Why is Spokeo charging me?

Is there a way to use Spokeo for free?

I have successfully signed up for a trial but it has stopped working.

I keep getting "Invalid request: user/id (user=username, id=123)."

You don't mention if you are using the Java or REST API, but the code sample above makes it sound like you are using the Java API which is the most current API at the time of writing this answer (September 2017). If you are using the REST API then it doesn't appear that you can sign up for a free account. The documentation for the REST API states: API access is limited by the trial periods described above and the free limit applies across the trial period. And lists the following trial periods: The Java, Python, Ruby, and PHP APIs are offered as free trials. This means that customers can be up to a maximum of 10 users for their API free plan when accessing these APIs.

Webinar APIs are offered as trials per year or per month. This means that Webinar users are limited by the number of active requests in a calendar week or the maximum active calls allowed per month. Active calls is a metric computed by Spokeo as a call-by-call summary of the request data, such as start and stop timestamps, and includes some request attributes.

Is Spokeo free and legit?

I just want to get a feel for the service - so it's not like there's any money involved.

(there isn't, right?) I'm going to use this info for some work at school for my project (which is about how to find information on people on the internet). I'd like to think that as a college student I can make a few bucks in my spare time with this.

I use Spokeo myself and really enjoy it. It's FREE. It is a legit service and there are ways to earn a small sum of money with it. In my case I've used it for employment searches and even have gotten jobs through it. Best of all it's FREE and doesn't cost you any money at all. The site is very intuitive and if you want to find information on someone it's easy enough to do. It's very user friendly.

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Why is Spokeo charging me?

I want my money back.

"Spokeo is not a lender or a financial institution," says Spokeo founder and CEO John Simpson. "We are a consumer-powered reverse marketing and data aggregator."

He also says Spokeo's Terms of Service only allow them to share the limited amount of information they have collected about you. "To me, that doesn't seem right," says Simpson. "When you see this, it doesn't look right."

How to protect yourself. You can find out more about how your personal information is being used, and if it's being misused, here: You can also learn more about what you're getting charged by clicking here. We want to hear from you! How are you dealing with this situation? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.