REVIEW: Cellphone lookup service returns disappointing results

Editor’s Note: Welcome to Yay or Nay, a feature for RCR Wireless News’ new weekly e-mail service, Mobile Content and Culture. Every week we’ll review a new wireless application or service from the user’s point of view, with the goal of highlighting what works and what doesn’t in the mobile content industry. If you wish to submit your application or service for review, please contact us at rcrwebhelp@crain.com.
Service: Intelius Inc.’s cellphone lookup service
Running on: Desktop computer
Yay: Interesting concept, other than that whole creepy vibe of someone being able to look up your cellphone number.
Nay: The company doesn’t say upfront that its searches require 24-72 hours for their “search specialists” to complete-and more than half my searches weren’t completed 10 days later.
We say: On first learning of this service, my initial reaction was, “Isn’t this an e-mail hoax that I get every few months? Nobody really has access to my cellphone number, right?”
Bellevue, Wash.-based Intelius Inc. recently announced that its Web-based number look-up tool can find both wireline and wireless numbers. Right on its home page in bright, red letters, it claims to include wireless in its searches, along with unlisted, unpublished, residential, business and Internet numbers.
So, to test the service, I entered my cellphone number into the search field. The Intelius system replied that the number was for a landline phone, and that a name for the owner of the number was available. I went ahead with the order.
But before I was able to complete the order, Intelius offered me a “premium confirmation service” for another $5, which “confirms phone connections and current addresses in this report against public utilities.” The system also popped up another offer for an “e-mail phone report” for $1.50. I declined both.
Then, things got shadier. Instead of the results screen I was expecting, up popped a page thanking me for my successful order and offering me a chance to take a three-question survey to get signed up for some odd mish-mash of credit monitoring, roadside assistance and discounts on gift cards from AceHardware and Sears for $15 a month after a 7-day free trial period.
Yeah, no thanks.
I finally completed the order, and was informed that the search will take 24-72 hours to complete. Unfortunately, after 10 days I still had not received any results on the search.
In order to test the system, I also conducted a few more searches, including a search for the wireless number for presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.). Not likely to be a commonly duplicated name, I figured.
And to my surprise, Intelius said it not only had 17 results for phone lines for Barack Obama, the first two results were a Nextel line and a Verizon Wireless line, both based out of Cook County, Ill.-which makes complete sense for the senator from Illinois. I took Intelius up on its offer to check out all the numbers for $15.
Unfortunately, when my results turned up several days later, neither of the wireless numbers were accurate. The Nextel line was correctly identified as such, but the friendly man who answered it informed me that the phone was actually a Cook County jail number-to an undercover narcotics phone, nonetheless.
“Somebody gave you some wrong information,” he told me kindly when I explained what I was up to.
I got the voicemail of a pleasant-sounding young woman named Rebecca when I called the Verizon number that was provided. Strike two, Intelius.
I tried five searches for cellphone numbers, total-three for information that I already knew, as a way to test the service, as well as for Barack Obama and-just for fun-Verizon Communications President and COO Denny Strigl. The number Intelius returned for Strigl was based in Atlanta, Ga., and went straight to a fast busy signal every time I tried it.
Searches for the remaining three-the three that I already knew-had not been fulfilled at all after 10 days.
All in all, Intelius’ wireless number lookup returned disappointing results. But at least I feel reassured that no one will be able to access my cellphone number unless I give it to them.