Have you ever picked up your phone, only to see the "SPAM likely" warning?
This label is designated by the telephone carrier, in an attempt to protect people from robocalls and potential fraud. Common triggers include calls originating from multiple locations (perhaps you have a variety of local numbers) or high-volume activity without connections. These activities are certainly not fraudulent, yet, when viewed at the network level, such events appear similar to illegal robocalling activities, so your call is flagged and goes straight to your client's voicemail.
Let's go over the basics of the SPAM label and how you can avoid being flagged as a "SPAM likely" caller.
Who does this apply to?
All American and Canadian Dialpad Connect, Dialpad Meetings, Dialpad Sell, and Dialpad Support customers.
Why are my calls getting flagged?
On March 31, 2020, the FCC issued a mandate known as STIR/SHAKEN to combat spoofed calls. In conjunction with this mandate, each mobile carrier has implemented its own unique plan, and set of perimeters, to determine if calls are spoofed or spam. The networks have your client's best interest at heart, but unfortunately for businesses, it means that there can sometimes be false labeling.
The following 3 scenarios can trigger a call as "SPAM Likely"
The outbound call does not have attestation level “A” (STIR/SHAKEN)
Crowdsourcing where mobile recipients have marked the call as spam
A "suspicious" call pattern:
The phone number was recently ported
The company has calls originating from multiple locations
A high volume of outbound call activity without connections
Specific timing of calls
Note
Each mobile carrier and landline provider has their own methods for determining if a call is deemed "spam likely". These algorithms are not published (to ensure they are not hacked), though Dialpad has noticed that the algorithms have become much more sensitive since June 2022.
How do I prevent being flagged as a spam caller?
To help prevent being flagged as a spam caller, register all numbers with Hiya, either before porting or after Dialpad provisioning.
Dialpad recommends Hiya due to its coverage of all 3 major US carriers and international partners.
*Dialpad cannot do this on your behalf as we don’t own the numbers.
Click the links below to connect with the spam departments of the most popular North American carriers.
AT&T (Hiya)
T-Mobile (First Orion)
Sprint & US Cellular (TNS)
First Orion and Hiya validate that you are a legitimate business and verify your calling numbers.
Note
If you would like to add another level of prevention, you can register your numbers as legitimate use cases by signing up with the Free Caller Registry portal. Major North American mobile carriers (such as T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon) work with their partnered Analytics Engines to allow callers to register their traffic within their systems simultaneously.
What is Dialpad doing about it?
Dialpad validates your phone numbers in conjunction with the STIR/SHAKEN call authentication standards, ensuring they have attestation level “A”.
This means your outbound phone call is verified using our digital certificates, and your account details will be associated with the call.
Our registration process doesn’t guarantee that your calls won’t ever be blocked or labeled, however, it is intended to greatly reduce the risk of it happening.
Spam caller prevention tips
Here are a few helpful tricks to help prevent you from being flagged as a spam caller.
Use a branded calling service
Branded calling helps your business stand out and build trust by displaying your brand name and verified status on outgoing calls. Depending on the provider, you can even display a custom logo and reason for calling which helps improve answer rates and builds trust with your customers.
Don’t use one main calling number for multiple uses
Outbound numbers used for multiple purposes (i.e. by different departments) tend to get flagged by analytics engines and receive mixed feedback from consumers. A number used for marketing, for example, should not be used by other departments for other subjects. Increased call frequency means that consumers will invariably provide negative feedback which leads to a robocall tag. By segmenting the use of telephone numbers by purpose or subject, enterprises can improve their number’s status as legitimate.
Monitor call center activity
A common cause of spam reports against a business are from call center abuse such as excessive calling (multiple times a week, or even a day) or calling outside of acceptable hours in the call recipient’s timezone. Good call center governance can keep a caller’s reputation high.
Align context and content of calls for the duration of the number’s assignment
Consistently using the same number for the same purpose results in a more accurate reputation. Keep your numbers to a single use case to avoid being tagged as a robocall. When reassigning a number to another purpose best practice dictates that you wait 60-days before redeploying those numbers.
Provide a consistent Calling Name profile that matches context
Displaying an accurate and consistent caller ID gives customers more confidence knowing who is calling and helps them make the decision to answer the call. Learn now to update this on Dialpad here.
Document normal calling patterns
When launching a new campaign use a number that is compliant and “known”; this will aid analytics and service providers to designate the number as legitimate and not a number that’s being spoofed. Avoid unusual spikes in traffic volumes and follow and document your expected and normative call pattern description.
Ensure proper configuration
Another common cause for complaints are “dead air” calls. Recipients receive a call, but after answering will hear only dead air and are then hung up on. Ensure call centers are not creating calls that cannot be promptly connected to a live agent.
Avoid rotating through many numbers
Brand new phone numbers with no history are an immediate red flag, as spammers use many phone numbers to evade analytics. Legitimate enterprises must avoid this tactic, and consistently use phone numbers and avoid “rotating” through many phone numbers.
Limit the use of public phone numbers
Your publicly published phone numbers are at higher risk of being spoofed by a malicious caller. This means they're more likely to get flagged, even if you're not responsible for malicious phone calls made with that number. This is why it's good not to use your public phone numbers to originate calls.
Don’t call unassigned numbers frequently
Know your customers and their current numbers. Frequent calls to unassigned numbers become a red flag, and mirrors a technique that bad actors use by dialing random numbers looking for unsuspecting consumers.
Comply with legal requirements
Comply with “Do Not Call" lists and other consumer protection laws and provide a number/contact information that called parties can use to prosecute or report any alleged violations of law. The National Do Not Call Registry, Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA) are examples of consumer protection laws.
Even by following these precautions, it’s still possible your numbers will be flagged as spam.
If this occurs, Dialpad recommends following the below steps:
Report the occurrence to Hiya. Hiya will work on your behalf to remediate the issue across the major US carriers.
If still not successful, open a case with Dialpad technical support. Be prepared to provide a couple of call samples (To number, From number, Date, Time). Dialpad Support can then identify which carriers are still flagging your numbers as spam and point you directly to their portal for a final method of dispute (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint & US Cellular, and T-Mobile).