time fee that gives you access to unlimited searches. This way you can use a search whenever you need to without having to pay again.

You can use the link we included at the bottom of this article to try a free sample search. This will give you a better idea of how this works. This type of search is known as a "reverse phone lookup".

Now even though this type of service isn't expensive, we did want to show you a way that you can potentially find the same information for free.

It's easy to try out - you just have to pull up Google and type in the phone number into the search box. Make sure you use the following format: "555-555-5555" (include the quotation marks) and then hit the search button.

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 free method will work some of the times and is worth giving a shot. If you don't find what you need all you have wasted is a couple of minutes.

A reverse phone lookup comes in handy anytime you have a phone number that you want to find out information on the owner. It's a quick and easy way to get full details on who owns any number. Good luck!