Cell phone records are documents of a person's incoming and outgoing calls that are maintained by a cell phone service provider. Obtaining your own cell phone records is a relatively easy task. However, it can be far more challenging to get the cell phone records of another person such as a family member or a spouse you suspect of infidelity. This minHour article shows you how to get cell phone records for someone else's phone as well as your own.
Your Own Records
Look through your records online.
Most cell phone companies allow you to access the same information online that you would get in along with any physical billing statement, but you must have an online account to see your records.
- Register for an account on your cell phone provider’s website if you have not already done so. You may have to create a unique username (some will allow you to use your telephone number or an email address) and password. The process may go faster if you have your account information at hand.
- After logging in, look for options such as anything labelled “Call Details” or “Call Records.” If such options are not available on the opening screen, you may need to look for headings that include words such as “Usage.” Understand, however, that certain proxies will only inform you of outgoing calls. If you need a full phone record–including the incoming calls for which many plans no longer charge–then your usage record may not do.
Contact your cell phone provider.
If you have lost the records sent to you or cannot locate the records online, the best remaining option is to contact your phone provider. They are mandated by law to keep the records, and should be able to provide them to anyone who can prove that they are the main account holder.
- Be prepared to provide personal information that will assist the customer service representative in identifying your account, including your account number, cell phone number, current home address, and possibly the last four digits of your social security number.
- Because your cell phone provider should have provided this information to you in a monthly statement, they may charge you a fee for providing this information to you again.
Set up a “trap”.
If you are trying to identify who is responsible for the harassing robocalls or calls of a stalker but the caller’s number only appears as “unknown,” they are actively blocking your caller ID. The actual number won’t even show up on most phone records. In this case, contact the phone company and ask that “trap” be put on your phone. This will identify all numbers that call you and unblock your caller ID. The number will no longer appear on your phone records as “unknown,” and the people responsible can be identified.
Check your bills.
If you receive a monthly bill, included with it will likely be a record of your phone calls and text messages for the last billing cycle.
- If you do not yet have an urgent need for your cell phone records but feel you may have use of them in the future, store them in a safe and secure place.
- The record should include certain basic information, including the date, the time the call was placed, the duration of the call, and (in some cases) any special features that were activated during the call (for example, in-call recording).
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Another Person’s Records
Understand the legal limits.
You cannot easily obtain the phone records of any person–even your spouse–if their account is in no way linked to your name. If you do obtain the records without the consent of the account holder, the records remain inadmissible as evidence in court.
Check for the records in the bills you have received.
If a person is making harassing phone calls or you suspect someone who shares your cell phone plan of making inappropriate calls, you should have a record on your cell phone bill.
- Frequently, the records you receive will be divided by the phone used to place or receive the calls. Less organized records will jumble them all together, but will still list the number of the sending and receiving phones.
Look for the records online.
Again, the phone company should have complete records of all incoming calls and outgoing calls made to or from anyone on your cell phone plan. Whether you are trying to identify a stalker or keep an eye on your children and spouse, the phone company will have records that can help you.
- You may have to first create an online account in order to access your records on the phone provider’s website.
- After logging in, look for options such as anything labeled “Call Details” or “Call Records.”
Contact the cell phone service provider.
Ask for a new copy of the records if they cannot be found any other way. They are mandated by law to keep the records and should be able to provide them to anyone who can prove that they are the main account holder.
- Be prepared to provide personal information that will assist the customer service representative in identifying your account, including your account number, cell phone number, current home address, and possibly the last four digits of your social security number.
Obtain records via a subpoena.
The cell phone records of an estranged spouse can be obtained when you are in the middle of a court case by having them subpoenaed. This is the legal method of obtaining cell phone records that your lawyer can use in a court case.
- You can only subpoena phone records are part of a court proceeding–that is, through a lawsuit or divorce. The subpoena will usually have to be approved by a judge, though that differs based on the type of proceedings.
- Instead of getting a subpoena, you could purchase cell phone records from a data broker that charges a fee to obtain the records. These data brokers often operate businesses of questionable legality (depending on the methods they used to obtain the records), and most commonly they are not admissible in court.
Tips
- Some carriers like Verizon and Sprint don’t give out your text message information, so you’ll need to continue with a lawyer to get your text message records.
- Other companies like AT&T don’t keep the information contained in text messages, so they won’t be able to provide you with a detailed record. You might instead need to get the deleted texts from your phone.
Warnings
- Data brokers may use fraudulent means to get the cell phone records that they sell. They often use a procedure called pretexting that involves calling the service provider and pretending to be the person whose records they are trying to obtain.