~/PhoneInfoga$ python3 -m pip install -r requirements.txt To use Phoneinfoga, open a terminal window and enter the following four commands one by one or at the same time. To supplement the information you find online later, you can use a Python tool called Phoneinfoga, which allows you to search for details about phone numbers from the command line. How would we verify this? If the ad claims to be from a licensed professional, could we track down a license attached to the phone number? A simple reverse phone number lookup may find something, but to see the real data, you have to dig deeper and utilize more than just one reverse number lookup tool. Don't Miss: Use the Buscador OSINT VM for Conducting Online InvestigationsĪs an example, we'll take a sample business listing from a classified ad.Many of these tools are already in Buscador OS, a virtual machine that can be run to provide an operating system geared towards OSINT investigations. This website contains several custom tools that Bazzel had organized to be useful for researchers. One of the best resources for OSINT is Mike Bazzel's IntelTechniques website, which we'll also be focusing on here. Today, we'll be using a tool called Phoneinfoga to quickly determine if the number is associated with a disposable phone number. Command line tools give the advantage of simple operation and greater customization but require you to have Python installed and updated. You can see how it used to work, however, in the video and text below.įor quickly searching through phone numbers, we can use both command-line and browser-based tools. Phoneinfoga will still work in this guide, but for the others, you can try using each company's individual tool instead. Don't Miss: Use Facial Recognition for OSINT on Individuals & CompaniesĮditor's note: The OSINT Tools by Mike Bazzel featured in this article was taken down from his website due to increased DDoS-style attacks, as well as DMCAs and cease-and-desists from some of the tools included.Once a hacker can identify other details about the target that may be attached to the phone number, it's easy to identify the weakest link and attack the target using whatever information that's dug up. A quick scan to discover the carrier of a phone number can provide everything a hacker needs for a well-crafted phishing email pretending to be from the victim's carrier. In the event of buying something online or replying to an apartment ad, this information is incredibly useful to know.įor a hacker, the ability to turn a phone number into multiple connected online accounts, email addresses, or screen names makes it a perfect starting point for bigger things to come. The data can be used to detect whether a phone number is a throwaway VoIP number used to hide the owner's identity or a cell phone belonging to a real person. While a phone number may not seem like much information to give out, an OSINT researcher can quickly discover information that ties a phone number to a variety of other clues. It can include the carrier, the owner's name and address, and even connected online accounts.

Starting with a phone number, we can search through a large number of online databases with only a few clicks to discover information about a phone number. Phone numbers often contain clues to the owner's identity and can bring up a lot of data during an OSINT investigation.

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