How to Investigate a Person for Free

Use the Internet to investigate people for free.

The Internet is a powerful tool that can be used to find a wealth of information on virtually anyone. As long as you know the first and last name of the person you're investigating, you can potentially discover his date of birth, address, personal pictures, relationship status, achievements, failures, website activity, political views and so much more. Finding this information is easy and can be done for free; you just need to know where to look.

Instructions

1. Search for the individual on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and other social networking websites. People tend to post a significant amount of personal information and photos on these websites and many have their profiles set so that they are either partially or completely visible to the public.

2. Enter the first and last name of the person you are searching for in brackets at any Internet search engine. If the name appears in any document on the web---such as graduation records, newspaper articles or message forums---you will likely find it through your search. Chances are you will also find information on other people with the same name, so be sure to verify that the person you are reading about is in fact the person you are investigating.

3. Visit the USA.gov website and enter "Public Records," "Criminal Records," "Death Records" or any other public record you wish to find. This website provides free access to government documents and information found on U.S. government agency websites. Most of the links in your search page will take you to another list of links pertaining to your search. When you are redirected to the appropriate website, follow the search instructions on the page.

4. Conduct a reverse look-up on websites such as White Pages, Yellow Pages or AnyWho. You can search using an individual's first and last name to find out her phone number and home address, or use her phone number to find out her first name, last name and home address.

References

• USA.gov: Frequently Asked Questions About USA.gov

Resources

• Search.USA.gov
• White Pages
• Yellow Pages
• AnyWho