Number monitoring has not detected a flag, but people are saying my number comes up as “Scam Likely.” Why? What should I do?

We understand the frustration of paying for a monitoring service, but learning about a flag from another source.

Firstly, if you haven’t already, our highest recommendation is to get your numbers registered at Freecallerregistry.com/fcr/.

It’s totally free, and the submission is directly utilized by the call management services that support the major US wireless carriers. While no action offers guaranteed freedom from flags, this is a strong trust signal that will impact call reputation to over 200 million phone numbers.

Now, let’s return to the initial question of why a flag was not detected by the monitoring service.

Unfortutately, there is no single source of data when it comes to flags.

In fact, each carrier uses its own third-party service to manage reputation, only for their own network, and based on a proprietary collection of information. Flags are applied independently and often show on one network, but not the rest. They also come and go.

A flag can be isolated and appear before the data aggregators that power the monitoring capabilities can process and warn of the flag. 

While it’s understandably frustrating to hear about a flag that was not detected, it would also be frustrating to take action on a number that has only isolated flags, but is largely clean.

The bottom line is that while monitoring isn’t and can’t be perfect, it does provide valuable and balanced visibility into the health of your numbers. This intelligence can help you decide whether to use, pause, or replace your numbers.