You invested in the leads. You built the follow-up system. Your agents are making the calls. Then, answer rates suddenly start dropping, and nobody can figure out why.
A lot of insurance agencies eventually discover the same issue: their phone numbers are getting flagged as spam.
Prospects see “Spam Likely” or “Scam Risk” before they ever hear your pitch. Most will never answer at all. Others block the number immediately. By the time your team realizes what is happening, your cost per transfer is climbing, your leads are getting colder by the hour, and outbound performance starts falling apart.
For insurance agencies, this has become a serious revenue problem. Most U.S. adults already avoid unknown calls, and carrier spam filters have become much more aggressive over the last few years. Agencies running high-volume outbound sales operations are especially vulnerable because many common insurance sales activities can trigger carrier algorithms. Rapid lead follow-up, multiple reps calling the same prospect, power dialers, and heavy outbound activity often resemble the behavior carriers associate with spam operations.
Many agencies do not realize they have been flagged until performance drops.
The good news is that spam flags can be fixed.
The bad news is that it doesn’t happen instantly, so you’ll want to be proactive.
This guide breaks down why spam labels happen, how to check whether your numbers are affected, what steps to take to remove the labels, and what agencies can do to prevent the problem from coming back. If you are running an outbound operation with multiple agents and dialers, we will also cover when it makes sense to hand spam remediation off to a managed service.
Spam labels do not come from one centralized system. Each major carrier operates its own spam detection network using different analytics providers:
AT&T relies heavily on Hiya
Verizon uses TNS Call Guardian
Because these systems operate independently, a phone number can appear clean on one carrier and flagged on another at the same time.
These platforms continuously analyze calling behavior across millions of phone numbers. They look at metrics like outbound call volume, answer rates, call duration, hang-ups, consumer complaints, and dialing patterns associated with known spam operations.
The challenge for insurance agencies is that many legitimate outbound sales activities look very similar to the behavior carriers are trying to stop.
A fast-moving internet lead operation naturally creates high outbound calling activity. Multiple agents may call the same lead. Calls often go unanswered. Prospects hang up quickly. Follow-up happens aggressively during the first few hours after a lead comes in. From a carrier’s perspective, those patterns can resemble robocalling or spam campaigns even when the agency is operating legitimately and following TCPA guidelines.
These are the specific patterns carrier algorithms penalize. Every one of them shows up regularly in insurance sales environments.
1- High outbound call volumeMaking more than roughly 75 outbound calls per number per day significantly increases spam risk. Agencies using power dialers or heavy lead distribution often exceed this threshold without realizing it. If you’re not using a proactive spam solution, your likelihood of flagging spam increases tremendously.
2- Short call durationsCalls that end in under 60 seconds create negative engagement signals. When prospects immediately hang up, decline the call, or send it to voicemail, carrier systems interpret that as a sign the call was unwanted. Something you’ll want to watch with your own team: People ending calls before they hit voicemail - that is a bad sign to the carriers!
3- Excessive redials and double callingCalling the same prospect multiple times in a short window is one of the fastest ways to damage a caller's reputation. Double dialing or attempting more than three calls to the same lead in a single day closely mirrors the behavior of known spam operations.
Unfortunately, this is also a very common habit in internet lead sales environments where speed to contact matters. We recommend 3 calls on the first day, with four being the absolute maximum.
4- Overusing a single caller IDToo much outbound activity tied to one phone number can create unhealthy answer-to-call ratios, especially when dialing behavior is unmanaged. Carriers also monitor repeated calls into the same geographic areas and area codes, so aggressive concentration patterns can start attracting scrutiny over time. At the same time, high call volume alone does not automatically create spam issues. Many agencies successfully run significant outbound volume through a single number when their dialing behavior, number reputation, and calling infrastructure are managed properly.
5- Using brand new phone numbersFresh numbers have no established reputation history. Carriers automatically treat them as higher risk until enough positive engagement data exists. This is why replacing a flagged number with a brand new one rarely fixes the underlying problem for long, and new numbers are quickly flagged as spam again.
6- Consumer complaintsSpam reports submitted through carrier apps, call blocking apps, and direct carrier feedback systems carry a lot of weight. Once the complaint volume reaches a certain level, spam labels can spread across multiple networks very quickly.
Carrier spam labels are no longer the only obstacle insurance agencies face.
Smartphones are increasingly using AI-powered call screening to intercept unknown callers before the phone even rings. Apple introduced on-device call screening in iOS 26, while Google Pixel devices have offered similar functionality for years. Both systems are becoming more aggressive and more accurate over time.
In practice, this means prospects may never even see your incoming call if your number appears suspicious.
When a number is already flagged as spam, the chances of reaching a prospect drop even further. Spam remediation helps restore carrier-level trust, but getting through modern AI screening often requires additional operational changes that go beyond simply removing a label.
We will cover those strategies later in this guide.
For a deeper look at how AI screening is affecting outbound insurance sales teams, see our guide: AI Call Screening Is Hitting Insurance Teams Hard.
This is just one of the reasons an omnichannel (omni = all) approach is more important than ever. If you text or email a prospect, your name may pop up as “Maybe: Andrew” giving you more credibility.
If you’re looking to avoid this completely, consider using a Branded Caller ID solution to ensure your business name shows up every time you call. Not only does this improve trust at the first impression with a prospect, but you also get the added chance of them googling your business and seeing your reviews on Google.
Before you start changing dialers, replacing numbers, or submitting remediation requests, you need to confirm exactly how your number appears across carrier systems.
Spam flags are not always universal. A number may look clean on Verizon while showing “Spam Likely” on AT&T. Some labels are relatively easy to remove. Others require a completely different approach.
The first step is getting visibility into your current caller reputation.
Free Caller Registry
Where to check: freecallerregistry.com
This is the best starting point for most insurance agencies. Free Caller Registry checks your number across Hiya, TNS, and First Orion simultaneously and allows you to register yourself as a legitimate business caller.
If you only use one tool initially, use this one.
Hiya
Where to check: hiya.com/spam-lookup
Hiya powers much of AT&T’s spam detection infrastructure. This lookup helps you understand how your number appears specifically to AT&T customers.
If a large portion of your leads use AT&T, this matters a lot.
Truecaller
Where to check: truecaller.com
Truecaller is a consumer-facing app with a massive crowdsourced database of caller information. It is useful for understanding how your number looks to the general public outside carrier systems.
Even if your carrier reputation is improving, a bad Truecaller reputation can still hurt answer rates.
Nomorobo
Where to check: nomorobo.com
Nomorobo is a robocall blocking service with its own independent reputation database. Checking here helps you understand whether your numbers are being flagged outside the major carrier ecosystem.
The label attached to your number determines the path forward. Not all flags are handled the same way.
This is the most common label insurance agencies encounter.
Carrier algorithms flagged the number based on calling behavior patterns like high outbound volume, short calls, excessive redials, or poor engagement rates.
In most cases, this label can be removed through proper remediation and dialing adjustments.
This is a more serious classification.
These labels are usually tied to heavier complaint volume or behavior patterns carriers associate with fraudulent activity. Removal is still possible, but the process usually takes longer and receives more scrutiny.
This label is often tied to how the number was historically registered or previously used.
Compared to standard spam flags, Telemarketer labels are much harder to clear through normal remediation workflows. In many cases, replacing the number entirely is the better option.
At Next Call Club, we generally recommend replacing Telemarketer-labeled numbers before starting a remediation program.
This is the ideal result.
Your number currently appears clean across the systems being checked. At that point, the focus shifts from remediation to prevention, so the number stays healthy long term.
A note before you start
Next Call Club's spam remediation service cannot resolve labels caused by third-party call-blocking apps like RoboKiller. If your number shows as "Telemarketer" at the carrier level, we recommend replacing it before enrolling. We check your number's status before you pay anything.
Spam remediation is the process of removing spam labels from your phone numbers and rebuilding trust with carrier networks.
The important part to understand is that this is not usually solved with one single action. Carrier reputation is built from multiple signals working together. Registration, caller identity, authentication, complaint history, and dialing behavior all contribute to how your numbers are treated.
Work through the steps below in order. Each one strengthens the next.
The Free Caller Registry sits at the center of the modern remediation process.
The platform connects directly with Hiya, TNS Call Guardian, and First Orion, which are the analytics providers powering spam detection across the major U.S. carriers.
Registering your business gives carriers important context about who you are and why you are calling. It also opens the door for formal dispute submissions if your numbers were incorrectly flagged.
For insurance agencies running outbound sales operations, registration should be considered mandatory.
Benefits of registering include:
If your agency is actively dialing and has never completed this registration, start here first.
This is the business name that appears on a prospect’s screen when your agency calls. If your CNAM is blank, generic, incorrect, or mismatched with your actual business identity, carriers treat the number as less trustworthy, and prospects do the same thing.
An accurate CNAM improves both answer rates and carrier confidence.
The easiest way to check your current setup is to call your personal cell phone from your business line and look at what appears on the screen. If the name is missing or incorrect, contact your carrier or VoIP provider and request a CNAM update.
It sounds minor, but this small administrative detail has a measurable impact on the caller's reputation.
STIR/SHAKEN is the FCC-required call authentication framework used to verify outbound callers.
Every outbound call receives an attestation level that tells receiving carriers how confident they should be that you are a legitimate caller using an authorized number.
There are three trust levels:
A - Full Attestation
This is the gold standard.
Your provider fully verified both your business identity and your ownership of the phone number. This gives carriers the highest confidence level possible.
This is where you want your agency numbers to be.
B - Partial Attestation
Your business identity is verified, but the provider could not fully verify ownership of the specific number being used.
This still carries moderate trust, but not the highest level.
C - Gateway Attestation
The provider could not properly verify your identity or your number ownership.
Calls operating at this level are far more likely to be filtered, blocked, or labeled as spam.
To reach full A-level attestation, your phone system and provider need to support STIR/SHAKEN authentication. Most reputable VoIP providers offer this. If yours does not, that is worth a direct conversation with them.
Once your registration, CNAM, and authentication setup are corrected, the next step is submitting direct removal requests.
Each carrier ecosystem handles disputes slightly differently.
Processing timelines vary widely. Some numbers are clear within a few days. Others can take several weeks, especially if the numbers have accumulated a significant complaint history.
And one important warning: removing a flag does not permanently solve the problem if the underlying dialing behavior stays the same. That is why prevention matters just as much as remediation.
For agencies managing one or two numbers, the remediation process is usually manageable internally.
But once an outbound operation starts growing, spam remediation becomes much harder to manage consistently. More reps means more active numbers, more outbound activity, more carrier exposure, and more opportunities for flags to return.
Number reputation is not static. Carrier algorithms change constantly, complaint patterns evolve, and a number that was clean last month can quietly start degrading again without anyone noticing until answer rates begin dropping.
The remediation process itself also takes longer than most agencies expect. Carrier updates can take anywhere from a few days to several weeks, depending on the network, complaint history, and severity of the flag. And the work does not stop after the first submission.
Registration, CNAM updates, STIR/SHAKEN verification, carrier disputes, follow-ups, monitoring, and resubmissions all require ongoing attention while carrier systems process changes in the background.
For agencies running multiple outbound campaigns at scale, monitoring caller reputation across different carriers quickly becomes its own operational responsibility.
A managed remediation service usually makes sense when:
At Next Call Club, our managed spam remediation service includes carrier registration, ongoing monitoring, and direct carrier dispute handling.
Pricing starts at $160 per number per month, with discounted pricing available for agencies managing five or more numbers.
More details: NCC Spam Remediation Service
Removing a spam label is only the first part of the process.
The bigger challenge is keeping your numbers healthy long term. Most agencies that get flagged once will get flagged again if the underlying calling behavior never changes.
Carrier systems continuously evaluate outbound activity, complaint patterns, answer rates, and engagement signals. That means spam prevention needs to become part of how your agency operates day to day, especially if you run high-volume outbound campaigns.
Here are the habits that make the biggest difference.
Once outbound activity gets too concentrated on a single number, carrier risk increases quickly.
For most agencies, around 75 outbound calls per number per day is where spam risk starts climbing significantly. Agencies using power dialers often exceed that threshold without realizing how aggressively carriers monitor volume concentration.
Healthy outbound operations distribute activity across a well-managed pool of numbers instead of concentrating too much volume on one or two caller IDs.
A structured calling cadence improves more than sales consistency. It also protects the caller's reputation.
Many spam flags come from chaotic follow-up behavior where agents repeatedly hammer the same lead in a short period of time. A few principles that matter most for spam prevention:
Consistent pacing creates healthier engagement signals for carrier systems while also improving the experience for prospects.
For a full cadence framework with compliance built in, see: Call Cadence Best Practices for Insurance Agents.
Bad lead data creates bad carrier signals.
When agencies repeatedly call disconnected numbers, reassigned lines, or people who never opted in, answer rates collapse, and complaint volume rises quickly. Carrier systems interpret those patterns as suspicious behavior.
Before launching any outbound campaign, make sure your team is:
For a deeper breakdown, see: DNC and TCPA Compliance for Insurance Agents.
Carrier systems pay attention to abandoned calls and ultra-short interactions.
When a dialer connects but no agent is available, the silence often registers as suspicious behavior. Extremely short calls create similar negative engagement signals.
A few voicemail habits help significantly:
Next Call Club is a member of R.E.A.C.H., which stands for Responsible Enterprises Against Consumer Harassment.
The organization promotes outbound calling standards that go beyond minimum TCPA requirements and focuses heavily on responsible dialing behavior, consumer protection, and long-term caller reputation management.
Those standards play a major role in helping NCC maintain clean numbers while operating at the outbound volume insurance agencies require.
NCC is also part of the Insurance Marketing Coalition (IMC), which promotes ethical consumer outreach and compliant insurance marketing practices across the industry.
Alongside that, NCC works with Troutman Amin, LLP, one of the most recognized law firms in TCPA defense, with experience across hundreds of national class action cases. Their guidance influences everything from script language and call timing to complaint handling and operational compliance.
More about our compliance approach: TCPA Compliance at Next Call Club.
Branded caller ID services help your agency appear more recognizable when prospects receive your calls. Platforms like First Orion’s INFORM can display your business name and, in some cases, your logo and the reason for the call directly on a prospect’s screen before they answer. For insurance agencies running outbound campaigns, that visibility can make a meaningful difference in answer rates.
One thing to be clear about: branded caller ID does not remove a spam flag. On most devices, a carrier-level "Spam Likely" label overrides any branded display. You need a clean number first. Once you have that, a branded caller ID is a strong tool for improving answer rates on top of a healthy foundation.
Spam flags come back. Carrier algorithms evaluate numbers on an ongoing basis. A new rep with aggressive dialing habits, a campaign that runs too hot, a batch of low-quality leads that generates complaints, any of these can put a clean number back on the flagged list within weeks.
Waiting until you notice a drop in answer rates means you have already been flagged for a while.
Regular monitoring across Hiya, TNS, and First Orion helps agencies catch reputation problems early before they start damaging campaign performance.
Spam remediation sounds technical until you see the impact clean calling infrastructure can have inside a real insurance agency.
For high-volume outbound teams, answer rates drive everything downstream. More conversations lead to more quotes, more transfers, lower acquisition costs, and stronger ROI across the entire operation.
Here are a few examples of what happens when agencies combine clean number management, compliant outbound practices, and structured calling systems at scale.
Peachy Insurance is an Allstate agency in Atlanta that already had an experienced sales team and strong market presence. Growth had stalled, though, and outbound performance was becoming harder to scale efficiently.
After implementing NCC’s outbound infrastructure, including R.E.A.C.H. compliant dialing practices and clean number management, the agency jumped from 875 items per month to 1,147 in the first month alone while surpassing $1 million in written premium.
Results
Full case study: Peachy Insurance.
Siefert Insurance Agency partnered with NCC to bring down acquisition costs and build more predictable growth. Treating outbound calling infrastructure, including number health, as a strategic priority rather than an afterthought produced results across every major efficiency metric.
Results
For Wyatt Mace’s agency, the focus was on building a cleaner and more scalable outbound system capable of sustaining aggressive growth goals without sacrificing efficiency.
Improving contact rates through better number reputation and stronger outbound processes played a major role in lowering transfer and lead costs while driving significant ROI gains.
Results
Every agency above operated within a R.E.A.C.H. certified and TCPA compliant outbound framework supported by Troutman Amin, LLP. That includes:
When outbound infrastructure is healthy, agencies usually see improvements everywhere else, too. Contact rates improve. Transfer costs drop. Sales teams spend more time talking to real prospects instead of dialing numbers that nobody answers.
It depends on the carrier and how severe the flag is. Free Caller Registry updates can propagate within a few days. Direct carrier submissions typically take between one and four weeks. Numbers with high complaint volume or long flag histories tend to take longer. A managed service can sometimes move faster through established carrier relationships, though there are no guarantees on timing.
You can fix it yourself. The steps in the remediation section above are the same ones a managed service runs through. The real question is whether you have the time and bandwidth to do it consistently for multiple numbers, monitor for new flags, and resubmit when they come back. For a single-agent shop with one or two numbers, DIY is fine. For a team running 5 or more numbers at volume, the manual overhead adds up quickly.
Only in the short term, and even then, not reliably. New numbers are treated as higher risk by carrier algorithms because they have no established history. Rapid number rotation is also a pattern carriers associate with spam operations. A better approach is to fix and protect your existing numbers rather than cycling through new ones.
The Telemarketer label is assigned differently from a Spam Likely flag and does not respond as well to standard remediation. Our recommendation is to replace numbers that carry this label before enrolling in a remediation service. NCC checks every number before you pay, so you will know exactly where yours stands before committing.
Spam remediation addresses the carrier-level flag, which is the most serious obstacle. But AI call screening on devices like iOS 26 and Google Pixel operates independently of carrier labels. It intercepts unfamiliar or unverified callers regardless of spam status. To get through AI screening consistently, you also need a verified STIR/SHAKEN attestation, a correct CNAM, and ideally a branded caller ID so your identity is visible before screening kicks in. Think of spam remediation as the foundation. The other pieces build on top of it.
NCC charges $160 per number per month, with volume discounts for 5 or more numbers. That covers monitoring, registration, carrier submissions, and ongoing maintenance. To put the cost in context: if a spam flag is suppressing your answer rates by even 10 percent on a high-volume outbound operation, the revenue impact over a month typically exceeds the cost of the service by a significant margin.
Every day, your number shows "Spam Likely," and someone else's call is getting through to the prospects you paid for. NCC's managed spam remediation takes care of registration, carrier submissions, and ongoing monitoring so your team can stay focused on selling.
Get started at spamremediation.nextcallclub.com
Here is what’s included:
Have questions first? Book a call with our team, and we will walk through your situation.