Have you ever seen a cell phone number you didn’t recognize and wonder who’s behind? Or perhaps you know who the number belongs to, but you want to find out a just a little more about who they are? Well, Robert Scott, a Los Angeles-based private investigator set out to help people answer those questions with SpyDialer.com.  This website lets users legally eavesdrop on the outbound voicemail message of any U.S. based cell phone number.

While this might sound like creepy service that may end up being used by stalkers, it actually does have some very legitimate applications. Imagine someone repeatedly calls your cell phone and hangs up as you answer the call. Or maybe you have suspicions that someone that repeatedly sends text message to your one of your children may be out to harm them. On one hand you really want to find out who it is that’s behind that number on your caller ID. On the other hand, you really don’t feel like talking to them. SpyDialer.com lets you type in their phone number and hear the first 10 seconds of that number’s outbound voicemail message, typically enough for you to know who the phone user is.

There are other ways to retrieve information about people using their phone numbers, but they can cost as much as $10 per phone number. Mr. Scott is offering this service for free on limited basis. Users requiring additional features and up to 100 look-ups per year, can pay a nominal $9.95 per year. Not a bad deal if this is the type of service you would use even a few times each month.

Spy Dialer also allows users to access their services via an app for Android with an iPhone version on the way. This may sound like a creepy product, but something gives me the feeling that as the apps gain popularity, more and more people will become comfortable with the idea of using these types of services.