The relentless surge of robocalls has inundated Americans to the point of exhaustion. In 2024 alone, we estimate that Americans received more than 70 billion unwanted calls.
This staggering volume has led to fewer Americans answering the phone. According to survey data in our eBook, “Exploring the Demand for Branded Caller ID,” more than 68% won’t answer calls from unknown numbers.
For contact center and customer service/customer experience (CX) professionals, robocalls are proving equally problematic regarding customer engagement, retention, and management.
…contact centers face a delicate dilemma: maintaining compliance while fostering consumer engagement and safeguarding them from bad actors.
Innovative strategies, processes, and technologies are required to grow revenues and protect against negative bottom-line impacts.
However, bad actors lurk amid those efforts.
They continue to aggressively exploit vulnerabilities to execute fraudulent schemes, harass consumers, and impersonate legitimate enterprises to steal money from unsuspecting Americans. They are also increasingly misusing AI in their schemes.
Telecom providers, industry partners, policymakers, and regulators continue to focus on working together to mitigate robocalls and protect Americans from voice call threats. Meanwhile, contact centers face a delicate dilemma: maintaining compliance while fostering consumer engagement and safeguarding them from bad actors.
Federal and State Changes
With the Trump Administration’s focus on cost-cutting and deregulation, and with changes to federal agencies like the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), there has been uncertainty on whether there will be additional federal telemarketing and related regulations or a rollback of them.
But there appears to be two areas of new strong federal actions that will likely stand:
1. Consent Revocation. This package of new FCC rules, which was to come into effect April 11, 2025, but was postponed to April 11, 2026, requires calling/texting parties to honor consumer do-not-call and consent revocation (opt-out) requests within 10 business days.
…some organizations make it very difficult for consumers to opt out after opting in.
Also, those that make package delivery notification robocalls and robotexts without consent honor opt-out requests within six business days.
The Consent Revocation requirement, made within the authority of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) and which codifies past FCC rulings, does away with requiring consumers to opt in. The problem with that model has been that some organizations make it very difficult for consumers to opt out after opting in.
The challenge still remains that “one-to-many” exists. Namely that a consumer may find it difficult to find all the organizations they would have to opt out of.
2. AI-assisted calls. The FCC banned AI-generated voices in robocalls to stop fraud, doing so on the heels of a deepfake political robocall featuring a cloned voice of former President Biden urging New Hampshire voters to stay home during the 2024 primaries. The unanimously adopted rule also empowered states’ attorney generals to go after offenders.
There are also efforts underway to tighten enforcement of existing FCC regulations. Senator Ben Ray Lujan (D-N.M.) has reintroduced the FCC Legal Enforcement Act, a bill that would accelerate the pace at which violators of TCPA are held financially accountable. Here are its key provisions:
- If the Department of Justice declines to act within 120 days of the FCC referring a case, the Commission can initiate and supervise its own court proceedings to collect penalties.
- The FCC will prioritize cases involving unpaid fines over $25 million.
- The Act would also clarify the FCC’s authority to issue rules as it deems necessary “to protect subscribers from unwanted calls.”
Beyond federal laws, some enterprises are also forced to navigate varying state-level regulations, which impose stricter limitations on outbound calling. This is not surprising; state governments have often taken the lead on issues like consumer protection in response to public outcry.
- Florida now restricts telemarketing calls to between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM, a narrower window than the federal 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM allowance.
- In 2024 Washington State passed the “Robocall Scam Protection Act”, aligning state regulations with federal DNC rules while expanding protections against unauthorized automated solicitations.
- New York now requires telemarketers to identify themselves within the first 30 seconds to combat scams.
As enterprises comply with these strict rules and regulations, contact center professionals must rethink their outbound communication strategies to enhance engagement and maintain compliance.
New One-to-One Consent Rule?
The FCC has been considering implementing a new rule, known as the One-to-One Consent Rule. Made under the authority of the TCPA, it would have aimed to close the “lead generator loophole” where consumers would consent to calls from one entity but then receive calls from numerous other entities.
Originally set to go into effect on January 27, 2025, the FCC postponed the implementation until January 2026 following several successful court challenges. In making its decision, the commission acknowledged the “significant burdens” on companies’ ability to comply with the ruling by the effective date.
Creating a Holistic Voice Channel Strategy
According to a recent survey of contact center decision-makers in our eBook, “Fraud Prevention Insights for Outbound Contact Center Operations,” 89% reported fraudsters spoofing their business’s identity. But despite widespread concern over spam and fraud, 31% of respondents indicated their company is not using tools to prevent spoofing.
This gap exists partly because contact centers have historically focused more on inbound communications than outbound calling. However, with 94% of call center managers and executives deeply concerned about the impact of spam and fraud on outbound calling, the pressure to secure voice communications is rising.
Enterprises must prioritize security and transparency to rebuild consumer trust in the voice channel. Once trust is restored, stronger customer engagement, higher answer rates, and revenue growth will follow.
The key to securing the voice channel lies in adopting critical outbound calling technologies:
- Branded Calling. Displays critical call information on incoming call screens, such as the brand name and logo, so recipients can identify the callers and feel confident answering. By branding calls, contact centers and their parent organizations can reestablish trust with recipients, prompting customers to recognize the origins of the calls and feel confident answering them.
- Call Authentication. Verifies each outgoing call from an authorized number, eliminating consumer uncertainty and reducing fraudulent robocalls.
- Spoof Protection. Unauthorized calls are blocked before they reach customers, preventing fraudsters from making contact.
- Call Analytics. AI-driven analytics and machine learning generate call reputation profiles to distinguish legitimate calls from fraudulent ones.
How Financial Institutions Can Manage Risks
Financial institutions have, not surprisingly, been particularly vulnerable to fraudsters using the voice channel to launch nefarious campaigns. Like what notorious bank robber William Sutton said when he was asked why he robbed banks, they are “where the money is”. Even the largest national banks have been targeted by bad actors weaponizing AI.
In one high-profile example, a Chase Bank customer lost over $120,000 from his checking account. He received a call from an 800 number that matched Chase’s customer service, asking him to verify a suspicious transaction. From there, he was prompted to log in to his account through a secure link sent via text message. The bad actors captured his login information and stole his money.
Common financial scams include fraudulent calls regarding tax season, ghost filers, unpaid tolls, and student loan payments.
Americans should not be solely responsible for differentiating between legitimate and fraudulent calls made by robocall scammers. But with the proper, secure communications strategy, financial enterprises can combat robocall bad actors and successfully protect their customers from these attacks.
In 2024, a customer of ours, a major national bank, faced a large-scale phishing attack. Their customers received texts warning them about fraudulent activities on their accounts and were notified that they would receive a phone call from the bank that appeared to be legitimate but was, in fact, from scammers.
In response, the bank deployed branded calling, call authentication, spoof protection, and call analytics. Within the first five months of these solutions, 941,000 total calls were received, and nearly 14% of calls were marked as potential spam and were blocked. In addition to protecting customers, these solutions also improved customer engagement: by month three, the bank’s call durations had increased by 13%.
Balancing Compliance and Engagement
Contact centers and their parent organizations must continuously adapt to evolving outbound communication regulations.
Enterprises must prioritize security and transparency to rebuild consumer trust in the voice channel.
To maintain compliance without sacrificing critical consumer engagement, enterprises should adopt a proactive, holistic approach that integrates the methods I outlined in this article.
By anticipating regulatory changes and leveraging innovative solutions, enterprises can protect their customers, maintain trust, and enhance the efficiency of their outreach strategies.
