Return to More Tips & Tools

Backgrounding & finding people

One-stop shopping:

Bellingcat’s Online Investigation Tool Kit

Phones and addresses:

DexPages phone book – yellow and white pages for landlines

Spokeo – cell, email, address history

Numberway Phone #s

Backgroundchecks.org

Fastpeoplesearch.com

Email:

Skymem.info for finding email addresses by organization or company

Social media advanced search:

LinkedIn advanced search

Twitter advanced search

Facebook advanced search

Instagram search tips from GIJN

Facebook search via Netbootcamp Search by keywords, name, email, screen name or phone (Note: Privacy settings may block queries.)

GeoSocial Footprint Check your social media footprint

Flickr Geo-located photos

WebMii Profile search engine

Identify Combined web identity (Works with Firefox)

#FirstTweet Find anyone’s first Tweet

SearchSystems.net Public records links

WHOIS Website ownership

Court and penal records:

Courtreference Links to all 50 states’ courts and, for each state, what kinds of cases are filed where. (Note that many states don’t have statewide searches available; you have to search county by county.)

Google scholar courts search Court opinions for cases filed in federal trial and appeals courts; for appellate decisions in state courts (but not trial courts).

Pacer Case search in federal courts. Free registration but a small charge per page if you download documents, so be sure to save them. Add the Recap extension to Chrome or Firefox for free access to documents other Recap users have downloaded from Pacer.

U.S. Tax Court filings

Federal inmate search 1982-present

TheInmateLocator.com

Vinelink.com local and federal custody status, criminal case information

ICE detainee list

Hall of Justice – Sunlight Foundation compilation of national and state criminal justice datasets (not being updated)