There are no mobile phone numbers on our business phone number database.

For each of the decision makers we have phone numbers for in businesses, schools, and the public sector, we list both UK landline and mobile phone numbers. Which phone number we list on our phone number database is up to the company or organisation listed on it.

For mobile phone numbers listed on our database, you can either phone them or SMS (text message) them. Although sending a text message can prompt an existing customer into a response, we have found that sending a text message as a first marketing contact where the client doesn’t know you is ineffective.

Phone numbers in the United Kingdom have a set format. Every UK landline phone number (except emergency services and 118 enquiries) starts with an area code. Area codes denotes the geographical area of the UK from which the call was made. A telephone number may have a four or five digit area code beginning with 01 or 02.

Mobile phone numbers have a five digit intro (07xxx) and a six digit code – mobile phone numbers have no area codes nor are they affixed to any postal addresses. There are also non-geographic numbers like freephone numbers and premium rate numbers.

On our UK telemarketing databases, each entry is listed with area codes first and the remaining part of the number in a different field.

Traditionally, you would use either the Yellow Pages, the telephone directory, or directory enquiries. Mass printing of the UK Yellow Pages (published by BT) has now ceased and the UK Yellow Pages now exists as an online telephone directory only at the Yell.com website.

In many areas, BT (“The Phone Book”) and Thomson (“Thomson Directory UK”) have also stopped printing a local telephone directory based upon a central area code. In the telephone directories they printed, they listed both residential telephone numbers and business telephone numbers. Previously, you could use telephone directories to find a home phone number or business phone by using an alphabetical search. However, as with Yell, printed publication of telephone directories has now ceased and it is available online at The BT UK Phone Book website. To look up a number on the BT site, use the search box to “find a business” or “find a person“.

There are many directory enquiries numbers you can choose from too – please see a list here. Calling these services attracts considerable costs and, as a result of that and the rise of online 118 directories, demand for them has slumped in recent years.

Reverse phone lookup services are sometimes called reverse phone number lookup, reverse phone look up, reverse phone number search, criss-cross directory, Lookup UK sites, or a gray pages directory. Reverse phone lookup services act like a phone number checker – you enter the number into the reverse phone lookup provider’s website and it lets you know all the information it has about that number.

To complicate matters, UK phone numbers and text message numbers can be “masked“.

There are plenty of reverse lookup websites where you can type in a UK telephone number or overseas telephone number and find out who it was who call you. These resources allow you enter the landline or mobile phone number which has called you and then it will let you know.

The best known reverse phone number lookup service is Google’s. When you receive calls from unrecognised numbers, you type those numbers into Google and it will search for that phone number for you. In most cases, the phone number will turn out to be a United Kingdom phone number belonging to a business. Google’s reverse phone lookup however is surprisingly effective at giving you information and a lot of details on the identity of people and organisations making a phone call to you from abroad.

But what if Google has no details of a number which has just called you? There are a number of Lookup UK services which will be listed on Google’s search results pages like WhoCalledMe and Who-Called. These services have as the number of scam calls made to UK businesses and consumers has increased. If you do not recognise a number or the number is withheld and you suspect it might be a scam call, you can enter the potential scam caller’s number into the reverse phone lookup number website you’ve visited. Whilst it won’t give you the name, address, or company name of the person calling you, you can see if they’ve called other numbers in the United Kingdom. If they have, you can read other people’s opinions on whether this is a scam organisation are not.

These Lookup UK resources are very useful for discovering whether the callers ringing you are from scam outfits or not. Scam outfits also use SMS (text messages) too often pretending to be HMRC or the bank. They’ll indicate that something is wrong with your account and give you a number to call. The problem is that the phone numbers they’ll give you will be a premium rate service number which will cost you a fortune if you’re calling it from a landline or a mobile. If you call a premium rate service number from your mobile, you’ll be liable to pay an access charge on top.

If you receive text messages and you’re not sure about the UK phone number of UK web address you’ve been told to visit, the best advice is to ignore it or to report it to Citizens Advice.

Lookup UK sites however have their limitations. On all searches you carry out, the details they have on each phone number are limited.

Although the information these sites have in their resources is vast, they do not have access to nor own a phone company – the only organisations which will know the true identity of a phone number is BT or the other company to which they rent the numbers from.

What about ex directory numbers? When you receive calls from ex directory numbers, your landline or mobile phone display will normally show you that the number is withheld so they’re no good for lookup services. In addition, ex directory numbers are not listed in the records of the BT online phone book. The only time you are likely to see an ex directory number on an online phone directory is when it’s part of a paid-for or free online listing.