{"id":27969,"date":"2024-12-13T15:25:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T23:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/?p=27969"},"modified":"2024-12-06T15:25:37","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T23:25:37","slug":"what-potential-spam-means-on-your-caller-id","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.spokeo.com\/compass\/what-potential-spam-means-on-your-caller-id\/","title":{"rendered":"Potential Spam? Spam Risk? What These New Caller ID Messages Mean, and What to Do About Them"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Caller ID used to be a very simple thing in the \u201clandline phones and copper wires\u201d days.  If somebody called you their number showed up on the display, and if it didn’t then the caller had deliberately blocked caller ID.  Then scammers and spammers and robocalls came along, and things got ugly enough that a lot of us stopped taking calls unless we knew for sure<\/em> who was calling. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within the past couple of years, as phone companies adopted new technology, Caller ID has grown into a challenge.  Now you\u2019ll see a lot of new messages, including ones that say something like \u201cspam likely,\u201d \u201cpotential spam\u201d or \u201cspam risk.\u201d  If you\u2019ve ever wondered how your phone carrier decides which calls are likely to be spammy or scammy, and what you should do about them, this is your lucky day.  Pour yourself a coffee, and let\u2019s dig in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why Telephone Spams and Scams Became so Common<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In the early days of the telephone era<\/a>, every call was connected manually by an operator (you\u2019ve seen that, if you\u2019re a fan of old movies).\u00a0 As phones became popular manual switching was replaced by self-dialing and automated analog switching equipment.\u00a0 In more recent decades that equipment in turn was replaced by computerized equipment and eventually high-capacity fiber optics lines and computer-driven Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)<\/a> phone systems.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those new computerized systems made it possible for companies to batch-call telephone numbers at rates of up to tens of thousands per hour.\u00a0 That\u2019s why there are about 4 billion robocalls in the US each month, according to the FCC<\/a> (nuisance calls are the FCC\u2019s top consumer complaint, and correspondingly its top priority).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bipartisan Pallone-Thune TRACED Act<\/a> passed a few years ago, pushed back against that irritating flood of calls.\u00a0 Among its other provisions, it required telephone carriers to implement new protocols called STIR and SHAKEN<\/a>, which gave them powerful new tools to identify, validate, and screen the calls and callers across their networks.\u00a0 That\u2019s what led to all of those new Caller ID messages, including \u201cpotential spam,\u201d \u201cspam risk,\u201d and their equivalents.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spam Risk, Potential Spam\u2026 What Do They Mean? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now that we\u2019ve gotten that much out of the way, let\u2019s circle back to our starting point.  Your phone rings, and the display says \u201cSpam risk\u201d or \u201cPotential spam\u201d or maybe even \u201cScam likely.\u201d  So how and why does your phone carrier decide which incoming numbers represent potential spam or scam risk calls? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the upside of handling 4 billion nuisance calls each month is that it gives the phone companies a lot<\/em> of data to work with.\u00a0 The companies (or rather, the outside specialists they partner with) have used those calls, and consumer complaints about them, to train sophisticated AI algorithms<\/a>.\u00a0 Now, their systems are able to recognize calling patterns (and out-of-country phone exchanges or carriers) that match those of known-scammy or -spammy calls.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be clear, no system is ever going to be 100 percent accurate.  You\u2019ll get \u201cspam risk\u201d messages for legitimate calls sometimes, and you\u2019ll also get spammy calls that don\u2019t trigger an alert.  But on the whole, you can confidently ignore any calls that show those alerts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

What Happens if I Answer a Spam Risk Call? <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

You may be wondering at this point, given that the system isn\u2019t entirely accurate, whether it\u2019s worth answering a call that\u2019s flagged as potential spam.  That\u2019s especially true if you\u2019re expecting an important call from someone who\u2019s not already on your contacts list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, most of the things that can happen at this point are bad.\u00a0 At a minimum, you\u2019ve wasted a few moments of your time listening to a spiel you could have spared yourself.\u00a0 But you\u2019ve also told the robocallers that your number is valid, and that you\u2019ll answer it, which means you can end up getting more<\/em> calls.\u00a0 On the whole, it\u2019s better to let the call go, and then later check the phone logs on your carrier\u2019s website to see what the caller\u2019s actual number was.\u00a0 Then you can check it on Spokeo<\/a> and call them back, if it\u2019s someone you legitimately wanted to speak with (and then add them to your contacts list for next time).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The worst-case scenario is that if the call is coming from a scammer rather than a spammer, you may have set yourself up to be targeted for fraud, phishing, or other unpleasant experiences.\u00a0 Scam callers are usually after either your money or your personal information (which is then used for identity theft). They may pretend to be from Social Security<\/a>, the IRS<\/a>, your bank<\/a>, or some other authority, but they\u2019ll ask for things that no legitimate caller would, such as:\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n