Recommendations for Texting and Calling from Toll-Free Numbers

Toll-free numbers were once considered inherently trustworthy by consumers.  They're easier to memorize and often advertised on business websites and marketing materials, making them an attractive option for business communications.  However, these same features also make TFNs prime targets from bad actors seeking to leverage that consumer trust by spoofing toll-free numbers and defrauding consumers.  This article aims to keep Convey customers informed about the issues impacting toll-free numbers for both voice and SMS communications, and offers recommendations for keeping your comms flowing.

Concerns to Note

Bad-Actor Impact

• The FDIC has indicated that according to the FTC, occasions of bad-actors impersonating banking organizations to defraud consumers increased twenty times between 2019 and 2022 and continue to rise.
• This occurs both via voice fraud "vishing" attempts and text-based "smishing," therefore impacting the way carriers monitor, filter and flag both voice and text-based comms.
• STIR/SHAKEN call verification framework validates a call's authenticity and cannot be directly affected by consumer flagging, however STIR/SHAKEN is designed to work on SIP networks - bad actors are able to bypass this by using OTT and VoIP services to perform their spoofing.

Voice Senders Flagged as "Potential Spam"

• When one customer marks a call from a TFN as "spam," it indicates to the operator that the TFN may be a bad actor, resulting in that TFN being labeled as "potential spam" or "scam likely" in the ecosystem.
• Some phones have implemented a call screening feature which automatically ignores calls from "Potential Spam" - that means calls from business TFNs may never even ring the recipient's device.
• DID CNAM record storage are supported across most (if not all) carriers, while storage of TFN CNAMs is not supported across most carriers, greatly reducing the likelihood that the end-user will see that stored CNAM when they're receiving a call from the TFN. 

False-Positive Spam Blocking on Text Messages

• Unlike short codes, toll-free numbers which have completed brand verification in order to send texts remain subject to in-flight filtering by messaging carriers and aggregators.  Sometimes, the filters get it wrong, incorrectly flagging and blocking valid traffic as spam.  This is more common with use cases in verticals where abuse is common, such as the financial or pharmaceutical industries.

Recommendations for Business Comms via TFN

It's advised that businesses utilize DIDs in place of TFNs for their business comms where possible.  For voice traffic in particular, the success rate of outbound calls by DID is higher due to the much wider support of DID CNAM storage by carriers when compared to TFNs.  

However, the use of a business TFN may still make sense for your business.  Here are some details to keep in mind when seeking to use toll-free numbers for business communications.

Use TFNs for Inbound Calls

While most U.S. destination carriers can receive outbound calls from U.S.-originating TFNs, it's recommended to utilize TFNs for inbound calls, such as customer support use cases. 

Register TFNs with This Third-Party ID Service

Any business who does decide to use a toll-free number as their source for voice calls is strongly encouraged to register with The Free Caller Registry as this has proven more effective than carrier CNAM storage.)

Banking & Finance Industry

Because of the issues outlined above, toll-free numbers associated with large banking organizations are frequently flagged as spam.  Therefore, large financial and/or banking institutions are recommended to refrain from using their known and/or published company TFN(s) as the calling number for outbound calls.  Similarly, those same financial entities should bear in mind that they are more likely to encounter false-positive spam blocking on their TFN-originating SMS also.