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People Business Search

Overview

Search, verify and correct consumer and business data across millions of records through powerful People Business Search API.

People Business Search can be used to:

  • Search for individuals and businesses across the US.
  • Perform searches with partial/limited information on the address, name or company to correct records that would otherwise be unresolvable.
  • Locate individuals for billing purposes, such as tracking down people who have skipped out on their bills.
  • Validate policyholder addresses before issuing policies, to reduce the risk of fraud and errors.
  • Find potential customers by targeting your marketing campaigns to specific locations.
  • Retrieve contact phone information for an individual or business.

Documentation

Useful Resources

Product Page

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Servers
Contact Search Server
https://search.melissadata.net/V5/WEB/contactsearch/

Search for a contact

Request

Uses HTTP GET to accept one input record and returns the response in JSON format.

Query
idstringrequired

The License Key issued by Melissa.

Example: id=REPLACE-WITH-YOUR-LICENSE-KEY
matchlevelstring

0-100. The weighted percentage of how close the query matches the returned record. Anything less than 80% is questionable.

Example: matchlevel=10
maxrecordsstring

The maximum number of records to return.

Example: maxrecords=10
tstring

This is a string value that serves as a unique identifier for this set of records. It is returned as sent.

Example: t=Test
a1string

The input field for the address. This should contain the delivery address information (house number, thoroughfare, building, suite, etc.)

Example: a1=22382+Avenida+Empresa
adminareastringrequired

State, Province. The most common geographic data element.

Example: adminarea=CA
ctrystring

The suspected country of the input phone number as the official country name or the ISO2 code. Some territories will require a different ISO2 code than the one that is given to them.

locstring

City, Municipality. The most common population center data element.

Example: loc=RSM
phonestring

The phone number of the individual or company.

postalstring

ZIP, Postcode. The complete postal code for a particular delivery point.

Example: postal=92688
premnumstring

Street Number. Alphanumeric indicator for the most common street or block data element.

subpremnumstring

Suite Number. The Sub premises alphanumeric indicator for the most common street or block data element.

tnamestring

Street Name. Name indicator for the most common street or block data element.

postdirstring

Street Post Direction. The postfix directional for the most common street or block data element.

predirstring

Street PreDirection. The prefix directional for the most common street or block data element.

trailingtypestring

Street Suffix. The trailing thoroughfare type indicator for the most common street or block data element.

anynamestringrequired

Either an individual's name or a company name. It's better to use the Company Name or Full Name input fields if you know for sure.

Example: anyname=Melissa+Data
compstring

The name of a business or corporation.

firststring

The first name of an individual.

fullstring

The full name of an individual. Inverse name order is also accepted (Smith Tim vs. Tim Smith).

laststring

The last name of an individual.

subuserstring

The Sub User ID. This is used to identify a group or users for multiple users/seats for logging purposes.

curl -i -X GET \
  'https://search.melissadata.net/V5/WEB/contactsearch/docontactSearch?id=REPLACE-WITH-YOUR-LICENSE-KEY&adminarea=CA&anyname=Melissa%2BData'

Responses

Successful response

Bodyapplication/json
TransmissionReferencestring

Serves as a unique request identifier.

Versionstring

The current service version number.

ResultCodestring

Comma delimited status, error codes, and change codes for the request.

TotalRecordsstring

Total number of records.

ResultsArray of objects<= 100

A results array containing the returned records.

Response
application/json
{ "TransmissionReference": "Test", "Version": "7.1.6.1078", "ResultCode": "US01", "TotalRecords": "1", "Results": { "MatchLevel": "85.78", "Address": {}, "Consumer": {}, "Phone": {} } }

Search for a contact

Request

An HTTP POST is issued with the "ContentType" header specifying the format of the request and the "Accept" header specifying the format of the response.

Bodyapplication/jsonrequired
CustomerIDstringrequired

The License Key issued by Melissa.

MatchLevelstring

0-100. The weighted percentage of how close the query matches the returned record. Anything less than 80% is questionable.

MaxRecordsstring

The maximum number of records to return.

TransmissionReferencestring

This is a string value that serves as a unique identifier for this set of records. It is returned as sent.

AddressLine1string

The input field for the address. This should contain the delivery address information (house number, thoroughfare, building, suite, etc.)

AdministrativeAreastring

State, Province. The most common geographic data element.

Countrystring

The suspected country of the input phone number as the official country name or the ISO2 code. Some territories will require a different ISO2 code than the one that is given to them.

Localitystring

City, Municipality. The most common population center data element.

PhoneNumberstring

The phone number of the individual or company.

PostalCodestring

ZIP, Postcode. The complete postal code for a particular delivery point.

PremiseNumberstring

Street Number. Alphanumeric indicator for the most common street or block data element.

SubpremisesNumberstring

Suite Number. The Sub premises alphanumeric indicator for the most common street or block data element.

ThoroughfareNamestring

Street Name. Name indicator for the most common street or block data element.

ThoroughfarePostdirectionstring

Street Post Direction. The postfix directional for the most common street or block data element.

ThoroughfarePredirectionstring

Street PreDirection. The prefix directional for the most common street or block data element.

ThoroughfareTrailingTypestring

Street Suffix. The trailing thoroughfare type indicator for the most common street or block data element.

AnyNamestring

Either an individual's name or a company name. It's better to use the Company Name or Full Name input fields if you know for sure.

CompanyNamestring

The name of a business or corporation.

FirstNamestring

The first name of an individual.

FullNamestring

The full name of an individual. Inverse name order is also accepted (Smith Tim vs. Tim Smith).

LastNamestring

The last name of an individual.

SubUserstring

The Sub User ID. This is used to identify a group or users for multiple users/seats for logging purposes.

curl -i -X POST \
  https://search.melissadata.net/V5/WEB/contactsearch/docontactSearch \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{
    "TransmissionReference": "Test",
    "CustomerID": "REPLACE-WITH-YOUR-LICENSE-KEY",
    "MaxRecords": "10",
    "MatchLevel": "10",
    "AddressLine1": "22382 Avenida Empresa",
    "Locality": "RSM",
    "AdministrativeArea": "CA",
    "PostalCode": "92688",
    "AnyName": "Melissa Data"
  }'

Responses

Successful response

Bodyapplication/json
TransmissionReferencestring

Serves as a unique request identifier.

Versionstring

The current service version number.

ResultCodestring

Comma delimited status, error codes, and change codes for the request.

TotalRecordsstring

Total number of records.

ResultsArray of objects<= 100

A results array containing the returned records.

Response
application/json
{ "TransmissionReference": "Test", "Version": "7.1.6.1078", "ResultCode": "US01", "TotalRecords": "1", "Results": { "MatchLevel": "85.78", "Address": {}, "Consumer": {}, "Phone": {} } }