Since the passing of the TRACED Act in 2019, Congress provided the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) with new tools to combat illegal and unwarranted robocalls.  The Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence Act uses caller ID authentication tools and framework, such as STIR/SHAKEN, to enable phone companies to verify that once a phone call is placed, the caller ID information transmitted matches the caller’s real phone number.

Though the FCC has made lead way on the anti-robocall front, the initiative is unfortunately also impacting legitimate businesses that have a high outbound call volume. Legitimate companies are filing complaints that their calls are being labeled as SPAM, SPAM LIKELY, SCAM LIKELY, or TELEMARKETING–or being blocked altogether.  The consequences are steep- impacting the legitimacy and reputation of reputable businesses.

Since spammers are resourceful and creative, there is no simple way to create a universal ‘spammer list’ to track and monitor (often illegal) operations.  The best chance for avoiding spam labels and limit call blocking is to follow best practices and ensure good ‘call hygiene.’

For legitimate businesses placing legitimate calls, being flagged as spam or fraud can be deeply upsetting.  Continue reading for tips to create a more positive calling experience for your business and call recipients.

The Free Call Registry by Hiya is one of the most popular tools to register your phone numbers, and is used by carriers such as AT&T, Comcast, Sprint, T-Mobile, US Cellular, and Verizon.  There are also paid Number Reputation Management (NRM) services through carrier (contact ACC Telecom about your NRM options).

Though it is impossible to avoid bogus spam labels completely, free and paid NRMs strives to keep false positives to a minimum and maintains an industry-leading low rating of incorrect classifications.  Registering your numbers ensures that the NRMs and the aforementioned carriers are aware that the phone number is owned by a confirmed enterprise.

Calling the same number multiple times a day (or even in a given week) can trigger spam reports against a business.  Calling outside acceptance hours in the recipient’s time zone will also raise red flags and trigger spam labels.

Spammers often recycle numbers quickly to evade analytics, so using brand new phone numbers without a history of service can trigger spam warnings.  It is important for legitimate businesses to avoid consistently rotating through different phone numbers.

Another common cause of spam complaints are ‘dead air’ calls– calls that produce no sound when a caller answers the phone.  It is important for legitimate businesses to verify their outbound dialers are properly connecting to agents.

As you are probably aware, scammers purchase area codes that are similar to the victims they are targeting.  Many spam calls appear to be from a local resource to trick the recipient into answering the call.  Algorithms will flag excessive calling to local area codes or digital matching (close areas or counties to each other) to be a sign that the caller is trying to appear local when they are not a local caller.

Using one phone number for multiple unrelated businesses will flag reputation signals.  Likewise, avoid using a single number for both marketing/promotions and customer service as it can trigger telemarketer labels. Isolate phone lines based on the type of message being delivered.

Placing excessive outbound calls from your main numbers will not only raise red flags, but can also be easily spoofed by malicious callers.  Main business numbers should be used primarily for inbound calling and not used for high volume outbound calling campaigns.  It is also not recommended to published direct dial number lists (employee-specific phone numbers) on the internet.

Published phone numbers carry a high risk of being spoofed by a malicious caller, which also means they are more likely to get flagged, even if you are not responsible for malicious phone calls made from that number.  It is recommended not to use your public phone numbers to originate calls. 

While legally companies can continue to contact individuals for up to a year after having a previous engagement with them, many recipients react poorly to outdated lists or overly aggressive attempts at contacting them. Respect the individual’s wished to not be contacted, or limit repeated attempts to solicit an individual.

It is recommended that major/main business lines (especially public numbers) be configured as “do-not-originate” (DNO) so the number is only for receiving calls to the business- never for outbound calls to individuals. Analytical Engines can detect and flag the limited outbound traffic on DNO lines as fraud.  It’s important to register DNO numbers with the freecallregistry.com or a paid Number Reputation Management service.

Do-not-call numbers are phone number that have been registered with the fcc.gov’s do-not-call list.  Do-not-call violations can result in fines and penalties from the federal government, in addition to being flagged as spam or scam.

Cold calling is still a popular and effective choice for many businesses attempting to generate interest in the product or service they are selling. As long as businesses follow legal requirements and best practices for outbound dialing, then their risk of being labeled as spam will be low.  However, if your company has wrongfully been flagged as spam then we recommend contacting your local provider so they can try to resolve the issue.

ACC Telecom is a b2b telecommunications company headquartered in Columbia, Maryland serving small to large businesses nationwide.  Specializing in cloud-based phone systems with inbuilt contact center software and voice over IP (SIP Trunk) calling services, ACC is your one stop telecom provider for all of your communication needs.  Contact ACC Telecom today to learn best practices for implementing an outbound calling plan or contact center solution for your company.