.png?width=400&name=HUBDB%20Articles%20(3).png)
“T-Mobile’s new inbound call labeling may warn your customers not to call your business, displaying messages like “This number may be a scam.”
This article explains how the system works, why it affects legitimate businesses, and how to correct mislabeled numbers through carrier remediation and caller ID reputation management.” From Outbound to Inbound: The New Era of Spam Labeling
Yes, that’s right – Inbound calls. Meaning, your customers are calling YOU; not the other way around. Let me explain…
For the past few years, companies such as ours have been alerting customers to the potential danger of their outbound calls being mislabeled as SPAM or blocked by carrier analytics. Let’s be clear on what a “mislabel” is, or perhaps, what it’s not. If you call someone 10 times a day, it may be fair to call you a spammer. In some states, we can more certainly say you are an illegal caller, but, regardless, a negative label does seem fair. How many people in your life do you want to hear from 10 times a day? Of that list (if there is anyone on it), how many are insurance salesmen, or salesmen of any industry? Heck, most CROs wouldn’t even want to hear from their own sales reps 10x/day!
But for the legitimate callers, we all can see how harmful mislabeling can be; a doctor calling a patient doesn’t get answered because their carrier discouraged it. Lenders calling consented leads looking to refinance don’t hit their conversion goals because the call recipients are told to not answer. We’ve all been there, and it’s PAINFUL – if not impossible - to get those numbers fixed unassisted. While companies such as DNC.com have developed solutions to help businesses restore their reputation, others have looked to number rotation. And, while this is not illegal (yet), it is highly frowned upon, expensive, difficult to manage, and, once the carriers can catch your rotation game, much MORE likely to generate SPAM tags.
When Carriers Warn Customers Not to Call You
Recently, we have found an interesting behavior on the T-Mobile carrier network (“TMO”) that is absolutely shocking. Perhaps it shouldn’t be, but I approached this with much skepticism when it hit my desk. It appears that TMO is now not just discouraging people from answering your calls, but they are also discouraging them from calling YOU! Those who are affected will hear a message that states:
“The number you are calling has been identified aslikely a scam. It’s recommended that you hang up now.”
After about 5 seconds of dead air (silence), the call is routed to your intended destination. This new inbound spam detection behavior represents a major shift in how carriers handle business phone numbers.
How T-Mobile Identifies and Labels “Scam Likely” Calls
When TMO, using their various analytics strategies, has determined that a number is related to a bad actor, they are likely to assign a “SCAM Likely” label. Businesses can apply for redress, and if they are able to demonstrate they are good, compliant actors, their numbers will be resolved.
TMO, as with all other carriers, intentionally makes this process difficult in my opinion. This is not to put an undue burden on legal businesses or anything nefarious, but more so to prevent abuse from the true bad actors. Otherwise, the bad guys could circumvent the labeling. Fortunately, DNC.com has the process down, and with our vetting program, we can streamline the process and work with TMO to correct numbers often within just a couple of hours!
But, until corrected, calls from these numbers will be delivered to consumers’ phones as “SCAM Likely” on the caller ID. For these same numbers, people who call into them from a TMO device should expect to hear that message. Will the other carriers follow suit? Time will tell…
Why Number Rotation Can’t Fix Inbound Spam Labeling Problems
I know there is a HUGE debate over whether or not callers should be allowed to do this in the first place, and there is a healthy argument on both sides of the story. In the end, abusive calling practices have put us in this position, and the FCC directed carriers to implement this practice to try to help reduce consumer complaints. My biggest issue is that the focus seems to be more related to a prediction on whether or not a called party wants to receive a call from that phone number at that very moment. They do not care about the legality – and I am quoting one carrier that I will not name – they care about desire. This means that 100% of your outbound calls could be to customers you contact no more than once per year and only after they sent a notarized letter
through certified mail asking you to call, and you use a rotary phone to do so. If the carrier or their analytics provider don’t think the person receiving wants that call at that specific moment, it will get labeled negatively. While some people, often as a matter of principle, don’t want to have to “pay” to get their numbers fixed, they are quick to admit that they don’t know how to monitor, let alone correct, the issue on their own. Instead of using a Remediation product from a company like DNC.com, they will resort to number rotation. Some rotate on each dial, whereas others may use a service to alert them of a SPAM/SCAM tag before moving to the next number. Their hope is that “resting” the numbers will lead to a cure. While we have studies that show the exact opposite is true, we will save that discussion for another time. Instead, let’s focus on inbound.
You can’t rotate your main phone number. Remember those old cartoons where a coyote was always ordering some ACME brand device to try to capture a roadrunner for dinner? Let’s use our imagination and picture this as a real-world occurrence. Mr. Coyote did a LOT of business with ACME over the years, and I expect that, from time to time, they may have tried to call him to let him know about a sale on tunnel paint or TNT. If those calls got labeled as SPAM, sure, they could try to rotate and see if it did better next time. But what if Mr. Coyote goes to their website, sees their number is 800-BUY-ACME, calls it, and hears that message? Is he going to continue doing business with them? Or, is he going to rethink his choice and perhaps assume this company isn’t as above board as he thinks?
Now, let’s actually take this to the real world. I am on the National Do Not Call list, but I still interact with legal telemarketers all the time. I have no problem opting in to calls from brands with whom I DO want to engage, and a few years ago, I used a popular mortgage website to do so. Of the banks that attempted to contact me for a refinance, one was a brand I had never heard of before – Mr. Cooper. To me, this sounded sketchy for a bank name, and had I not known that this call was a result of me interacting with a reputable website, I wouldn’t have given them the time of day. However, while I was still VERY skeptical, I gave them a call. Now, imagine if, when I called, I was greeted with a warning that this number is tied to scams. Do you think I would have stayed on? Absolutely not! I would have hung up, potentially reported the “lender” to the mortgage site, and perhaps moved away from not just that bank, but the lead gen site as well!
Caller ID Spoofing and Brand Reputation: When Scammers Use Your Number
Just because you don’t use your phone number doesn’t mean someone else isn’t. A lot of businesses do not use their main phone number when calling consumers. There are pros and cons to this approach, and I could write book on the “why’s” and “why not’s.” Topic for another time and, regardless, that isn’t going to save you. Spoofing a caller ID (meaning, when I make a call, using a caller ID other than what is assigned to my “line”) is a piece of cake. Virtually every call
center platform on the planet can do this, and with good reason: brands often want to use different numbers for different purposes. There is nothing nefarious at play, and this is a VERY legal practice when done properly. However, there is little to stop a bad actor from impersonating your brand when making a call.
Let’s go back to ACME, and let’s say they NEVER make calls with a caller ID of 800-BUY-ACME. That’s great, but what if a SCAM artist uses that number to call random dessert mammals using the common “billing error” fraud. You know the one – you get a call saying your recent purchase was rejected, but if you provide your credit card number, they can fix it for you over the phone. Without proper call authentication in place, TMO will label those as SCAM likely. Maybe that’s exactly what they should do, but, again, not the debate here.
Instead, think about when someone calls that number to make a purchase or to fact-check that call. They are told they are being scammed and should hang up (essentially). What does that do to your brand reputation? Not only does it potentially end a relationship with a brand, but it denies the brand the opportunity to learn that there is an issue in the first place!
Admittedly, there are DNO services with which you can register, and that *might* put you in a position to stop your caller ID from being misused. There is no guarantee, though, as there is no centralized DNO list, and carriers are free to use any list they deem “reasonable.” Therefore, if you are not registered with every carrier’s list of choice, you are not protected.
Is T-Mobile’s Inbound Scam Warning Legal?
I’m not an attorney, but I occasionally play one on TV. While I really can’t speak to the legality of this, in a way, it DOES make sense to me. Think about it – if a carrier genuinely thinks you are a bad actor, do they have an obligation to warn people trying to engage with you? We’d all be ticked off if someone watched us put a few dollars in a vending machine and, after the machine seems to “eat” our money, that someone walked up to you and says, “Yeah; it’s been doing that to people all day. I haven’t seen one successful purchase.” Why didn’t they tell me BEFORE I gave the machine my hard-earned money? From that perspective, I’d like to give TMO the benefit of the doubt. They genuinely believe there is an issue, and they are warning their subscribers before the damage is done.
In fairness to the folks over at TMO, they have been very transparent in discussions on this, and they have stated a clear willingness to automatically remove this for anyone who can successfully complete a redress request. The key is that you need to prove to them that you ARE, in fact, a good actor.
I will say that I think the FCC, as it considers regulatory changes, may want to revisit the topic of reporting SPAM feedback to callers. This was debated in the past, but inevitably, it has been shot down. In January, a new rule goes into effect that will require carriers to tell you when your calls are being blocked under the FCC’s call blocking and labeling framework, giving legitimate businesses better insight into how some call analytics affect their outreach. But as of now, there is nothing in the new requirements about communicating being reported as SPAM by a consumer. I’d love to see this reconsidered, as I imagine many legitimate callers would treat that as a “not interested” and stop calling. However, since there is currently no mechanism to report that, callers keep calling, and often, the SPAM reports keep coming in because the brand isn’t aware that the consumer doesn’t want to talk to them.
How to Fix T-Mobile Scam Labels on Your Business Numbers
Reach out to speak to one of our compliance experts. We can check the caller ID reputation of your INBOUND numbers, as well as your outbound. If we find you have been labeled as SPAM/SCAM, we will work with the carriers on your behalf to get that corrected immediately (assuming you have passed our vetting process). We will be covering topics like this (including the call blocking rule) at our annual Florida Compliance Summit, so I highly recommend you attend to hear breaking news like this that can help you better control your brand’s reputational integrity.
