As an individual consumer, you probably appreciate it when your caller ID identifies the fraud risk of incoming calls with a “Spam Risk” or a similar message. However, if your organization frequently makes calls to consumers, it’s important to ensure that your business phone numbers aren’t being flagged with these spam caller labels.
What Is a Fraud Risk or Spam Risk Caller ID?
As personal phones have become more prevalent over the past 30 years, phone carriers and 3rd party apps and services have worked to decrease the number of illegitimate calls that consumers receive. These programs are able to identify features of an incoming call and flag it if it believes it is a spam or scam call. Flagged incoming calls are displayed on consumer devices with a Caller ID that says “Spam Risk, “Possible Scam,” or another similar message indicating that the carrier/service provider feels the call poses a fraud risk.
While this works to reduce the number of unsolicited, fraudulent calls that consumers receive, these programs sometimes incorrectly flag legitimate business numbers - causing real business numbers to show up on caller ID as “spam risk”.
How Do Spam Risk Labels Hurt Your Business?
Consumers rely on their caller ID fraud warnings when they decide to answer calls. If numbers from your call center are being flagged for fraud risk, it will severely negatively impact your answer rates, which in turn will significantly decrease overall call center productivity.
Why Are Your Numbers Being Marked as Fraud?
There are several reasons that calls may be marked as fraud and will show up with a spam risk caller ID.
Flagged by Carrier
Calls may be flagged by carriers if they match numbers found in their maintained databases of known scam numbers. Carriers also check the dialing methods and technology used to place the call and may flag numbers that they can’t verify or that use automated dialing or robocalls. They may check the number of calls coming from a specific phone number within a specific period of time to identify non-human dialers.
Flagged by Consumers
Consumers also have the option to report scam numbers to their carrier. If there are multiple reports of fraud risk calls on one number, this can lead to that number being marked as “Spam Risk". This flagging system is entirely dependent on the consumer, so if a few consumers happen to report a number because of a negative interaction or frustration with the call, it may cause the number to be flagged for other consumers as well.
Flagged Because of Spoofing
If your number was used in a spoofing attack, it can also be marked as spam or fraud, either by consumers or by carriers. Spoofed numbers will draw carrier attention because of the high number of calls being placed, and consumers who answer the call will likely report the number as spam, without ever realizing that the number they received the call from was unrelated to the scam itself.
Ways to Avoid Being Marked as Scam
1. Adhere to Laws & Regulations
There are a variety of laws that govern how and when businesses can contact consumers. Understanding and complying with these laws and regulations, especially those that govern the use of robocalls, auto-dialing, and other technologies, will help keep your number from being flagged as suspicious. Additionally, if you’re using auto-dialers, make sure that they are set up correctly so that they’re not making several calls before connecting your agent with a consumer. Perform regular audits of all departments within your call center to ensure compliance.
2. Limit Use of Public Phone Numbers
One way scammers get their calls through is by impersonating legitimate businesses using easily found phone numbers from their websites. Either don’t publish phone numbers publicly to avoid being spoofed in the first place or use different phone numbers for critical outgoing business call purposes such as notification or bill collection.
3. Ask Customers to Save Your Number
Customers with your business number saved will answer your calls more frequently because they will know who is calling. Plus, it will help your calls get through device-level restrictions that customers have enabled to block calls from unknown numbers. Additionally, if customers save your number, it will help keep your number from being placed on spam lists that are created from numbers not found in any customer contact lists.
4. Use Branded Call Displays
A branded call display builds trust between your customers and your business, as customers know exactly what to expect when they receive your call. When customers see your name, logo, and a reason for calling, they will be less likely to mark the number as a spam risk. Plus, it can increase your answer rates.
5. Register Your Number
FreeCallerRegistry.com is a one-stop shop for companies looking to properly register their phone numbers, call category, and preferred display name. Once submitted, the number is verified by each carrier allowing companies to properly communicate with the call originator.
What to Do If You’re Already Been Marked as a Spam Risk
If your number is already marked spam risk, it is difficult to remove that label. Keeping flagged numbers out of use can sometimes help get the spam risk label removed; plus it will keep customers from being concerned when they receive your calls. One of the benefits of Hiya is that - because of our network integration with AT&T - consumers can dispute inaccurate spam flags easily by contacting AT&T through Hiya here.
The best thing to do about fraud risk labels is to take precautions to prevent your number from getting flagged in the first place.
Improve Your Customer Experience
If your number is showing up as spam risk, it can have serious repercussions on your customer experience - decreasing your answer rates and fracturing trust between you and your customers. To improve your customer experience, take precautions to avoid having your number flagged.
Learn more about how Hiya Connect can help you avoid being flagged as spam. Get a free call assessment to see how customers are experiencing your call.
