Are you trying to find information about a certain person online? You’ll be surprised to know that Spokeo is the tool that can be helpful for it. It is a people search engine that lets you find people’s personal information, such as social media presence and dating profiles, by using names, email addresses, and mobile phone numbers.
Although this site is pretty efficient, many people still ask, “Is Spokeo legit?” In this article, I will discuss these points in detail and cover some things that you need to know before using this platform. Let’s start.
What is Spokeo?
Spokeo is a people search engine that helps users find information from different online and public databases. With this tool, you can find information about others just by using their names or email addresses.
This search engine collects data from 12 billion records and can give you the following details about people:
- Person’s age
- Family relations
- Marital status
- Current and past addresses
- Dating profiles
- Public photos and videos
The platform uses its algorithm to search billions of publicly available records and provide users with the required information. Users just have to provide a person’s name, email address, physical address, or phone number, and the tool fetches relevant information.
Is Spokeo Legit?
Spokeo is a legit and reliable platform. It has millions of users across the world who use it for finding information about anyone they want to. Besides this, Spokeo reviews on different sites vouch for its legitimacy as well.
Still, the information that is provided by the platform is not completely reliable. It’s true that this people search engine fetches data effectively. Still, it can make mistakes.
For example, if you look for a person’s phone number, it will fetch data from social media websites, such as Snapchat and Facebook, that is connected with the number. However, it may fail to give proper information about the previous owner of the number.
This is why you need to be careful of certain things while using Spokeo. That’s what I’m going to discuss in the next section of this article.
What You Need to Know Before Using Spokeo?
To fully understand the answer to the question, “Is Spokeo legit?”, you need to understand a few things before using it. Here are the details of the most important ones:
Not Always 100% Accurate:
The biggest concern about Spokeo is that it is not 100% accurate. It fetches data based on pattern-matching and online connections. For example, if you search for the name “John Peire”, the platform might fetch an email address johnpeire82343@gmail.com.
It calculates that since the first and last names of the person match this address, it might be the email address of the person. However, it’s not an accurate identification all the time.
Privacy Concerns:
Spokeo has some privacy concerns, too. It makes important information instantly accessible to people. It provides people’s names, relationship details, social media accounts, etc., which is a huge invasion of privacy.
Although this data is already publicly available, offering it in the form of a proper report in one place can be a little dangerous for some people.
Not Ideal for Official Background Checks:
If you are looking for a person’s personal information and background details for official purposes, Spokeo is not the right option for you. It collects and delivers data based completely on publicly available data patterns. This information might not be accepted by official authorities.
Paid Search:
If you’re wondering, “Is Spokeo free?”, the answer is no. It’s not free. It charges $0.95 for a single search during the Spokeo free trial period (which is actually just a discount period). Once the period ends, the platform will charge $ $24.95 per month.
Where Does Spokeo Collect Data From?
The Spokeo people search engine mainly collects data from public and semi-public records. It includes:
- Public records, such as court documents and marriage licenses.
- Social media platforms and websites.
- Marketing databases
How to Use Spokeo?
Using Spokeo for searching someone’s information is easy. Here’s a step-by-step process that you can follow:
- Open Spokeo’s dashboard.
- Input the name, email address, physical address, or phone number of the person in the Spokeo search section.
- Click “Search Now”.
- Add the person’s city and state. You can click on “Not sure” if you don’t know which city or state the person is from.
- The site will take a few seconds to analyze data. Click on “Continue” after that.
- Now, select what type of data you want to see specifically. You can select all options, pick only one, or simply skip this part according to your preference.
- Now, the platform will ask a few questions to narrow down the search. You can give answers or skip them.
- You can select which social media platform the searched person might be on (or skip this part as well).
- Provide your information.
- Click on ‘build my report’.
- Once the report is ready, click on ‘Take me to my report’.
- Now, complete your payment process, and Spokeo will give you the report.
How to Spokeo Login?
Logging in to your account on this platform is easy. Here’s how to do it:
- Open the website.
- Click on the login button.
- Now, enter your account credentials to complete the Spokeo login process.
What Information Spokeo Gives You?
Spokeo gives you different types of information about the person. You get to view their name, email addresses, physical addresses, social media details, etc.
To do so, you can use the following options to get this information:
Name Search:
In this option, you need to input the name of the person to find their information.
Spokeo Reverse Phone Lookup Search:
This option uses a person’s phone number to find their name and other information. When you enter the phone number in the search box, the tool fetches all the data and profiles connected to the number for you.
Email Address Search:
In this option, you can add a person’s email address and find relevant information.
Reverse Address Lookup Search:
Instead of using a person’s name, email address, or phone number, you can use their address to find relevant information as well. You can use both a permanent and a temporary address to find this information.
When You Should Use Spokeo?
Using Spokeo randomly for unethical purposes isn’t recommended. You should use the platform in the following cases:
- When you want to find a person who has scammed you on online platforms like Craigslist, and their information isn’t available anywhere else.
- When you want to search for old or lost friends from the past.
- When you are receiving harassing emails, messages, or calls, and want to know who the owner of the number or email address is.
Does Spokeo Leak Your Information?
Spokeo doesn’t really ‘leak’ your information. Instead, it simply aggregates it by collecting it from different public sources. After collecting the data, it offers it in a single report. So technically, the platform is not leaking anything that’s not already available out there.
For what it’s worth, the platform only gives data to authentic users who pay for it. So, it’s very unlikely that someone would look up your information just for fun. Still, if you’re not satisfied with the privacy standards, you can opt out by submitting a removal request on Spokeo’s website.
How to Opt Out of Spokeo?
Opting out of Spokeo is actually a very easy process. Here’s how you can do it:
- First of all, search for your profile on Spokeo.
- Then, copy the URL link to this profile.
- Go to the Spokeo Opt Out section of the platform.
- Input the profile URL and your email address in the relevant sections.
- Fill the reCAPTCHA form and click on “Opt Out”.
- Your opt-out request would be processed in 24 to 48 hours.
Conclusion:
Many people are asking the question, “Is Spokeo legit?”. Well, the answer is yes. It is a legit people search engine that offers personal and social information about people. It collects data from millions of publicly available resources. You can use a person’s phone number, name, or email address to find relevant information.
Although this tool works just fine, it’s not always accurate. It works on pattern-matching rules and can give wrong information as well. Besides this, it’s not free to use, and you have to pay for searching for information. If you’re worried about
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs):
What is Spokeo?
Spokeo is a people search engine that provides personal and social information about people. It uses names, phone numbers, and email addresses to fetch data from millions of different records to provide a person’s information.
Is Spokeo legit?
Yes. Spokeo is a legit platform that offers publicly available information about people. However, it can sometimes offer inaccurate information as well.
Is Spokeo free?
No. Spokeo is not free. It’s a paid platform that charges per search for the first 7 days. After that, it starts charging monthly.
Is Spokeo safe?
Yes. Spokeo is a safe website to use as long as you use it with caution.
What if I want to hide my information on Spokeo?
If you want to hide your information from others on this platform, you can opt out your profile. Simply find your profile data and add its URL in the opt-out section. The platform will remove your data soon.
