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Spokeo review: One of the best people intelligence services in 2024

Spokeo review: One of the best people intelligence services in 2024

One of the best people intelligence services we’ve used.

OUR VERDICT:

For a tool that doesn’t rank high on Google for “people search”, it sure has a lot of people recommending it. And with good reason. Spokeo is one of the best people search tools we’ve reviewed.

Launched in 2010, Spokeo is a popular people search engine that helps you search, connect and know more about the person you’re dealing with. With Spokeo, you can quickly search for information about a person using a small piece of personal information like their name, address, phone number, email address, or username.

Spokeo not only enables you to access over 12 billion records from thousands of data sources, but also offers detailed search reports about the person you’re looking for, which usually include their contact information, photos, location history, social media accounts, family members, court records, and employment information. With Spokeo, you can easily learn more about people around you.

ProCons
+ Accurate & up-to-date data
+ Fast (if you have a paid account)
+ Easy to use
+ Search by name, phone number, address, email, username
+ Billions of records
+ Easy-to-read, industry-leading reports
– No VIN lookup / License plate lookup
– Spokeo charges an addtional fee for Enhanded Reports and Background+ Reports

Try it now

Introduction

In today’s online — very anonymous — world, people are often little more than a name and a profile photo on a screen. As humans, we need more than that. We want to know a little about people before we date them, we want to organize school reunions, we need to chase down unpaid invoices, we need to research online buyers before giving them our money. And this is all very hard if all you know is the person’s name.

Spokeo is a tool that’s designed to help you learn more about a person to help you in these situations. E.g. If you know just their name, phone number, email address, address, or username, you can do a search on that information, and it may tell you all you need to know about that person (and/or their property).

As a daily people intelligence tool, Sokeo can harness over 12 billion records from thousands of industry-leading data sources and organize them into easy-to-understand reports in seconds. Whether you need to identify unknown callers, research your date, or find new customers, with Spokeo, Knowledge is a quick search away.

Note: This review is of Spkeo’s paid service. Nearly all of the features discussed in this post are limited to paid accounts only.

Spokeo: Flexibility

Spokeo offers reverse name lookup, reverse phone number lookup, reverse address lookup, reverse email lookup and reverse username lookup features. In other words, At Spokeo, you just need to enter a name, phone number, address, email or username, then Spokeo will confidentially look up information about the people you’re searching for.

Running a reverse lookup is made simpler by Spokeo. With Spokeo, you don’t need to choose a specific reverse lookup tool; all you need to do is enter the small piece of information you have (such as a name, email address, phone number, etc.) into the search box, and Spokeo will automatically identify the type of information and begin using the appropriate reverse search engine to run the search.

Note, however, that there are tools out there (e.g. BeenVerified) that also allow you to search by email address, social media username and VIN number. So Spokeo definitely isn’t the most flexible people search tool available.

Spokeo: Ease of use

Spokeo’s search process is pretty straightforward. But I found the searching for someone with BeenVerified couldn’t be simpler. Everything is clearly and intuitively laid out, and all the controls are clearly labeled (and behave as expected).

To run a search on Spokeo’s website:

  1. Visit Spokeo’s official website.

    Go to Spokeo.com; enter a name, phone number, email, or address into the search box to perform a search. If you need to search by username, you’ll need to go to Spokeo’s Username Search page.

  2. Select the most relevant results to view.

    Within a few seconds, Spokeo will return a list of search results that match the search query you entered in Step 1. Find the result that matches the individual you’re looking for, and click the SEE RESULTS button to continue.

  3. Unlock profile.

    Click the UNLOCK PROFILE button on the top of the report, then follow the on-screen instructions to continue through the purchase process and create your password.

    Once you’ve set your password and click the FINISH AND CONTINUE TO SPOKEO button, you should see your results immediately.

Spokeo: Speed

In our tests, Spokeo is very slow. When you first search for someone, it’s pretty fast, but when you click through to the report on that person, you get only some of the details you need. To access all available details, you have to purchase an ‘Enhanced report’ (even if you already have a paid subscription). This additional purchase not only makes Spokeo expensive, but also makes the entire process incredibly slow and painstaking.

Spokeo: Anonymity

Through Spokeo, all searches are carried out in confidence. No one will know that you are searching for them.

On your Dashboard, Spokeo does have a Search History function that enables you to look back at earlier searches and see whether any information has changed. The Search History is only visible to the account holder and can be turned off at any moment.

Spokeo: Information found

Spokeo uses proprietary deep web technology to search over billions of name records from their public records database. Besides, Spokeo has a data team that carefully sorts through and compiles over 14 billion records, and it’s their data scientists’ job to validate the data and standardize it to ensure consistency across different data sources.

With Spokeo, you can access a wide range of industry-leading data sources, which contains:

  • 120+ Social Networks
  • 3.9 Billion Historical Records
  • 600 Million Court Records
  • 6 Billion Consumer Records
  • 130 Million Property Records
  • 89 Million Business Records

Spokeo’s informative reports usually include the following data when available:

  • Contact Information
    • Names
    • Aliases
    • Phone Numbers
    • Email Addresses
  • Location History
    • Current Address
    • Past Address
    • Residents
    • Neighbors
  • Family and Associates
    • Family Members
    • Household Demographics
    • Birth Records
    • Marriage Records
  • Social Media Accounts
    • Social Media
    • Usernames
    • Dating Sites
    • Music $ Gaming Accounts
  • Personal Details
    • Birth Information
    • Marital Status
    • Education Level
    • Hobbies + Interests
  • Wealth Data
    • Property Owned
    • Lifestyle Data
    • Investments
    • Estimated Salary
  • Criminal Records*
    • Criminal Records
    • DUIs
    • Sex Offenses
    • and More!

*Available for sale beyond basic report or membership fee.

Users can purchase a Background+ Report or Enhanced Report for an extra charge if they need to perform a deeper dive during their search.

Background+ Report

TheBackground+ Reports may include results on:

  • Public records
    • Death Search Results
    • Marriage & Divorce Search Results
    • Vehicular Accidents
    • DEA Licenses
    • Controlled Substances
    • Concealed Weapons Permits
    • Aircraft Registrations
    • FAA Licenses
    • FAA Pilot Licenses
    • Hunting & Fishing Licenses
    • Firearms & Explosives Licenses
    • Water Crafts
    • Voter Registration
  • Contact Information
    • Best Information for Person
    • Phone Numbers
    • Emails
    • Person’s Name Variations
    • Other Names Tied to the Person
    • Former Phone Numbers
  • Personal Finance
    • Properties
    • Bankruptcies
    • Liens & Judgments
    • Foreclosures
    • Notices of Default on Property
  • Family & Related People
    • Relatives of the Person
    • Cohabitants of Person
    • Current Neighbors
    • Historical Neighbors
  • Work & School
    • Work History
    • Corporate Affiliations
    • Professional Licenses
    • UCC Filings
    • Possible Student Information
    • Possible Student Records

Enhanced Report

The Enhanced Reports may include results on:

  • UCC Filings
  • Professional Licenses
  • Liens and Judgments
  • Hunting and Fishing Licenses
  • FAA Aircraft or Pilot Registrations
  • DEA Registrations
  • Corporate Affiliations
  • Bankruptcy Filings

Spokeo: Cost

Spokeo currently offers two membership plans:

  • 3 Month Membership: $14.95/mo: Cancel anytime. You will be billed $44.85 today and every 3 months thereafter until this subscription is canceled.
  • 1 Month Membership: $19.95/mo: Cancel anytime. You will be billed $19.95 today and every month thereafter until this subscription is canceled.

Spokeo: Legality & ethics

As a leader in the people intelligence industry, Spokeo is legal and compliant with all laws. It’s a legitimate and trustworthy people search service that has not only helped businesses conduct research and mitigate fraud prevention, but also assisted lots of people in reconnecting with friends, family members and more.

Spokeo only accesses information from publicly available sources, including phone books, census records, real estate records, mailing lists, surveys, public social media profiles, and many more. In other words, Spokeo can’t access private information such as text messages, call history and emails.

The information provided by Spokeo can be used for a variety of purposes, from assisting businesses in reducing fraud to confirming ominous callers. However, Spokeo is not a consumer reporting agency as defined by the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), so it’s illegal and you’re not permitted to use the information provided by Spokeo to make any decisions about employment, housing, or any other purpose covered by the FCRA.

In short, as long as the information accquired from Spokeo is not utilized for illicit purposes, using Spokeo is legal and ethical. It is only unethical to use the information gathered from Sokeo unethically.

Spokeo: Verdict

OUR VERDICT:

We’ve reviewed a lot of people search tools, and Spokeo is one of the best we’ve tested so far.

Try it now

Image by jcomp on Freepik

By Justin Zeng

Justin is a technical writer. As a Microsoft 365 Certified: Modern Desktop Administrator Associate, he loves exploring new technologies and writing technical how-to tips to help people fix their computer / phone issues. When he's not writing, there's a 99 percent chance he's reading, playing video games or listening to music.

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