Run a lookup

Editor

Elliot Marsh

Elliot Marsh edits the DetectiveCheck guides: how reverse lookups work, which tools do what, and how to read a report.

How the guides are written

They are written against the lookup engine this site runs on, so the numbers in them are the ones our own reports use: 75 sources against an email address, 217 platforms against a username, 15 registers against a name, and 9 against a phone number. When a method a guide describes stops working, or a source turns out thinner than it looked, the guide is corrected and its date moves with it.

A crowd of people on a street Guide

Username search: the accounts behind a handle

One handle checked against 217 platforms shows where that name is taken, where it is free, and which profiles are worth opening.

Read it → A corridor of numbered electrical panels Comparison

Epieos alternatives, ranked

They all run the same trick underneath. What separates them is price, coverage, and whether they tell you what failed.

Read it → A crowded departures board Platform

How to find someone's X (Twitter) account

The profile still returns the account ID and the creation date. The follow list is the part X took away.

Read it → A wall of pinned photographs Platform

How to find someone's Pinterest account

A board name is a plan made in public. The pins under it show where each picture came from.

Read it → An unengraved brass plate beside a dark door Guide

The real name behind a username

A handle holds no name. Three places where people signed their own do.

Read it → A parish noticeboard layered with pinned cards Platform

How to find someone's Facebook account

Facebook stopped answering the email question in April 2018, and most tools still selling it are selling a copy of an old list.

Read it → A channel ID that outlives the name in front of it Platform

How to find out who owns a YouTube channel

YouTube prints more about a channel than any other creator platform prints about a profile, and almost none of it is where people look.

Read it → A phone screen showing a chat with an unsaved number Guide

Find a WhatsApp account by number, and read what it shows

The number is the account, so one link settles whether it exists — and four privacy settings decide everything you see after that.

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