How to fix the government’s phone trust gap

Government agencies have spent a decade fortifying digital identity and securing online transactions. These investments are paying off: identity theft tied to government benefits is declining as agencies close long-exploited digital gaps, a trend reflected in recent FTC Consumer Sentinel Network data.

But criminals adapt. Having been locked out of the “digital front door,” they have pivoted to a new soft spot: the phone. Today, the phone channel is the fastest-growing and most lucrative vector for government-imposter fraud. Spoofed calls claiming to be from trusted agencies are surging, losses are mounting, and constituents are being conditioned to never answer the phone.

This isn’t just a fraud problem; it’s a trust issue that undermines identity verification, operational efficiency and the constituent experience across the public sector.

The “Don’t Trust Caller ID” Paradox

Federal guidance now reflects the severity of this crisis. The FTC and the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency routinely warn the public not totrust caller ID. Even if a legitimate agency name or number appears on the screen, the FTC cautions it could be a spoof.  The FBI further warns that malicious actors are impersonating U.S. government officials at both state and Federal levels.

These warnings are well-intentioned, but they create a destructive unintended consequence: consumers are primed to disregard any government-initiated phone calls and to treat legitimate government outreach as potential fraud. For agencies that rely on the phone to resolve benefit issues, prevent account takeovers or verify identities, the impact is crippling:

• Answer rates plummet.
• Call attempts increase, which in turn raises operational costs.
• Resolution times lengthen.
• Fraudsters gain time to exploit the uncertainty.
• Compliance rates fall (payment, forms, redeterminatons)

While the government has strengthened its digital walls, it has left the phone line wide open. This “weak link” is now the primary tool for information harvesting, where a convincing call extracts just enough data to enable downstream identity theft or benefit diversion.

From Warnings to Signals

Until recently, agencies lacked the tools to fight back. However, new advances in call authentication — specifically the STIR/SHAKEN framework paired with enterprise-level verified caller ID solutions — are changing the landscape.

Agencies can now display authenticated identity signals, such as verified names and secure visual indicators (like a green check mark), that cannot be spoofed. This shifts the burden of establishing trust from the constituent to the infrastructure.

The results of “Verified Caller ID” extend far beyond aesthetics:

1. Restored Trust: Constituents see a clear signal of legitimacy before answering.
2. Efficiency: Higher answer rates mean fewer outbound attempts and faster issue resolution.
3. Security: Verified calls allow agencies to re-establish identity in real time, reducing exposure to fraud.

The urgency is clear. TransUnion analysis found that in a single week of calls claiming to be from government agencies, more than 99% were unauthenticated. Without trusted signals, fraud doesn’t just mimic the government — it replaces it.

Proof in the Data

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) proves that trust improves outcomes. After implementing authenticated outbound calling, the VA reduced the average number of attempts required to reach a veteran from ten down to two. Because veterans trusted the caller ID, conversations were longer and more productive.

Fewer attempts and faster resolutions reduce costs and risks. Simply put: When people trust the call, they answer. When they answer, agencies can fulfill their mission.

A New Standard for Outreach

Government cannot modernize service delivery while telling the public to distrust its primary communication channel. For government IT and contact center leaders, the path forward is a shift from issuing warnings to providing clear, unspoofable signs of legitimacy.

Agencies must move beyond viewing the phone as a legacy “voice-only” channel and start treating it as a secured digital endpoint. Authenticated outbound calling should be prioritized as a core identity capability equivalent to multi-factor authentication (MFA) or encrypted web traffic.

To restore the integrity of the phone channel, IT and contact center leadership should take three immediate steps:

• Integrate authentication into the customer experience roadmap: Include STIR/SHAKEN and branded calling as a requirement in all telephone outreach.
• Measure the “cost of silence”: Quantify the budgetary impact of low answer rates, including the overhead of repeated outbound attempts and the secondary costs of unresolved cases that migrate to more expensive channels.
• Collaborate on public guidance: Work with Inspectors General and public affairs offices to update “Slam the Scam” messaging, teaching constituents to look for verified signals rather than defaulting to “do not answer.”

Ultimately, if government leaders treat the phone channel with the same rigor as their digital portals, they can raise public expectations, crowd out fraud and restore confidence at scale. Trust begins the moment the phone rings. It is time to ensure that trust is verified.

Learn how TransUnion can transform the call experience to improve engagement, ensure legitimate calls get through and comply with regulations that protect customers against fraud.