Frequently asked questions

Yes. Searching, reporting and commenting are all free and don't require an account. Bulk lookup and the reputation API for businesses are coming soon.

Number parsing, country, carrier, line type and timezones come from Google's open-source libphonenumber library (the same one Android uses). Reputation comes from anonymous community reports submitted on this site.

Carrier reflects the original allocation of the number. If a number has been ported to a different operator under Mobile Number Portability (MNP), it will still show the original carrier. Treat carrier as a hint, not a guarantee.

Google's libphonenumber dataset only contains area-level geocoding for some countries (e.g. US, UK, China). For Indian mobiles, Vodafone-style allocations are nationwide so only the country is shown. This is a data limitation of the underlying library, not a bug.

We store the number searched so we can build the public reputation page and the “recently searched” feed. We do NOT store who searched it — there is no account, no IP-to-number link kept beyond standard rate-limiting logs.

For a comment you wrote: use the contact form with the comment URL and a short explanation. For your own number's public page: write to us and we'll review it. We don't accept removal requests from third parties acting on behalf of the number holder without proof of ownership.

Use the Report button on any phone page, or go to /report. For official channels (1930 cybercrime helpline, Sancharsaathi Chakshu, cybercrime.gov.in), see the step-by-step guide on /help/report-fraud.

Call 1930 immediately, then block your card from inside your banking app. Full 60-second checklist on the blog: /blog/what-to-do-if-someone-asks-for-your-otp.

A bulk lookup and reputation API is on the roadmap. Drop your details on /contact and we'll add you to the early-access list.

Each report contributes to a weighted reputation score: safe reports add, spam subtracts a little, fraud subtracts a lot. The label (Trusted / Likely Safe / Mixed / Suspicious / Dangerous) is computed live from current reports, so the score updates as soon as new reports come in.

Mixed means the community is split — a roughly equal number of safe and spam reports. This is common for legitimate businesses whose number is also used by spammers spoofing them. Read the comments before deciding.

No. PhoneLookup does not sell user data or search history to third parties.