Business Number Being Labeled as Spam? Here’s What To Do
You’ve called a few customers who usually pick up on the first or second ring, but now, they’re sending you to voicemail. What’s changed? Did you do something to jeopardize the business relationship? Probably not!
Your phone number’s caller ID may be appearing as “spam risk,” “spam likely,” “potential spam,” or some variation indicating the call is potentially fraudulent.
Why is this happening?
The number of fraudulent and spam phone calls to American phone numbers has been skyrocketing the past few years. To combat the problem, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released SHAKEN/STIR, a new technology standard for service providers.
The SHAKEN/STIR protocol has a three-level system carriers use to categorize the information about the caller into levels of “attestation,” or trustworthiness. The different levels, ranging from A to C, indicate the amount of trust or proof a provider has in the caller’s right to use that number. The higher the attestation level, the more trustworthy the call and the less likely it is to be blocked or prepended with “spam risk” or a similar designation indicating a potentially fraudulent call.
Here are a few examples of why a carrier may determine a lower level of trustworthiness.
- You make a high volume of outbound calls per day per number.
- Someone flagged a call from your number in that carrier’s app as spam.
- The number’s outbound caller ID is not set correctly in your business phone system. Carriers view it as incomplete and will probably automatically flag it as spam.
What can I do about it?
The FCC and major carriers realize that there are legitimate business use cases that require high call volumes (e.g., appointment reminders, alerts, etc.). As a result, you can submit a request for them to whitelist your number. You’ll have to explain your reasoning for the high call volume. Upon approval, the providers will safelist your number and prevent future blocked calls or unwanted prepended caller ID.
You can use the below websites to submit your request.
There is a broader list of carriers available here. You can also register your number with Call Transparency, a third-party service provider.
Your Business Phone System Provider – Lafayette, Indiana
Before submitting your requests, contact your phone service company to ensure they’ve correctly configured the number in your system. The experts at UpLync Communications, a VoIP provider in Lafayette, Indiana, are happy to answer questions about your system’s configuration. Contact us for a free, low-pressure consultation.