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      Spam or Scam Likely Phone Numbers

      What is a spam call? 

      A spam call is a call made from a number that has been flagged as suspicious by any of the carriers involved, or a call originating from a phone number that the carrier cannot identify. Customers may see their outbound calls display as "Spam," "Spam Likely," "Scam Likely," etc., to recipients in their caller ID. Calls may even be blocked altogether.

      Why does spam flagging or call blocking exist:

      Spam flagging aims to protect consumers against:

      - Unidentified calls
      - Robocalling: high-volume, short-duration calls originating from a single number
      - Illegal Calls
      - Unwanted Calls

      As such, regulators and major phone carriers have implemented protective actions to help reduce the occurrence of robocalling, illegal calls, unwanted calls, and calls made from unidentified phone numbers.

      Some reasons your number could be blocked or flagged as spam are: 

      - If your calls are being blocked to T-Mobile devices, you need to register your phone number with FirstOrion, a free service that T-Mobile uses to identify calls from verified phone numbers. If you are not registered with FirstOrion, this is the most important thing you can do to fix this issue and only takes a few minutes.
      - Your phone number is not registered with Hiya, a free service just like FirstOrion, used by AT&T to identify calls from verified phone numbers.
      - Consumers may have reported your phone number to their telecom carriers, resulting in your phone number being flagged as spam. This is unlikely, but you can fill out a form to have your phone number removed from this list here: https://reportarobocall.com/trf/

       
      Behaviors that may increase spam flagging:
      - High volume: Companies that make over 20,000+ calls per month with very low answer rates are generally labeled high volume and may be flagged automatically
      - High volume short calls: Typically under 50 seconds
      - High volume of unanswered calls
       
      How Ringy Can Help:  
      Ringy is not able to alert you when your number might possibly be displaying as “spam likely” or something similar. However, we can provide you with best practices to follow to help avoid this from happening.
      1. To start, you should create a Standard Business Profile. Doing so will register your phone numbers with SHAKEN/STIR, which will give your outbound calls the highest SHAKEN/STIR attestation. You can do this by navigating to the Phone Setup page and selecting the Business Profile tab. Please review this article for more information on registering: Business Profile tab / A2P 10DLC Registration
      2. Create a Caller ID reputation profile to improve call answer rates and decrease the likelihood of your calls being blocked or labeled as "Scam Likely". Whether you have an approved Starter or Standard Business Profile found on the Business Profile tab of the Phone Setup page, you will see the "Caller ID Reputation Profile" section.
      • Choose "Create Profile" 
        • Select your use case
        • Enter your business employee count
          • Number of employees in your business that will be making calls using this profile i.e. how many agents you will allow to join your Standard Business Profile.
        • Enter your average business daily call volume
          • Estimate of the total number of calls everyone on your business profile makes per day.
        • Notes (optional) 
          • This may be any additional notes about the use case. For example, 'We do last mile delivery of goods'. This can be empty if there are no additional notes.
      • Once submitted, your Caller ID reputation profile will be under review. This process can take 24-48 hours to complete. 
      • If it is rejected, you will see an option to resubmit. 
      • If your caller ID reputation profile has been approved, you will see that reflected in the same "Caller ID Reputation Profile" section of the Business Profile tab. Your current and future phone numbers for everyone attached to this business profile will be automatically registered.
      Still having issues?
      If you're still having issues with calls not going through, hearing a busy signal on many of your outbound calls, or showing up as "Scam Likely," you may need to wait 1-3 business days before these changes take effect on your phone numbers. If after that time you're still having issues, carriers may have flagged your number as spam due to your calling practices, especially if you have a high call volume with low answer rates and short call durations. Try registering with the telecom providers listed below directly to see if that resolves your issues.
      Free Caller Registry enables entities making legitimate outbound phone calls to submit their data to the three major providers of call management services supporting the major US wireless carriers once via a standard, centralized experience. First Orion, Hiya, and Transaction Network Services ("Analytics Engines") have partnered to streamline the telephone number registration process. This free portal helps entities reach these Analytics Engines that support major wireless and wireline carriers in the US. Register here with Free Caller Registry, and enter your Ringy phone numbers: https://freecallerregistry.com/fcr/
      Alternatively, you can register your phone numbers directly with T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon instead:
      *When asked for the Telephone Provider or Service Provider the answer would be "Twilio."

      Please wait 1-3 days before verifying your phone numbers no longer show as spam likely after registering with FirstOrion, Hiya, and filling out the form for Verizon. Please also ensure you are registering new phone numbers purchased in the future. 

      Key takeaways:
      Create or join a standard business profile within Ringy, and make sure you register with FirstOrion and Hiya. This is the biggest thing you can do so your phone calls don’t show as “spam likely” no matter what platform you use.