Spokeo Review: Is It Legit, Safe, and Accurate?

Spokeo legitimacy and licensing

Yes. Spokeo, Inc. is a real company based in Pasadena, California. BBB lists the business as started April 7, 2006, and it has been BBB accredited since February 1, 2009, with an A- rating. Its About page names Harrison Tang as CEO and says it organizes about 12 billion records from thousands of sources. It is registered as a data broker in California.

Being legitimate doesn’t make every report correct. Spokeo’s terms say it does not check each piece of information and makes no guarantees about accuracy or how recently a record was updated. Treat a report as a lead, not proof.

How much Spokeo costs and how billing works

Spokeo’s purchase page lists two memberships: $19.95 for one month, or $44.85 billed every three months, which works out to $14.95 a month. Both include up to 100 reports a month, and unused searches don’t carry over. Its About page says some types of information carry extra fees beyond the base membership.

Every plan renews for the same term until you cancel. Under its payment policy, memberships are prepaid and non-refundable, all sales are final, and cancelling stops the next charge but does not refund or prorate the current period. If Spokeo offers you a trial, it converts to a paid plan unless you cancel by 11:59 p.m. Pacific on the last day.

If you only need one lookup, buy the one-month plan, run your searches the same day and cancel right away. You keep access until the month ends.

What a Spokeo report includes

You can search by name, phone, email or address. The purchase page says results may include full address, birth month and year, email address, phone number, family members and location history. The home page also lists property data, social media profiles, work history and court records, including criminal histories marked with an asterisk, and the About page notes extra fees for certain data.

Spokeo says the person you search is not notified. For criminal records, check the county or state court that holds the record. Spokeo’s own terms say court records are for information only and may have errors or omissions.

What you can't use Spokeo for, and its legal history

Spokeo is not a consumer reporting agencyConsumer reporting agency. A company that assembles reports used for eligibility decisions and must follow FCRA accuracy and dispute rules. Compare background checks under the Fair Credit Reporting Act. At checkout you agree not to use it to decide anyone’s eligibility for credit, insurance, employment or housing. If you are screening a tenant or job applicant, use a background check company that sells FCRAFCRA. The Fair Credit Reporting Act, the federal law that governs consumer reports used for employment, housing, credit and insurance decisions. Compare background checks reports, gets the person’s consent and lets them dispute errors.

In June 2012 Spokeo agreed to pay $800,000 to settle FTC charges that from 2008 to 2010 it marketed consumer profiles to human resources, background screening and recruiting companies without following FCRA rules. The FTC also said Spokeo employees posted endorsements that looked independent. The order bars future FCRA violations and fake endorsements.

Spokeo is also the name on a major Supreme Court case. In Spokeo, Inc. v. Robins (May 16, 2016), a man said his Spokeo profile wrongly described his age, marital status, job, education and wealth. The Court ruled 6 to 2 that a lawsuit needs a concrete injury, not just a technical violation of the law, and sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit. The case is now cited in many privacy class actions.

Spokeo complaints and how to avoid problems

Spokeo has an A- from the BBB but 561 complaints there in the last three years. On Trustpilot it scores 2.5 out of 5 from 1,623 reviews, with 56% one star. The pattern is consistent: people say they were charged again after a first purchase or trial, had trouble cancelling, and found outdated addresses or other people’s details in their results. Positive reviews mention fast results, helpful support and finding lost contacts. We found no complaints about Spokeo in the CFPB database.

To avoid the common problems, read the billing line before you pay, turn on the renewal reminder, cancel as soon as you have what you need, and confirm important details elsewhere before you act on them.

How to cancel Spokeo

Go to spokeo.com/user/account, sign in, scroll to Manage Account and click Cancel. If there’s no Cancel button, open the Contact Form in that section, choose “I would like to terminate my membership” and select Terminate Now. You can also call Customer Care at 1 (888) 906-0850, the number on its purchase page, seven days a week. If you paid through PayPal, the Usage and Subscriptions page has extra steps.

You’ll get a confirmation email and keep access until the paid period ends. Paid members can pause billing instead, which isn’t available during a free trial.

How to remove yourself from Spokeo

Opting out is free. Find your listing on Spokeo and copy its URL, paste it into the form at spokeo.com/optout, enter an email address and click the link in the confirmation email. Spokeo says requests are processed in 24 to 48 hours. Each listing has its own URL, so repeat this for every one, and check again every few months because new records can bring your listing back. Court records stay up unless you send an expungement or sealing order to expungement@spokeo.com.

Spokeo, Inc. also runs AnyWho, That’s Them, FreePeopleDirectory, PeopleWin and Family.me, according to California’s data broker registry, so check those sites too. California residents can use the state’s free DROP platform to send one deletion request to every registered data broker. Brokers had to start processing those requests on August 1, 2026, and must check for new ones at least every 45 days.