A feature rolling out to iPhones could make it easier to work out whether that person calling is legitimately from where they say.
“Hi, I’m calling from Amazon”, the voice on the other end of the call says calmly after a second or two of silence, as if he’s done this a thousand times before. You’ve connected through to a call centre — a fraudulent call centre — and he has done this repeatedly plenty of times before. But hopefully he won’t be able to do this for much longer.
On Android, when a spammer or scammers calls, there’s typically a call lookup service that automatically warns you if the number is likely a scam. Yet on iPhone, the concept is largely absent.
A call comes in and you’ll need to potentially use a trick and your best judgement to work out whether it’s legit. That’ll probably happen in the seconds of silence before you’re transferred to yet-another-call-centre, but even then, there’s no guarantee. You might hang on the line for a little more, and that could be enough to draw you in.
While we’re not sure if or when Apple will get that spam and scam call lookup service, the maker of the iPhone has a plane to at least ensure you know when the proper company is a-calling.
In 2025, Apple is launching an addition to its business tools that will connect business phone numbers with a brand identity, delivering a visual identity of sorts that works through the phone app, as well as via email.
The service will work as part of Tap to Pay on the iPhone, with an expansion to caller ID next year to show the name, logo, and event department of a business to help people properly distinguish whether a call is legitimate or not.
In short, it means that someone “calling from Amazon” will only be able to show that they are Amazon if they actually are registered as part of the proper company. Scammers won’t be able to do that, and so you should be able to tell more quickly, hanging up on them or deflecting the call before any damage happens.
To make this work, business owners will be able to make the connection via Apple Business Connect, with this working for online, physical, and virtual businesses.
The caller ID service won’t kick in until next year, though, so you still may need to stay on guard against scam calls until it happens, and be proactive about hanging up on calls.
