If you know how to find someone on Facebook with a phone number, you’ll realise how easy it is for anyone to look someone else up.

Facebook has made some strides in privacy recently, but staying safe and private still largely remains every user’s individual responsibility.

If a mobile phone number is publicly indicated and a user has set his or her privacy settings to public, it’s possible to easily look him or her up by simply doing a reverse phone number lookup on Facebook.

Not sure how to find someone on Facebook with a phone number? What does this mean for your own Facebook privacy? Read on to find out.

Here’s how to find someone on Facebook with a phone number

Not only can you find someone on Facebook with just their phone number, it’s actually really easy to do so if they haven’t set up their privacy settings properly.

(image credit: Lifewire) Looking up anyone on Facebook with just their phone number is surprisingly easy

To find any Facebook user using just a phone number, you can simply do so by following these steps:

On the Facebook mobile app

  1. Open the Facebook app
  2. Tap the magnifying glass icon in the top right
  3. Key in the phone number you wish to look up
  4. Review your search results

On a web browser

  1. Open your browser
  2. Proceed to log in or sign up (if you’re a new user)
  3. Click the search bar at the top left.
  4. Key in the phone number you wish to look up.
  5. Review your search results

You should notice a couple of things when search results finally show up:

  1. Reverse looking up a phone number on Facebook can also reveal what groups a user associated with that phone number is in
  2. Facebook pages where the phone number has appeared in before are also included in the search results
Notice that relevant pages and groups will also show up in the search results.

If the person whose phone number you intend to reverse lookup doesn’t appear in the search results, it’s because that person has:

  • toggled his or her privacy settings so that they won’t show up, or
  • that the person did not associate their profile with their phone number in the first place.

If you find anyone else with a phone number, so can anyone else find you

Just as you can find someone on Facebook by their phone number, anyone else can also do the same to you.

By performing a reverse number lookup on Facebook, anyone can not only identify who you are, but also see which groups you’re in and what pages you’ve interacted.

It’s almost like having your entire history of interactions on Facebook completely exposed.

All it takes is just one phone number, and that’s why you should not:

  • Sign up for a Facebook account with your actual phone number
  • Openly display your phone number on your Facebook profile
  • Share your actual phone number on Facebook pages and groups
  • Disclose your actual phone number in any Facebook post

Only use second phone numbers on Facebook

Still, you won’t be able to sign up for a Facebook account without a phone number.

Instead of using your actual phone number, consider getting a second phone number just for Facebook. Ideally, this second phone number should be an untraceable burner phone number.

Get a second phone number for Facebook with Phoner. 

Not sure where to get second phone numbers from? You can easily get reliable and untraceable phone numbers with our own Phoner burner phone number app.

Don’t want others to look you up on Facebook by phone number?

If you’ve already signed up for a Facebook account using your actual phone number or want to continue using your actual phone number on Facebook, you can stop others from performing a reverse phone number lookup on you by taking these steps:

Follow these steps to prevent others from looking you up on Facebook by phone number
  1. Click the inverted triangle icon in the top right of Facebook
  2. Select Settings
  3. Choose Privacy
  4. Under How People Find and Contact You, change who can look you up using the phone number you provided to “Only me”.

As privacy advocates, we highly recommend that you do the same for:

  • who can look you up using the email address you provided
  • whether search engines outside of Facebook can link to your profile

Take note that changing this setting does not mean that no one else look you up on Facebook with your phone number.

If you share your phone number with friends, they can still see it, as well as other people depending on their privacy settings. Other people can also look you up by phone number via Facebook Messenger.  To prevent this, consider linking Messenger with a fake phone number instead.

Keep your phone number private on Facebook

Given how easy it is to find someone on Facebook by phone number, it’s important to take phone number privacy on Facebook seriously.

By using a fake phone number on Facebook and setting your Facebook privacy settings right, you can stop others from easily discovering your identity with just your phone number.

And that’s how to find someone on Facebook with a phone number. Always keep your phone number private on Facebook, and be careful when sharing other personal information on any social network!