Chapter 10: Verification Tools Verifying Identity: Use these online verification tools to find contact details and profiles of users who are active on social media • AnyWho1: a free white pages directory with a reverse look-up function. • AllAreaCodes2: allows users to look up any name and address listed against a phone number. The service is free if the number is listed in the White Pages, and they provide details about unlisted numbers for a small price. • Facebook Graph Search3: provides a streamlined method to locate individuals for the verification of information. Journalists do not need to know the name of the person they are searching for; instead, they can search based on other known criteria such as location, occupation and age. • GeoSocial Footprint4: a website where one can track the users’ location “footprint” created from GPS enabled tweets, social check ins, natural language location searching (geocoding) and profile harvesting. • Hoverme5: this plug-in for Google Chrome reveals social media users’ profiles on other networks from their Facebook news feed. • Identify6: this Firefox plugin creates a profile of individuals’ social media identities from any page. • Linkedin7: through work history and connections Linkedin can provide additional means to track an individual down and verify the person’s identity or story. • Muck Rack8: lists thousands of journalists on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, Quora, Google+, LinkedIn who are vetted by a team of Muck Rack editors. • Numberway9: a directory of international phone books. • Person Finder10: one of the most well-known open source databanks for individuals to post and search for the status of people affected by a disaster. Whenever a large scale disaster happens, the Google Crisis Team sets up a person finder. • Pipl.com11: searches for an individual’s Internet footprint and can help identify through multiple social media accounts, public records and contact details. • Rapportive12: this Gmail plugin gives users a profile on their contacts, including social media accounts, location, employment. • Spokeo13: a people search engine that can find individuals by name, email, phone or username. Results are merged into a profile showing gender and age, contact details, occupation, education, marital status, family background, economic profile and photos. • WebMii14: searches for weblinks that match an individual’s name, or can identify unspecified individuals by keyword. It gives a web visibility score which can be used to identify fake profiles. • WHOIS15: finds the registered users of a domain name and details the date of registration, location and contact details of the registrant or assignee. 108