Frequently Asked Questions

1. What is Spokeo?
2. How do I perform a search?
3. Where does Spokeo get its data?
4. Does Spokeo guarantee data accuracy?
5. What is a Spokeo Premium Subscription?
6. Do I get unlimited searches?
7. Are my searches private?
8. How do I cancel my recurring subscription?
9. How do I opt out of Spokeo/remove my listing?
10. What is the best way to contact you/find out the latest Spokeo news?

1. What is Spokeo?

Spokeo is a People Search Engine that allows you to search for anyone via Name Search, Reverse Email Search, Reverse Phone Search or Username Search. Spokeo specializes in aggregating and organizing vast quantities of people-related information from a large variety of public sources. The public data is amassed with lightning speed, and presented almost instantly in an integrated, coherent, and easy-to-follow format.

While an individual could on their own, for example, potentially locate a person’s phone number or address by searching phone books, then redirect their search to a county tax assessor’s office to determine a home’s value, they would have to conduct literally hundreds of searches to discover all of the information available through only a single search on Spokeo.

Spokeo’s unique and powerful algorithms can swiftly navigate, sift through, and collect multitudes of scattered data that are spread across hundreds of locations, and synthesize that information in one convenient summary, delivering the most comprehensive snapshot of people-related, public data offered online to date. The search results represent an unparalleled mosaic of the vast stockpiles of public information accessible, and can offer invaluable insight into both the individual being searched, as well as the different types of information published.

2. How do I perform a search?

Spokeo supports four types of searches. To begin, enter any First and Last name, Phone Number, Email Address, or Username and click “Search”. Spokeo’s search bar is intuitive, and will automatically detect the type of search entered. All available results will be displayed once the search is complete. For more information on performing searches, as well our Friends feature (which allows you to import contacts and keep track of all their social network updates), click here.

3. Where does Spokeo get its data?

Spokeo is a search engine specialized in aggregating people-related information from phone books, social networks, marketing lists, business sites, and other public sources. Unfortunately, we do not have information to the specific sources we pull data from, as there are more than 50 of them. We apologize, and will alert Spokeo users if a source-revealing feature becomes available.

4. Does Spokeo guarantee data accuracy?

Spokeo aggregates data from over 50 types of sources.  While some sources (phone books, real estate listings, etc.) are generally accurate, others range from online surveys and marketing lists, and these can be fairly inaccurate at times. Spokeo does not originate or create data, so Spokeo’s data is only as good as its original sources. Spokeo does not guarantee data accuracy, and its data should only be used as a reference.

5. What is a Spokeo Premium Subscription?

Spokeo People Search allows you to search for anyone by Name, Reverse Email, Reverse Phone or Username. Our Premium membership gives you exclusive content not available to non-subscribers, and is activated immediately after payment is processed.

Some examples of the kind of information our Name Search can yield are:

• Address
• Phone Number
• Email Address
• Age
• Marital Status
• Ethnicity
• Wealth Estimate
• Education

Some examples of the kind of information our Reverse Email Search and Username Search can yield are:

• Profiles on social networks such as Facebook, MySpace or Twitter
• Profiles on dating websites like Match.com and OKCupid
• Photos on networks such as Flickr or PhotoBucket
• Videos from sites like YouTube and Vimeo
• Reviews of products on shopping sites such as Amazon or eBay
• Blogs submitted over blogging sites such as Blogger and LiveJournal

Some examples of the kind of information our Reverse Phone Search can yield are:

• First and Last Name
• Address
• Age
• Marital Status

Please visit our Plans page for our price plans and search quotas. For more information on Spokeo Premium, click here.

6. Do I get unlimited searches?

All of our subscription plans are under a monthly search quota limit. This implementation will not only ensure that your email searches continue to remain smooth and quick, but will allow us to add more supported networks into our database in the future.

We wish to point out, however, that your account’s search quotas reset automatically every month, providing you full, comprehensive access again thereafter (unused searches will not roll over). Please visit our Plans page for our price plans and search quotas.

7. Are my searches private?

Yes. All searches you perform are completely anonymous. We do not disclose your search history to anyone.

8. How do I cancel my recurring subscription?

All subscriptions will be automatically renewed for the same term until you cancel. You can cancel your subscription under your Account Settings at any time without any question asked. Once canceled, you will still enjoy all premium benefits until the end of your then-current subscription term, and your subscription will not be renewed after that term expires. For further assistance, please contact Customer Support.

9. How do I opt out of Spokeo/remove my listing?

Spokeo respects your privacy, and you can easily opt out of Spokeo’s public search if desired. Please note that since the information aggregated by Spokeo is publicly available, opting out of Spokeo does not remove the information from its original sources, which are hundreds of additional websites. You can remove the search results derived from performing any Name Search, Reverse Phone Search, Reverse Email Search and Username Search here.

To remove your Name/Phone/Email/UsernameListing(s):

1. Locate the listing to remove (for name listings, please select the state, city, then exact profile match)
2. Copy the URL (the URL can be found on the top of your browser and should look something like “http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=Smith%20Sample#Sample:1219812367″)
3. Go to www.spokeo.com/privacy
4. Paste the URL
5. Provide your email address (this acts as a verification process for the confirmation to be sent to your Inbox) and Captcha Code (Image Verification Code)
6. Check you Inbox for the confirmation email, and click on the link on the bottom to complete the removal process.
7. The directory listing will become flagged and will be removed within 1 business day.

If you are seeing any error messages, please see below for the solution to some common issues:

Incorrect URL
- Please ensure that you click on the exact profile that contains your address. Correct URLs typically end with numbers. Example: http://www.spokeo.com/search?q=Smith%20Sample#Sample:1219812367

Incorrect Captcha Text
-Type in the code provided exactly how it shows. Before you type in the code, make sure that all other fields are correct. Try using different browsers, such as Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome.

“In order to prevent abuse, we must limit the frequency of privacy requests. Please try again later.Government officials please use your @.gov email address for priority processing.”
- Spokeo understands your privacy concerns, and provides a convenient way to remove your listings from public searches. However, this feature has been abused before, so in order to prevent spammers, bots and others from removing hundreds of listings at a time, all users are allowed to remove a limited number of listings each week per IP address. If you are seeing this error message at work, your limit may already be exceeded by other co-workers who are also trying to remove their listings. Our servers will read the requests as coming from the same IP address since multiple people are trying to remove listings from the same location. Please wait to remove your listing from your home computer, or try again the next day.

If you require further assistance removing your listing(s), please contact Customer Support.

10. What is the best way to contact you/find out the latest Spokeo news?

You can email us anytime via our Contact page. We respond to all inquiries quickly and thoroughly, so send away! As for Spokeo news, please refer to our blog, where we post information on site changes and update and much more. Also: follow us on Facebook and Twitter!