Best Reverse Email Lookup Tools

Business email addresses are accessible on public platforms, which makes it easier to reach out to companies and business owners. But there is a catch: anybody with an internet connection can obtain your email address, including prospects, spambots, and hackers.

With experts reporting that cyber threats increased by 28% over the past year, you need to be careful when responding to emails. That’s why you need a reverse email lookup tool.

In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of reverse email address lookup. We’ll also share some great tools for confirming the authenticity of email addresses.

What is Reverse Email Lookup?

Searching for the owner of an email with a dedicated tool is the closest definition of reverse email lookup. This process helps business owners and private individuals alike determine if an unknown sender is genuine.

You can use a reverse search to verify the following information about the sender:

• Names and aliases
• Address and contact information
• Business phone numbers and social media profiles
• Images, videos, and digital paper trail (publications, criminal records, etc.).

Why Use Reverse Email Lookup Tools?

Businesses, individuals, and public agencies use reverse search tools for the following reasons:

Verify identity

With reverse searches, you can confirm the sender’s identity. This will help you identify and block malicious emails if they make it past the spam filter.

Imagine a legit-looking message from “Jack from Twitter” ([email protected]) asking for cooperation on a business venture. Instead of opening the link and potentially introducing malware into your systems, you could run a quick email name lookup to see if the person is legit or scam-likely.

By the way, that’s the real Jack Dorsey.

Fend off cyber criminals

Verifying the user’s identity also helps determine if the sender is a criminal or a genuine prospect. The standard trick scammers and hackers use to trap unsuspecting users is the impersonation phishing scam. 

Here is how it works: the scammer copies the layout, logo, header, and subject line of a legitimate company (Yahoo, for example). Then, they get a business account with a similar business domain name—yahoo.org or yahoo-inc.com instead of authentic yahoo.com.

If you don’t pay proper attention to the domain name, you could easily fall victim to a phishing scam.

Source: Broadcom

Other cyber attacks you can prevent with the help of reverse email search include spoofing, whaling, and business email compromise (BEC).

Find out additional information

Email address lookup also helps you gather additional information about the sender. This feature is perfect for background checks, especially when working with a prospective client. The search tool will show you their contact information and social media accounts, making it easy to generate a profile.

Fine-tune marketing campaigns

Marketers also need email look-up software to ensure their leads are genuine and thereby able to convert. This strategy will help you clean up your mailing list while establishing your domain as spam-free. Otherwise, you will sully the reputation of your business email — and your marketing efforts will end up in spam folders.

8 Reverse Email Lookup Tools

Free reverse email search tools and browser extensions can help expose fraudulent accounts before they harm your business or personal life. Let’s discuss them in further detail.

Spokeo

Spokeo is an email lookup tool used by several top companies in real estate, banking, healthcare, etc. This tool uses advanced crawlers to search through billions of consumer, business, and property records to find the closest matches for any email address.

When you reverse-search an email address using Spokeo, you’ll be able to discover the sender’s location, aliases, business affiliations, criminal records, social media presence, and contact information.

Pricing: 

• One-month membership — $19.95/month
• Three-month membership — $14.95/month ($44.85)

Snov.io

Snov is a lead-gen solution used by marketers and salespeople for planning and executing email campaigns, especially when targeting new audiences and nourishing existing leads.

You can use the Email Finder tool to locate the contact information of valuable prospects before contacting them. With the Email Verifier, you can confirm the identity of the person sending stuff to your inbox.

Snov also gives you access to other integrations like Salesforce, Hubspot, Nutshell, Pipedrive, and Zoho CRM.

Pricing: 

• Trial — Free
• Starter — $39/month ($30/month if billed annually)
• Pro — $99/month ($75/month if billed annually)
• Custom  — $999/month

Email Sherlock

As the name indicates, Email Sherlock is an online “detective” tool that allows you to find out the identity of an unknown email sender. This tool also provides further details about the owner of the email address. 

However, Email Sherlock is no match to other premium reverse search services. Previous users have complained about the inaccuracy of the data the tool provides on several occasions.

Pricing: Free

Social Catfish

Catfishing has been an online menace since the internet made its way into households. So, it makes sense for a company to dedicate its resources to combating this problem. 

That’s where Social Catfish busts through the door. This reverse lookup tool helps internet users verify the name, email, username, picture, and phone number of any suspicious profile. You can go through the existing directory of previous searches to save time.

Pricing: 

• Basic Search — Free.
• Reverse Phone Lookup — $24.95.
• Reverse Email Lookup — $29.95.
• People Search — $49.95.
• Full Background Check — $79.95.

Hunter.io

Hunter is an email tool that helps users — especially business owners and marketers — create cold email campaigns. At the same time, Hunter provides reverse lookup services for verifying contact information, including email addresses, phone numbers, and domains.

Apart from giving you multiple services at an affordable price, Hunter also uses advanced filters and scores to qualify the hits resulting from your search. You can also save new contacts as leads and export them to a CSV file.

Not only that, Hunter.io gives you access to add-ons like MailTracker and TechLookup. You can also add the extension to Edge, Chrome, and Google Sheets.

Pricing:

• Free
• Starter — $49/month ($34/month if billed annually)
• Growth — $99/month ($69/month if billed annually)
• Pro — $199/month ($139/month if billed annually)
• Business — $399/month ($279/month if billed annually)

WHOIS search

WHOIS is a public repository that automatically logs every domain name purchase. This vast library of business information is the perfect place to gather information about the person you want to contact.

This is the result of an email search for Jack from Twitter. You can see that the site provides a detailed timeline and records of the site’s owner.

Pricing: Free

Google

A quick Google search can help you figure out if the person contacting you is legit. As shown in the earlier-mentioned case of “Jack from Twitter,” Google email lookup can also show the person’s entire internet activity. If the sender claims to be a high-profile prince with an unclaimed inheritance, you can spot the bull crap from a nautical mile.

Pricing: Free

Social networks

Facebook and other social networks support email reverse lookup. Think about it: most people sign up with their email addresses, so their profiles should pop up whenever you search for their email.

Pricing: Free

Key Considerations When Choosing Reverse Email Lookup Tools

Before conducting any free email lookup, you need to consider the following:

• Security: Sites like WHOIS that offer reverse email search free are usually secure. Nevertheless, you need to vet every tool, paid or free, before using them.
• Data accuracy: Although paid reverse search tools promise additional info about the sender in question, you can find every piece of information you want via free email reverse lookup.
• Speed: Always look for tools that can instantly return search results because every second could make a significant difference.
• Features: Go for tools with advanced features and several reverse search options. Services like Hunter and Snov integrate seamlessly with sales CRMs. You can also use them for cold email outreach.
• Cost: Some reverse email search tools are free, while others are available for a price. To get the most accurate results, choose the service with proven customer satisfaction and advanced features.

You can also use a tool like Free Email Tracker for Gmail to monitor how many times the recipient opens your message. Marketers can harness this tool to know when to follow up on a lead or when to look for fresh prospects.

Conclusion 

Conducting a free email search will help you verify the identity of email owners, as well as protect your valuable digital assets from falling into the wrong hands. Whether you use a paid tool or get email lookup free, ensure the tool and the information come from a reliable source. Use multiple sources to cross-reference the data discovered from your search.