Why Does My Number Show Up as a Scam Likely?

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Nowadays people keep their privacy and do everything they can to avoid unwanted contact. Partially, marketing practices of the past are guilty in this situation, because aggressive dialing from unidentified phone numbers was extremely common in those days. On the contrary, modern technologies, legal regulations, and marketing culture collectively state that spam phone numbers and unwanted calls aren’t allowed to be used. All dials are identified and you see who is calling and decide to answer or not to answer the call. Thanks to this, the amount of spam risk phone calls decreased a few times.  But this approach is a double-edged sword, because some essential contacts may also be marked as spam phone calls. For example, you want to contact the client about his shipping status, but you can’t because of the carrier who has marked your digits as spam phone numbers, and as you could guess, unwanted calls from these numbers will rarely be answered by the receiver.  So how does a phone number get marked as spam? Why is your phone number marked as spam? How to deal with it following the legal rules? What are the spam risk phone calls?  Let us deal with it. 

How do wireless carriers decide what calls are spam?

To find out which call is a robocall or spam, major carriers have always used third-party apps. These firms provide data about the number of calls, their duration, and other stats that may point to the robotic nature of the call or its spam essence. Nonetheless, this approach has been considered to be enough justified, another technology called STIR/SHAKEN has been implemented and allowed by the Federal Communications Commission. 

This technology has been designed to replace third-party data providers, who have been working in close collaboration with phone carriers, but it has had both positive and negative influences. The main goal of this approach is to make the call receiver trust the caller by showing his status and Caller ID, but anyhow, STIR/SHAKEN hasn’t become the lifesaver stick to avoid being marked as spam. The greatest solution that has been implemented in this technology is called call attestation. How does call attestation work? When the carrier receives the outbound call, he reads the attestation provided by the caller and selects the status for every dial. This method strongly decreases the chance to be signed as spam for all legitimate calls. 

But there is a bizarre fly in the ointment. Call attestation is only a part of the overall call rate that is given by carriers, because they also take into account their own bases, and score the call according to all information they have. As a consequence, even if the call is attested, it doesn’t mean that you will not get spam status. 

Unfortunately, this technology hasn’t resolved the problem of incoming calls that are marked as spam by mistake or, to be more precise, because of the carrier’s decision. STIR/SHAKEN works as a tool for control, not as the resolution of all issues related to spam numbers. When all who use outbound calls had hopes and expectations about this method, their calls are still facing problems with answer rates. 

Mobile companies decide how to mark the call on their own, and call attestation plays a little role in this case. Unfortunately, most popular carriers have chosen the direction to increase the number of limitations and their power, so more and more calls are put to spam even without justified reasons. Cell companies operate their own condition to choose the call status, so they can be very strict in decision-making.

But there are no hopeless situations in this world, so we have compiled a list of recommendations that can strongly reduce your chance to be put into spam. 

Best tips to avoid getting your phone number marked as spam

What is spam risk? It is a complex of factors that determine the chance for your call to be labeled as spam. These factors may be distinct by their nature, but if you want your leads to receive the calls, try to eliminate or at least reduce their influence. 

We have selected the most useful tips and tricks that can assist you in doing outbound telemarketing calls without the fear of being tagged as a spammer. 

Use only one outbound line 

Yes, we know that it sounds obvious. And yes, we understand that this method will work only for small businesses, while multiunit firms can’t use this strategy as they require numerous inbound lines and various units can’t use the same contact. But to say the truth, it would be unwise to avoid mentioning this technique.

How does it work in reality? When you own a business, and someone comes to you for service, you exchange the contact information to put each other into the contact list, and if in the future a customer needs to call you, he will just open the contacts list and do it by clicking your name. And what if you need to call the client? If you are in his contacts on the phone or some phone apps, he will see who is calling and maybe even remember why. If you have serviced ten clients per day, and, let us imagine, giving them the same phone number, but when you need to remind them of their order or other vital information, you use another phone number, they will not answer. 

Always remember about whitelisting

What can you do without losing time and effort to decrease the chance of being tagged as a spam caller? Order a check out for whitelisting your outbound line. Every of the biggest cell carriers offers whitelisting options on their websites, so allocate a few minutes for searching the privacy policy and conditions and order this option for every of the most popular cell companies to make sure that you will be recognized while calling in their lines. On the other hand, this option is considered to be the type of legitimation of outbound campaigns, so it strongly influences the chance of being marked as a spam 

Don’t abuse the spoofing feature and use it according to legal rules

Spoofing is fair when you operate their own cell phone numbers to pinpoint their outbound calling campaigns. Spoofing numbers that don’t belong to you or aren’t authorized for you to employ is forbidden, as a result, you will get a ban (at least). 

Carriers are developing more new tools to be informed of calls' nature and caller’s persona and may mark spoofed calls as potential spam in particular cases.

For instance, if you spoof the phone number of one carrier to another, and call the receiver with the same carrier, the call will be immediately detected and tagged as spam. Modern technologies allow mobile companies to identify such spoofs in a few seconds, so using unauthorized phone numbers will give you nothing but more spam marks. 

Even though numerous unfair persons still use uncertified spoofing, it doesn’t work and no one receives their calls. If you need to spoof phone numbers, do it according to legal requirements. 

Always use Caller ID Name

Caller ID Name is the short text that follows the Caller ID - the phone number itself. In the past, it was extremely popular and was massively used by almost everyone who operated landline telephony - as it identified the firm’s name on the screen. Nowadays, when landlines are something similar to dinosaurs or other relics, it is used rarely, but there appeared some new reasons in favor of Caller ID Name. 

If you select this option for the outbound lines, there is no guarantee that your Caller ID Name will be shown to the call receiver, but the main advantage is that the carrier will definitely see it. So, paired with call attestation, it will increase the overall call rate and there will be less chance to be put into the spam list. 

Set up the Display Name too

Even though the Display Name isn’t limited in characters as the Caller ID Name is, it should be the same. For a sample, if you use “Tom Car SLR” Caller ID Name, the same should the Display Name be. It has its goal to increase the overall call score from the carrier’s point of view, and it really works. Take into consideration that it doesn’t cost anything at all. 

Implement modern solutions like Advanced Caller ID

The essential goal in avoiding spam filters is providing easy recognition options that have to make clients take the mobile phones and start a conversation. It has been problematic to provide identification with classic, old-fashioned technologies, but now there are new methods and models on the horizon.

Advanced Caller ID is the solution that allows you to show the call receiver not only your phone number - the Caller ID itself - but such things as logo, name, verification status (that you are a verified contact), the theme of the call, and so on. This has become possible thanks to RCD technology, which transforms the call interface into almost a whole account of the business, so it doesn’t only boost the chance that a call will be answered, but builds trust in your brand. 

Another advantage of this solution is that any bad actors can't perform spoof Caller ID for performing fraudulent calls, because they can use a fake number, but not a fake RCD, as it is too difficult to copy. 

Use a smart dialing plan

No one wants to be bombarded with dozens of calls per day. This approach may cause only negative consequences: losing a customer, his complaint on you, and fees from regulatory structures. To avoid this, use one simple thing: plan a dialing strategy according to your customer's needs and wishes, not just make as many dials as possible. 

Think of such things as the right time to call, the right day of the week to perform dials and the voicemail messages strategy. Only a thoughtful plan may lead you to the success of your outbound telemarketing, or contrastively you will have dozens of unanswered calls. 

Prepare the needed number of DIDs

More than one hundred calls per day from one digits is the direct way to digits’ ban and restriction for further calls, or permanent spam status. Does it worth it? You purchase virtual phone numbers not to lose them one by one, but to reach clients. 

Before starting an outbound campaign in any state, make sure that you have enough digits with the local Caller ID. If not, it is better to buy them and start a bit later.

If there is no way to fill your need in local phone numbers, use the Caller IDs of neighboring regions. It works worse but still works. 

Utilize different communication channels

The multichannel approach has become extremely popular across the world, so there is no reason to avoid using various digital channels to connect with your clients. Some communications should be organized via email, while others may be performed by messengers in phone apps. Research your target audience to discover its expectations and wishes - maybe most of your buyers want to chat with you on Instagram, not talk by phone. 

Contact clients as soon as possible

The faster you will get to the lead, the more likely he will answer you and the interaction will happen. If the customer has got you currently, then come back to him with a response in the nearest time. People don’t want to wait, especially nowadays, when customer service has become one of the most competitive niches all over the world, and clients expect excellent service at rocket speed. Unfortunately, if you can’t offer it, they will go to find another company. If you don’t want to lose customers, try to provide them with a response as fast as attainable. 

Pass STIR/SHAKEN authorization

It is the best way to avoid being marked as a scam because it is the main authorization type in the world. You can’t avoid it if you want carriers to trust you, and what makes the deal sweeter is the fact that this authorization costs not a lot of money and it is passed fastly. Another recommendation is to use regular achieving of “do not call lists” that include phone numbers you can’t call. Additionally, avoid calling the numbers that are on your blacklist. 






Eugene Siuch

Content Manager and Copywriter

Focused on customer service measurement and improvement, SaaS marketing and industry insights, and researching different methods of staff motivation and performance management in the field of customer service providing.

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