iOh man I could not be happier about this.
So as you all know R.E.A.C.H. is pretty much the only trade organization–maybe the only organization–that has been pushing back against the OUT OF CONTROL carrier call blocking and FALSE and DEFAMATORY labeling that is going on right now.
Almost certain litigation coming on this issue very soon.
Well the good folks at Numeracle–big fan of those guys, especially the founder Rebekah Johnson who is incredibly cool in addition to brilliant–just joined the fight and LAUNCHED on the carriers and their analytic engine counterparts for engaging in false labeling and then CHARGING people to remediate.
Its like the old mafia trope. “Sure would be a shame if something happened to your business. Maybe pay us a little something we’ll make sure there are no false reports that your calls are a scam.”
THAT’s a scam.
And Numeracle lays it all out in a 40 page comment. As the comment explains the companies driving the labeling have no incentive to be accurate:
“Their incentive structure defaults to overblocking and overlabeling as there are currently no downsides to being overzealous in that regard because they are accountable only to their carrier partners.”
I.e. since no one is suing them, they’re just doing whatever they want and feel invincible.
And as Numeracle points out the carriers have simply been LYING about these issues for years:
The major wireless carriers and their AE partners claim extremely high accuracy rates
about their blocking and labeling decisions. In 2021, AT&T claimed a false positive rate for
labeling and blocking of less than one hundredth of one percent. “Call originators who have calls
that are blocked or labeled can use the same web portal to submit a request for redress at no
charge. Based on user reports for March, less than one hundredth of one percent of calls are false
positives.”
30 T-Mobile’s partner First Orion states that for blocking and labeling “[o]ur current
error rate based on reported false positives is a fraction of 1% of all calls we analyze.”31 Verizon
states that its false positive rate for blocking and labeling is “extremely low” and states that
“[l]ess than 0.2% of originating numbers identified as high risk robocalls are reported as having been incorrectly blocked.”32 None of these data points are credible given that the data on false
positives relies on “user reports,” “reported false positives, ” and “reported” errors
Booyah.
To solve the problem Numeracle suggests the FCC should collect data on labeling– which is a great idea and completely common sense. Who can the FCC give the carriers the power to label people but not do ANY form of monitoring or oversight? And then allow the carriers to sell safety back to the caller. It is INSANE.
So it seems that the folks labeling people as scammers are…wait for it… pulling a scam themselves.
In addition to the unfairness and fraud here, Numeracle also points out that the problem of FALSE labeling leads to number churning and exhaustion. Folks are buying DIDs for call campaigns that have already been labeled as scam or spam likely, even though the caller has never even used the number before. Again, that’s craziness. And of course businesses will stop using a number when a reporting service advises them it has been flagged.
What really bothers me, however, is despite all of these documented abuses and the CLEAR unlawful business practices taking place on a MASSIVE scale–why is nobody suing and seeking injunctive relief here? Regardless I LOVE to see Numeracle taking a stand.
You can rad their entire fantastic comment here: Numeracle FCC robocall comments
