Whitepages challenges spammers in real-time with app update
Contact information provider Whitepages has updated its Android mobile application Current Caller ID to offer real-time analysis of billions of calls, texts and phone lookups from the brand's 50 million users.
Users will now see a spam score, number of reports and comments from the Whitepages community for incoming calls identified as suspected spam. Whitepages is obviously attempting to apply its extended network and show it is of great use.
?To me, any effort to combat mobile spam is beneficial since we're tethered so tightly to mobile and we've abandoned landlines by and large,? said Karyn Bordoni, marketing and operations manager at Mowingo, San Francisco. ?But, as it's a free service, consumers will have to understand that they're likely giving up something in exchange for the service.
?As long as White Pages has clearly defined how they're supporting the service, such as ads, contact information shared with email lists, etc., and the consumer understands this, this should work fine,? she said.
Spam be gone
Through the new spam identification system, users can add their own comments on incoming spam calls to build out the company?s reputation database and help warn other users.
These new features add another layer of information for consumers to protect themselves against spam and inform others of spam.
Whitepages is taking into consideration recent statistics from Pew Internet Research, which show 68 percent of mobile phone users receive unwanted sales and marketing calls with 25 percent saying they encounter this problem at least a few times every week and sometimes even more frequently.
Believing that call and text spam is a pervasive and growing program in the United States, the advancements of the Caller ID app stem from the company?s ongoing efforts to protect consumers from a number of pervasive scams this year, including the One Ring Scam, Grandparents Scam and the IRS Phone Scam.
The Whitepages app will alert consumers if a call comes from a number identified with those threats.
Whitepages data shows that consumers get an estimated 1.5 billion spam calls or texts every month. More than 60 percent of Americans who have blocked calls have done so for an unknown number, and more than 6,000 numbers are used in the IRS scam.
Since scam, spam and fraudulent calls and texts are sent from a rapidly changing circle of phone numbers, new ones show up every minute due to phone spoofing and other tactics that make suspicious activity difficult to identify.
With real-time analytics based on a combination of user feedback and call and text activity analysis, the app aims to provide accurate spam scores to stay ahead of emerging threats.
Being in the know
Current Caller ID identifies calls from unknown phone numbers before users answer the call, as well as identifying numbers that send texts to users? devices.
Users can stop unwanted calls with Current?s spam detection tool and block spam calls, telemarketers and scammers.
The app also integrates social by showing users the social statuses, weather and news for their closest contacts. Users? contact list can be automatically built by names and addresses from Whitepages when using their phones or from social networks, recent calls or texts.
?This move expands White Pages' usefulness beyond simply a business and resident information listing app into something far more helpful to the consumer,? Ms. Bordoni said. ?And it ties White Pages much more firmly to the customer, because if White Pages is processing every call to denote a spam score, the customer is undoubtedly going to see this every time they glance at caller ID.
?It brings White Pages out of the app pages and right under the consumer's nose,? she said.
Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York
