Anyone can hide behind a username online and that can be pretty scary, especially if someone is harassing you or trying to strike up a friendship with you and you want to know if you can trust them. The best way to find the identity behind a username is to perform a reverse username search, but it’s not the only way. Here are some tips to help you identify the person behind a username without using a search tool.
Check Other Social Media Sites
People are creatures of habit and they tend to use the same username on all their social media accounts. If they don’t use the exact same username, then they often use one that is very similar. As a result, one of the best ways to find out who is behind a username is to search for that username on other social media sites. If someone is trying to hide their identity on a specific application, they may not think to hide it everywhere, which means you can find their other profiles to identify them.
If the exact same username can’t be found on other sites, try variations of that username to see what comes up. For example, if someone’s username on Snapchat is ColoradoCoolCat, you might try ColoCoolCat or COCoolCat on other sites to see if any of those variations are in use and if they are the same person as the one you’re looking for.
Use Google
Google is an excellent tool for identifying the person behind a username, and the best part is that it’s free. To perform a Google username search, type it into the search box and surround it with quotation marks. So, ColoradoCoolGuy would be “ColoradoCoolGuy” in the search box. These quotation marks tell Google to only provide results that are the exact same as what you have entered so you won’t have to sift through a bunch of irrelevant results.
The results you do get will probably be other social media sites, but they could be better than what you get when you search directly on a social media site because Google will find any mentions of this username in conversations with other people. This way, you can find the person’s friends and search for their profile and identity through them. You may have to dig for a while using this method, but it’s effective as long as the person behind the username has any non-private or semi-private accounts.
Just Ask
The best way to find out who is behind a username may be just to ask them. If they’re legitimate, they’ll answer your questions honestly and you’ll be able to perform more research on their real name once they give it to you. If they’re not legitimate, you’ll learn that pretty quickly when they don’t want to reveal who they are. When someone goes to great lengths to hide who they are and won’t be honest with people they’re interacting with online, they probably aren’t up to any good.
Conclusion
There aren’t many ways to find out the identity of someone who is hiding behind a username without a reverse search tool, but there are some techniques you can try, like the ones mentioned here, if you’re willing to put in the work to dig for details.
