How to Find and Verify Someone’s Address in 4 Steps

Checking if someone’s address is legitimate might seem like a minor detail for some, when in reality, it’s a strong security measure used by both individuals and businesses. An intentionally provided address that shows up as invalid shouldn’t be brushed off, as it can be a serious sign of fraud. The same goes for businesses. If the company’s physical address and HQ show up as a shady place that doesn’t match its description online, partnering with such a company can be a threat. 

However, a simple Google search sometimes won’t do the trick, as there are other useful tips and measures that can help find and verify someone’s address. This is important, as more businesses shift online; however, certain industries, such as virtual asset providers (VASPs), still have that anonymity narrative, where users can sometimes hide their true residential address. What’s worse, identity theft and identity fraud in general remain a complex issue, and personal details, like a person’s address or social security number (SSN), can be breached and used for unauthorized transactions or other fraudulent activities that everyone wants to avoid. 

So, if you need to look up someone’s address but don’t know the most effective steps, we break down our expert tips below. 

What is Address Verification?

Address verification is the process of assessing whether a person’s address info is correct. Typically, businesses, such as banks, need to implement this measure for security purposes, as it helps verify that the person has genuine intentions and is providing correct information, for example, when opening a new bank account. Verifying addresses is also a common practice on online marketplaces where multi-accounting is banned. This helps detect people who go against the rules and create multiple accounts with the same address, for example, for selling replicas or abusing promotional bonuses, as seen in iGaming. 

For businesses, address verification helps:

• Check users’ addresses against official databases to ensure data accuracy.
• Maintain reliable information for shipping and billing while also reducing errors and improving data quality. 
• Ensuring regulatory compliance with Know Your Customer (KYC) and Proof of Address (PoA) rules. 

Due to the increased risk of fraud and the potential for misusing address information, many companies check at least a few data points for identity verification. For instance, address verification is combined with a standard ID document check, where the person is asked to upload their passport, ID card, or driver’s license. This helps confirm that the person completing the security check is genuine and that the address they provide is not only valid but also truly connected to their identity.

Why Would Someone Need to Find and Verify an Address?

Apart from security, there are several reasons why a person would like to check someone else’s address. Some popular examples that fall into trust or legal purposes for verifying addresses include:

• Checking roommates or tenants. This is often done as a safety precaution measure, helping people review a person’s reliability before allowing them to move into a property. 
• When dating new people. Due to romance scams and general rules to be cautious, especially when meeting a new person from a dating app for the very first time, many people tend to check and confirm their date’s address.
• Enrolling children in school. A parent might need to confirm where the co-parent resides, especially in legal or educational contexts where the residency affects school eligibility or custody rights. 
• Reconnecting with family. This often happens when old friends or family members want to talk again and reach out to a person they haven’t spoken with in a long time. As a verification measure, they make sure to check the address to see if the person still lives there. 
• Confirming online transactions. In less regulated marketplaces where users have their autonomy, for example, Facebook Marketplace, verifying the seller’s address helps avoid getting scammed. The same principle applies to checking if the buyer’s address is legitimate to ensure the item reaches them. 

How to Confirm Someone’s Address?

There are certain steps that you can take to find and verify a person’s address. From a simple online search to a more complex approach through using special AI tools, this all boils down to a few key important steps. 

We explain in more detail below:

1. Look Through Public Records 

Public records are a powerful tool to find and verify someone’s address. For example, some databases that hold address info are managed by government entities, which guarantee the data is accurate, reliable, and up-to-date. 

Here are some examples of useful public records for address verification:

• Country court records. If someone has been involved in a bankruptcy or lawsuit, their address appears in legal documents. Local court clerks maintain criminal case files that also often include addresses. Additionally, there are third-party solutions like iDenfy that conduct an automated criminal background check along with address verification of an individual. 
• Government databases. Many countries have registries, such as tax or land registries, that have the property owner’s name listed, along with important info like their address. This reliable data can be easily used to verify if someone owns or lives at that given address.
• Voter registration records. Some regions have openly accessed voter records that keep address and full name information, though it depends on local privacy laws. 

2. Do a Quick Online Search 

Sometimes, people share too much information online, including their addresses. However, that is not necessarily always the case. And, for that, here are special tools and sites that help find one’s address. 

Some tips for a simple online address search include:

• People search finders. There are free online search sites that scrape basic details from the internet about a person you’re looking for (such as names, addresses, and phone numbers). However, it’s best to cross-check multiple sources for better and more accurate results, since people move and might not update their addresses online. 
• Social media platforms. While most people don’t provide or register their full address data, they reveal location clues, such as check-ins on Facebook, the city or region they reside in on LinkedIn, tags or mentions on X, and so on. 

3. Check Documents and Mail 

There are special proof of address (PoA) documents that are formatted in a way to have an individual’s address information listed. This method applies to both physical copies, such as mail, and digital bank statements.

The following documents that can be used to confirm one’s address include:

• Bank statements or utility bills. While these documents are mailed directly to the address, making them hard to access, they are often requested by banks and other similar financial institutions as a PoA for address verification. That’s because they serve as solid proof and include the person’s full name and residential address. 
• Mail. A returned letter can be a signal that the person no longer lives in the location that was used for the mailing address. Sending a letter to a person helps to track if it’s undeliverable or if the address is valid and can reach the recipient. 
• ID documents. Some countries list addresses on their government-issued ID documents, such as driver’s licenses or passports. While these ID documents are strictly regulated and offer accuracy, people tend to move and change their residential address before their document expires. For example, solutions like iDenfy connect to the utility service provider, offering a dual-layer approach to address verification while ensuring up-to-date information during the verification process that is based on cross-checking multiple sources (both PoA and ID document).

Related: Document Verification — How Does the Process Work?

4. Ask the Person Directly

When all attempts to have your hands on ID or PoA documents fail and a deep dive on an address online fails, sometimes the best way to achieve better results is to contact the person in question. Communicating in an adequate manner is a straightforward process that often doesn’t require much effort. 

Here’s how you can find out a person’s address:

• Email and phone. Use the contacts that you already have, whether it’s a phone number or an email address, and then ask the person to provide a utility bill or another appropriate and valid document that can prove their address. Keep in mind that people tend to fake documents, so be cautious and look for suspicious signs of forgery. 
• Landlords. Contacting former landlords can be beneficial since they often keep records of their tenants. For rental or background checks, this is a common way to verify someone’s address and do a quick background check for security reasons. 

Use Case Examples of Address Verification for Businesses

There are three main categories of address verification for companies that use this process for:

Validating Addresses for Shipping and Marketing

Confirming a user’s address through a proper address verification process helps fix formatting issues and reduce errors. So, if you operate in e-commerce, you can use this process to improve delivery and offer special shipping discounts for verified and approved registered members. 

Reducing Card-Not-Present (CNP) Fraud 

Payment service providers use a separate term for address verification, which is Address Verification Service (AVS). This fraud prevention tool is used during credit or debit card transactions and is designed to match the user’s provided billing address with the one registered on file with the card issuer. 

If there’s no match, this can signal fraud. In this case, this helps the business decide if they outright reject the person or ask them for another form of identification, which is useful, especially for card-not-present (CNP) purchases. Sometimes. Legitimate transactions can also be flagged in cases where the customer moved or their bank uses outdated records. 

As Part of Verifying User Identities (KYC/KYB)

Businesses in high-risk sectors are required by law to collect and verify their clients’ addresses. This applies to both individuals and corporate customers. 

This is part of the KYC or Know Your Business (KYB) framework, which aims to check:

• If a provided address is real and tied to the person or company during the customer onboarding process.
• If the provided data isn’t forged and matches the uploaded PoA documents, such as utility bills, and there are no suspicious signs of fraud. Otherwise, Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) measures might be applied, depending on the company’s risk management strategy.

Certain jurisdictions do not allow accessing their platforms without an address verification check. For example, this includes online gaming and gambling activities, which means online casinos, sports betting platforms, and similar restricted service providers are required to verify their users and to check their addresses to confirm they are eligible to access such services online. 

Bottom Line 

Whether you need to find and verify someone’s address in a personal emergency or have a business that follows strict compliance requirements, knowing which tools work for your particular case is simply vital. Sources like simple online searches using public records are effective, yet they still work best when cross-referencing the collected address information with another reputable source. 

For combining access to multiple address verification sources, especially in KYC scenarios for businesses, RegTech vendors like iDenfy are used. This solves the problem of handling multiple address verification applications manually, as well as reduces the risk of accepting a fake address or having a headache regarding KYC and privacy laws, including personal data recordkeeping obligations. 

Book a free demo, and we’ll show you how you can tailor different KYC workflows, add extra checks, and easily implement address verification into your existing framework.