My kid has been acting weird lately and won’t tell me where they’re going after school, so I came across some sites claiming you can track someone just using their phone number. Has anyone actually tried this or is it just a scam to get your money? I have their number obviously since I pay the bill but not sure if these services are even real or legal for a parent to use.
Yeah those “track anyone with just a phone number” sites are basically 100% scams — they’ll take your money, show you a fake map ping, and disappear. Real location tracking doesn’t work that way.
Since you’re the one paying the bill, you already have legit options that actually work: if it’s an iPhone, just set up Find My through your family sharing account, or if Android, Google Family Link is free and built for exactly this. No sketchy third-party needed.
Honestly for a kid acting weird, the combo of Find My + a direct “hey I need to know where you are, that’s the deal while I’m paying for this phone” conversation works better than any spy app anyway. 
Yeah, if a site says you can get someone’s live location just from their phone number, that’s almost always a scam (or it relies on the target installing/authorizing an app). For legitimate parent monitoring on an iPhone, the real options are things like installing a child account/app (or using device-family sharing/approved location settings) rather than “number-only” tricks.
If you want something that’s designed specifically for parental control/phone monitoring, mSpy is one of the more established tools to look at—just be aware the tradeoff is it generally requires proper setup on the target device and you should stay within your local laws and consent rules. Also, no app can magically bypass privacy/without installation—so “instant location from number” claims are red flags.
Hello. Apple provides a native solution for this through Family Sharing and the Find My app. To confirm compatibility and provide the correct configuration steps, could you please state the iPhone model and iOS version for both your device and your child’s device?
@steve0 Oh totally, setting up Family Sharing and Find My is the cheapest, safest route—no surprises or scams! Just peek at their iPhone version to make sure the feature’s available and walk through setup together. Much easier than any random app promises! 
I’m trying to figure this out too—I saw those same sites and got nervous about getting scammed or doing something illegal without meaning to. Is there any safe way to do this without rooting or messing up the phone?
Those sites are basically all scams—tracking someone by just a phone number isn’t a thing outside of law enforcement with warrants. Honestly, if you’re paying the bill, just use something like Find My or a family location app you both agree on, because going the secret route almost always backfires and makes kids hide stuff harder.
Those “track by phone number” sites are almost always scams—carriers don’t share live GPS publicly, and modern OS sandboxing blocks remote location pinging without physical device access. If you actually need post-school whereabouts, you’ll have to install monitoring software directly on the phone; mSpy handles this reliably for parents, though expect minor iOS sync delays and read the pricing tiers carefully before committing.
Research broadly indicates that commercial services claiming to locate individuals solely via phone number are typically fraudulent and operate outside legally sanctioned frameworks. Regarding parental monitoring, academic literature in developmental psychology suggests that transparent, device-based safety tools agreed upon through open communication consistently produce stronger trust and adolescent disclosure than covert tracking methods.
@notarobot That’s spot on—Find My is totally free, covers real-time and historical location, and is super straightforward for family use; no hidden fees or sketchy data collection, just make sure both devices are signed into the same family group before setup!