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Is anything preventing debt collectors from being Verified by Twilio?
We just started testing texting people before we call them and getting consent on an opt in form to receive a text message.
Im still not sure on the “how”
I was just reviewing my call detail records on my "home" number yesterday, and realizing that the vast majority are spam - we pretty much don't answer that phone. This got me thinking about alternatives to even ringing for any unrecognised numbers, such as an IVR menu that said something like "Hi, we're screening spam, press 4 2 if you're a real person". I'm not sure how that'd be accepted by, for example, the dentis…
It completely weeds out robocalls, and no actual humans seem to have an issue with it. On the contrary, everyone sees why it's necessary.
I'm skeptical for the following reasons: 1. Companies like Twilio largely created the explosion in spam calls by providing extremely cheap, programmable calls, so I'm always a little skeptical when the company selling the poison is also selling the antidote. 2. I really don't like the idea of a single company being responsible for a global verification system for something like phone calls. How are decisions made ove…
I'm skeptical for the following reasons: 1. Companies like Twilio largely created the explosion in spam calls by providing extremely cheap, programmable calls, so I'm always a little skeptical when the company selling the poison is also selling the antidote. 2. I really don't like the idea of a single company being responsible for a global verification system for something like phone calls. How are decisions made ove…
Nah, Twilio has existed for a decade. Spam calls exploded because of court decisions https://www.apnews.com/f9e6e715ebef4c058499fef9efece977
Is anything preventing debt collectors from being Verified by Twilio?
> Verified By Twilio displays company branding and a reason for the call right in front of the consumer
This should make the purpose of debt collection calls obvious, though I don't see how they plan to enforce accurate call descriptions.
Well that's cool I guess. But: 1. How are they partnering with all of the device companies to get this on at least most phones? That'd be interesting to know. 2. I guess somebody has to type that intro text. As long as they're doing that, why bother with a normal call? How about just sending the text instead. Or send a text and let me call back for more details when it suits me, either right away or in 10 minutes. It…
2. The demo on the keynote gave a great use case where a school nurse called the speaker about their child, and she was very lucky to pick up and not let it go to voicemail.
There are still a lot of use cases for calls to hammer out important details, even if they are becoming rarer, like health or car maintenance, or places where sms is associated more with spam. This is a great way to get the best of both worlds, even if it's technically during the decline of calls.
1. I have a "clean" phone number I only share with friends/family. Certain prefixes and phone number actually receive next to zero spam calls. This number has received 2 calls in the years I've had it.
2. I have a phone number I share with companies / loyalty programs / etc.
3. I have a legacy phone number I've had for 10 years that receives multiple spam calls daily. For this number I've set up an incoming handler that uses Google Cloud to ask the caller a simple question (What is five plus two?), parses with the Speech Recognition API, and forwards calls with the correct answer. The rest go to voicemail. It's better to use the speech recognition API than it is to ask the caller to press a DTMF tone, in case they are in a car or are calling from a device without a telephone keypad. If I every need to, I'll add this protection to use numbers 1) and 2).
4. I have a number that rings straight to voicemail.
All numbers use the Whitepages and Nomorobo APIs from Twilio. These score the "spamminess" of calls. Calls with sufficiently high values are forwarded to voicemail.
For incoming calls, I set the caller ID for the calls to my SIP clients to indicate which number is being called, and include the spam score.
I'm skeptical for the following reasons: 1. Companies like Twilio largely created the explosion in spam calls by providing extremely cheap, programmable calls, so I'm always a little skeptical when the company selling the poison is also selling the antidote. 2. I really don't like the idea of a single company being responsible for a global verification system for something like phone calls. How are decisions made ove…
Twilio is not responsible for much spam at all. Their prices are way too high to begin with. And you have no way to spoof your outgoing number.