Unrelenting spam and scam calls were impacting peace-of-mind for resident senior citizens and undermining this organization’s commitment to their overall well-being. Voice Traffic Filter delivered immediate relief and restored trust.

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The Impact

This organization offers retired seniors a broad spectrum of living options in a continuous care model, including independent residences, communal assisted living, memory support, and skilled nursing care. Included in its mission statement is a commitment to “Deliver resident and customer experiences that exceed expectations…surpassing standards for quality and safety.” When an increasing amount of spam and scam calls to residents’ rooms threatened to undermine that mission, they knew they had to take action, not only for the safety of those under their charge, but for the integrity of the organization as a whole. But how?

Voice Security Made Possible

The answer came from the organization’s voice platform provider.

During a scheduled upgrade, a representative suggested including Mutare’s voice firewall solution as a valuable enhancement. Mutare provided a demo of the full, multilayered Voice Traffic Filter capabilities as well as a Voice Security Assessment to reveal the extent of the organization’s unwanted voice traffic problem.

Even with just a single layer of filtering enabled, the analysis showed that nearly 17% of incoming calls to the organization were known spam, scam, and robocalls. “That was what was picked up by the filter’s database of unwanted numbers alone,” notes the organization’s Senior Director of Technology. “Many of the disruptive calls to our residents also come from solicitors trying to sell things they clearly don’t need or, worse, from criminals trying to lure them into a scam.”

While in-room phones provide Caller ID so residents can distinguish between known and unknown callers, that is not always helpful, he says. “Scammers are using call spoofing to make their number display as a familiar one so the call is more likely to be answered. Even worse, they can now use AI to disguise their voice to sound like someone the resident actually knows.”

After seeing the full depth of Mutare’s Voice Traffic Filter’s capacity to identify unwanted nuisance and nefarious calls in their many and evolving forms, this organization purchased and implemented Voice Traffic Filter for the protection of residents and staff at its main campus locations.

Applying the Right Voice Security Solution

While experiencing immediate relief from the growing influx of spam and robocalls, this organization has taken full advantage of the Voice Traffic Filter’s flexible Custom Rules controls to further detect and remove solicitor and nuisance callers. What’s more, administrators have configured the application’s Voice CAPTCHA feature to allow residents the option to have all of their calls screened through this added layer of call vetting, further separating legitimate callers from bots.

As a result, Voice Traffic Filter is now identifying a full 45% of incoming calls as unwanted, sparing residents and staff from their negative impact. “Just to illustrate, I could see on the filter’s dashboard that one resident was receiving more than 70 unwanted calls a day. But it was not a problem, because the filter was able to catch and deflect those calls before they ever rang through.” The fact is, he says, Voice Traffic Filter works so effectively and seamlessly in the background that it’s easy to forget how bad it was before.

“We were reminded, though, when we had to turn off filtering for a short time for some IT work. Immediately we were flooded with complaint calls from staff and residents asking what was going on with all of the junk calls! The relief when we turned the system back on was immediate.”

Currently in their third year with Voice Traffic Filter implemented across three communities, the organization is finalizing the implementation at three additional locations.

“One of the most impressive qualities is the robust call detection database that continually evolves to detect, and block, known robocall and spoof agents within milliseconds. This significantly reduces spam and scam tactics, particularly those targeting our residents who are most vulnerable to financial scams. It is reassuring to know that the Voice Traffic Filter will continue to deliver on its promise to protect our organization from voice threats while making life better for both our associates and the residents we serve.”