Everything You Need to Know About CallGuard

If you’ve been looking around our Phonely website then chances are that you’ve seen the word CallGuard. It’s actually the most important element of Phonely and is part of our mission. In fact, before we settled on the name Phonely we were calling ourselves CallGuard. But that’s a story for another day. CallGuard has its own dedicated page on the website which gives an overview of what it does. But if you want to know the real nitty gritty then you’ve come to the right place!

Phonely’s Mission

In a nutshell, our mission here at Phonely is to give even the most vulnerable the confidence to answer their phone by providing a protective barrier to keep out scammers & fraudsters.

Since the dawn of the telephone, the protections against phone crime have been non-existent. Honestly, you can Google it. All you’ll find (unless you’re reading this in the future and our competitors have caught on) is the TPS or the telephone preference service. With ICO, they monitor and fine businesses who call people registered on the TPS list, for marketing purposes. Now in our humble experience, criminals aren’t bothered about what lists their victims are on and what fines they could get.

Another precaution you could have is call blocking. But this requires you or someone else to know the prevalent scam and fraud numbers in the first place. Apart from the glaringly obvious, with the advent of VoIP and digital phone numbers, it’s never been easier to have or dispose of a phone number. Numbers can change all the time. It’s a criminal paradise in the cloud!

Along with the pitiful offerings mentioned, you can also report a scam or fraud number after the fact – so after you have been targeted or relieved of all your savings. If that has happened (we’re so sorry), we do encourage you to report it to prevent others from being affected. Reporting is easy if you were targeted through your mobile all you need to do is dial 7726 (spells SPAM on an alphanumeric phone pad – do people still have those?). If you were targeted through your home number then the people to call are Action Fraud on 0300 123 2040 or visit their website.

So…CallGuard?

Argh, yes! CallGuard! Using VoIP technology to our advantage, and some stuff we don’t fully understand from our in-house tech department, Phonely can offer CallGuard. It allows a 3rd party, friend or family member (a trusted person) to act as backup if needed.

With our Phonely with CallGuard plan your features include:

• Unlimited call blocking
• Auto call blocking
• Anti-fraud introduction
• Call recording
• Suspicious call alerts
• Offline alerts
• Live call joining

If you can stretch to Phonely CallGuard+ you will also benefit from these premium features:

• Call transcription
• Keyword notifications

Do I need CallGuard?

At Phonely we think that everyone could gain from CallGuard’s protections. We need to show those phone criminals that they can’t win! The more barriers we put up, the harder it is for them to succeed, right?

Of course, the decision is ultimately yours. So let’s explain some of the features so you can make up your own mind, shall we?

Unlimited & auto call blocking

Unlimited call blocking speaks for itself, you can block as many numbers as you already know. We’ll leave it to your discretion if it’s a spam number or if it’s the number of that annoying person down the road who insists on ringing you for an hour-long chat about the most uninteresting (sometimes stomach-churning) topics, right as you’re about to eat your dinner.

Every time!

What makes CallGuard different is the unlimited aspect. Most providers cap the amount of numbers that you can block. This means you have to be selective. And at Phonely, we don’t think you should have to choose between the lesser of two or more evils.

The auto-blocking feature means that we will automatically block any numbers that are known to us to be suspicious. These numbers will be listed on our in-house database. This database will be updated daily as new numbers come to our attention and when customers like yourself report a number to us or actively block it from their accounts. The more numbers criminals create, the bigger our list will get and the more protected you will be!

Anti-fraud introduction

This is one of our favourite CallGuard features as we feel it’s a bit sneaky! Whenever someone dials your number, before it rings through to you they will hear an anti-fraud introduction message: 

‘Hello, Phonely’s CallGuard protects the person you are calling so your call will be recorded and monitored for their safety. If you’re happy to continue your call, please stay on the line. Alternatively, if you wish to terminate this call please hang up now.’ 

This should stop most criminals in their tracks. Because whatever they say or try to do will be evident in the recording. And could be used as proof in case of a prosecution. Nice!

Call recording

You know yourself when you call a company and they mention that calls are recorded, (usually for training) it can sometimes put you on edge. You feel you have to be careful what you say! This is part of the thinking of having your call recorded. We hope in the first instance it will deter criminals from continuing with their call. In the second instance, it will be your proof should you feel you’ve been targeted. Or something you can listen back to if you’ve forgotten some important information from the call that you couldn’t write down.

Suspicious call alerts & keyword notifications

If CallGuard were a cake, suspicious call alerts and keyword notifications would be both the icing and the cherry on top! If you’ve nominated a trusted person they will be alerted within minutes should you answer a call from a withheld or international number. These types of calls could potentially be from a scammer and your trusted person can join your call, mid-conversation and help you shut it down. You can also set a time limit to your calls, so should you be talking for longer than usual, your trusted person will get an alert. This is just in case you find yourself stuck in an uncomfortable position and you’re finding it hard to end the call.

If you can stretch to Phonely CallGuard+ then our system will scan your call for keywords. If words such as bank, password, sale, and the like are said during a call, then your trusted person will notified once you hang up the phone. This will indicate that they need to hastily listen back to the conversation to see if you’ve been targeted by criminals.

Do I need CallGuard?

When you set up your Phonely account, you can choose between 3 plans. We have a VoIP-only plan, Phonely with CallGuard or Phonely with CallGuard+. It’s very simple to open an account with us. But first, we suggest you have a look at the details of our price plans and even investigate more of Phonely’s features to find out the full force with which you will be protected.

If you’ve any questions about Phonely or CallGuard then you might find them answered on our dedicated FAQ page. Alternatively, our friendly team are happy to chat on 0800 112 5000. Or you can drop them an email via hello@phonely.co.uk.