When Consumers Stop Answering, Everyone Loses

The following article was originally published in partnership with GSMA.

Read Part 1 of this article series here.

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Why Open Verifiable Calling Creates Real-World Value

For many consumers today, ignoring unknown calls has become second nature. That behavior is not accidental. It is learned.

According to a 2025 Pew Research survey, 68% of U.S. adults report receiving scam phone calls at least weekly, with many encountering them daily. Fraudulent voice activity is no longer an occasional nuisance; it is a persistent feature of the communications landscape. As exposure increases, trust declines — and when trust declines, engagement follows.

The consequences extend far beyond inconvenience. When consumers stop answering, hospitals struggle to confirm surgeries or coordinate urgent follow-up care. Financial institutions face delays delivering legitimate fraud alerts that require immediate response. Public safety agencies encounter hesitation when issuing emergency notifications. Utilities, airlines, pharmacies, insurance carriers, and security providers face barriers reaching the very people they are trying to protect.

Fraud does not only create financial harm. It disrupts essential communications infrastructure.

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The Identity Gap Behind Impersonation

At the center of this problem is impersonation. Fraudulent callers routinely present themselves as trusted organizations — banks, healthcare providers, government entities, delivery companies — exploiting the fact that traditional voice infrastructure was built around phone numbers rather than portable, verifiable identity.

Phone numbers can be spoofed, reassigned, or manipulated. Without embedded identity, consumers are forced to make rapid decisions with limited information. Is this legitimate? Is this safe? Should I answer?

“Fraud exploits the absence of verified identity,” said Rebekah Johnson, Founder & CEO of Numeracle. “When communications aren’t anchored to accountable identity, consumers are forced to guess. Guesswork is not a sustainable model for trust.”

When uncertainty becomes constant, avoidance becomes rational. The result is an ecosystem where legitimate organizations struggle to connect and consumers grow increasingly disengaged.

Open Verifiable Calling: Identity at the Moment of Decision

Open Verifiable Calling (OVC) represents a structural shift in how trust can be delivered within voice communications. Rather than relying solely on a telephone number as the basis for recognition, OVC enables calls to be anchored to a verified business identity that has been vetted and authenticated prior to ecosystem participation.

That identity can then be presented clearly to the consumer at the moment of call receipt.

The impact is practical. A verified healthcare identity increases confidence in answering a time-sensitive care coordination call. A verified bank identity reduces hesitation around an urgent fraud alert. A verified government agency, emergency response organization, or critical infrastructure provider provides clarity when seconds matter. In each case, the consumer is no longer left to infer legitimacy from a number alone; the identity behind the communication has been established in advance.

“Identity must travel with the communication,” Johnson said. “If we want to restore trust globally, we have to embed verified identity into the infrastructure itself, across networks, across borders, and across channels. That’s how we protect consumers and the legitimate businesses that serve them.”

This work is not about enhanced display for its own sake. It is about strengthening consumer protection by reducing the success rate of impersonation schemes while protecting legitimate organizations from identity theft and brand misuse. Verified identity creates accountability. Accountability discourages abuse. Visible identity enables informed engagement.

Because fraud operates across jurisdictions and network boundaries, restoring trust requires coordination that extends beyond any single market. OVC demonstrates how identity can be embedded into communications in a way that is portable and scalable, establishing a foundation that can extend across evolving channels and global ecosystems.

See Verified Identity in Action at MWC 2026

Open Verifiable Calling will be featured at Mobile World Congress 2026, where attendees can see verified identity displayed on an incoming device and engage directly with the experts behind the initiative.

The demonstration highlights the tangible result of collaborative ecosystem efforts: a call anchored to verified business identity, presented clearly to the consumer. It also provides an opportunity to discuss how identity standards, vetting, and cross-network coordination make that result possible.

When consumers regain confidence in the calls they receive, engagement improves. Critical communications are delivered. Fraud becomes harder to scale. Legitimate organizations are distinguishable from bad actors.

Returning trust to communications requires infrastructure that places identity at its core. For consumers navigating daily uncertainty around incoming calls, that infrastructure is not theoretical. It is protective, practical, and increasingly essential.