Is your number labeled by mistake?

Headway Tech LLC. For businesses, offices and people whose calls our iPhone app labels or blocks.

The short version. The app labels a call when people have reported its number to the FTC. If that is your number and your calls are real, email [email protected] with the number and a page on your own website that shows it. We check, and a number labeled by mistake comes off the next daily list.

What the label is

The label comes from the FTC’s Do Not Call reports, a public list of the numbers people reported for unwanted calls. Anyone can file a report, and the FTC does not check them. A caller can also fake the number that shows on a phone, so a real business’s number can collect reports for calls it never made.

• Labeled: a number reported 2 or more times in the last 90 days, or once in the last 90 days and 3 or more times in 12 months from 3 or more places.
• Blocked: only when the person chose blocking, and in current versions of the app only a number reported 3 or more times in the last 90 days.
• The words: "Likely scam" or "Spam reports", what most reports were about, and how many reports there were. The label never says who the caller is.

We rebuild the list from the FTC’s reports every day, so a number that stops getting reports drops off by itself after 90 days.

Numbers we never label

Some numbers are never labeled or blocked, however many reports they get: the published numbers of agencies, banks and companies that scam calls often pretend to be, such as the IRS, Social Security, Medicare, the big banks and the phone companies. Scam calls fake these numbers, so they collect reports. We take each one only from the organization’s own website or a .gov page. People who use the app can also mark any number they never want labeled, such as their doctor’s office.

Ask for a review

Email [email protected] with "Call label" in the subject, and include:

• The phone number.
• The name of the business, office or agency that uses it.
• A link to a page on its own website, or a .gov page, that shows the number.
• If you like, what the calls are for: appointment reminders, deliveries, school closings, a pharmacy telling you a prescription is ready.

What happens

• A person reads every request.
• We check that the number is on the organization’s own website or a .gov page.
• A number labeled by mistake joins our list of numbers we never label, and comes off the next daily list. Phones pick up the new list the next time the app refreshes it, once a day.
• We reply to say what we did. If we can’t find the number on your website, we say so and ask for more.

Labels from your carrier and other apps

Our list is our own. Phone carriers and other apps keep their own labels, so a fix here doesn’t change theirs. Each has a page for asking:

• Free Caller Registry: register your business numbers once with the companies behind most carriers’ call labels.
• AT&T: att.com/reviewmycalllabel
• T-Mobile: callreporting.t-mobile.com
• Verizon: voicespamfeedback.com

Headway Tech LLC · [email protected]