Reduce Fraud by Marking Calls as Spam
Quick shout out to Key and Peele’s Telemarketer skit which is where the image is from. Not only is it hilarious, but it says a lot about human psychology and the Strip-Lining sales technique.
The User Experience Problem
Cell phones are great for communicating with people you want to hear from, they’re also great for Spammers and unsolicited Telemarketers to get ahold of you.
They’re also great to notify you of a tornado warning or Amber Alert, but not our idea to make an emergency call to a loved one with similar notifications as Amber Alerts. A few sentences in to this post and we already digressed…
ANYWAY! It is quite annoying to receive calls from random phone numbers that do not leave voicemails (because they just want you to pick up and do not want you to know their intention via a voicemail) or to receive calls that use very vague language to make you think you’re in trouble.
An example of a Spam call is below, and this time it wasn’t inheriting a Prince in Monaco’s fortune. The voicemail was delivered in a computer voice and reads:
“Get expired in next 24 working hours and once it get expired after that you will be taken under custody by the local cops as there are four serious allegations pressed on your name at this moment. We would request you to get back to us so that we can discuss about this case before taking any legal action against you. The number to reach us is 585-585-0817. I repeat 585-585-0817.”
— Robo Spammer Con Artist the 17th
our feedback to spammer
- Kudos to you, Sir Spams A Lot, for your excellent grammar.
We can block this number, but why can’t we mark it as Spam?
The U/X Idea
Mark unsolicited phone calls as Spam to help filter these egregious attempts to con people.
In 2016, according to Market Watch, “An estimated one in every 10 American adults lost money in a phone scam in the past 12 months, according to a report released Wednesday. On average, each scam victim lost $430, totaling about $9.5 billion overall.”
The U/X Solution
Add an option to mark calls as Spam. These phone numbers are then tracked and shared between Telecom companies like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile. Then, just like with email, calls like these are placed into a Spam folder on your phone when there is credible enough evidence that the number is actually Spam. Marking a number as Spam will automatically block the caller on your phone.
Conclusion
People today get a lot of unnecessary calls. You can add your number to the Do Not Call List. But let’s face it, Spammers and Con Artists do not care about that list. Their only goal is to con you out of your money and personal information.
Let’s come together as a team, like we do with emails, and mark unwanted phone calls as Spam. Those numbers will be monitored, and when confirmed that they are Spam oriented, will filter those numbers into a Spam folder.
Lastly, it will be necessary to communicate these numbers to all Telecom organizations such as the small Mom & Pop companies and VOIP like Google Voice. Once a number is marked as Spam, people will not want to sign-up for a new phone number and be given a “blacklisted” Spam number.
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