Aspects to consider when legitimate calls are being blocked and how to prevent it.
In ongoing efforts to proactively block unwanted and illegal calls Phone companies and their partner service providers, look for suspicious calling patterns. Due to this at times false-positive blocking may occur if a legitimate business or other entity places calls using a pattern similar to those associated with unwanted calls.
Following these best practices below will prevent legitimate calls from being blocked:
- Use a valid outgoing number.
- Do not display an invalid number in the caller ID.
- Do not substitute a phone number in the caller ID to which you are not subscribed to.
- Never use an outgoing number that is on the Do Not Originate list.
- Control or avoid the number of calls placed per minute, particularly outside of normal business hours.
- Reduce or control the number of times you call numbers back within a short time frame.
It is also helpful to periodically check with phone companies and third-party analytics companies about consumer complaints for the numbers you normally use to place calls.
Make sure to provide a consistent call-back number and consider including additional contact information that recipients can use to report concerns when leaving messages.
Use different outbound numbers for different purposes. For example: Do not use the same number for customer service and telemarketing phone calls.
Lastly, be sure to register the valid numbers you plan to use for outgoing calls with the entities listed below, not just the phone company that provides your service.
- AT&T: Call 800-337-5373, email dl-GFMOBusinessFra@ATT.com, or contact Hiya through its website, hiyahelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. Calling parties can also provide feedback at att.com/reviewmycalllabel, which links to Hiya’s portal.
- CenturyLink: Email robocall.reporting@centurylink.com, or contact Nomorobo at nomorobo.com/contact and choose “Report a Number.”
- First Orion: Contact via the website at calltransparency.com.
- Frontier: Email nospam@ftr.com, or contact Nomorobo.
- Hiya: Contact through the website at hiyahelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new. Hiya provides a service for legitimate businesses to register, through connect.hiya.com.
- Nomorobo: Contact through the website at nomorobo.com/contact and choose “Report a Number.” Nomorobo has a white list feature to which subscribers can add numbers in order to prevent erroneous blocking.
- Sprint: Call 888-211-4727 or contact TNS at reportarobocall.com/trf.
- T-Mobile: Contact through feedback.fosrvt.com or through First Orion at calltransparency.com.
- TNS: TNS provides a portal on its website for identifying inaccuracies, through its robocall feedback website, reportarobocall.com/trf, and it allows companies to subscribe to alerts to inform them when the number is classified as a spammer, spoofer, scammer, or robocalls.
- US Cellular: Call 888-944-9400 or contact through the website at uscellular.com/support/robocall/index.html.
- Verizon: Contact through the website at voicespamfeedback.com.
- Windstream: Call 800-347-1991 or contact by email at the website: windstream.com/Support/Phone/Troubleshooting-repair.
Some of the above companies also offer call labeling to help consumers decide which calls they want to answer. These companies may be able to address any questions you have regarding how your calls are being labeled.