A jungle out there
When company calls
Scam calls have become such a scourge that many consumers now don’t answer their phones unless they recognize the caller. A few months into the pandemic, T-Mobile rolled out Scam Shield, a set of services to help protect callers from potential fraud. However, consumers’ wariness has also gotten in the way of companies contacting consumers with updates on topics they care about, such as, for example, an appointment or reservation opening. Now, the company that powers Scam Shield, First Orion, is taking steps to not only offer consumers more confidence that a company calling them is what it purports to be. First Orion’s Inform services allow companies to replace the standard numeric Caller ID message with up to 32 characters that can include the company’s verified name and even the reason it’s calling. So if, for example, your preferred hotel chain calls you about a reservation update, you might be more inclined to answer the call than if it’s reaching out to promote a timeshare program. While the branding extends into a consumer’s call log, inform can’t offer the same level of verification for texts, a means of fraud initiation for which the company says it’s seeing high demand for a solution.First Orion’s other branded communications program, Engage, allows companies to have even more branding, including their logos, on the call screen. Inform can work with any smartphone that connects with a carrier partner, Engage, on the other hand, requires that consumers have the partner company’s app installed on their smartphone but can work regardless of carrier.
