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Truecaller a caller ID service, , has introduced a new identity solution for businesses to bolster safety and eliminate fraud. The enterprise solution, dubbed Truecaller Business Identity, allows businesses to verify their identities using a green verified business badge, accurately presenting the name, photo and the logo of the organization.

The new solution aims to bring greater trust and efficiency in communication between businesses and clients, as it gives confidence to consumers, knowing that the caller is a verified business by Truecaller. Apart from adding trust and reducing the possibility of fraud, a Verified Business badge is a good start for startups and businesses who are brand conscious and want to accurately present the name of their entity and logo. The new feature also allows businesses to drive efficiency in their communications while improving call-pickup rates for genuine and important calls.

Apart from the green Caller ID and green Verified Business badge, a verified business on Truecaller gets a verified tick mark icon and can lock their brand name and profile photo. This lets consumers know exactly which calls to trust. Consumers will also continue to see the number of spam markings as usual, and they retain the right to mark verified numbers as spam or block them completely.

With more of the population switching to smartphones in Africa, there is a pressing need to increase trust in communication as the rise in fraud and scams using spoofed identities is on the rise across the continent. Currently, there are over 43 million active users of Truecaller in Africa.

Speaking during the launch, Zakaria Hersi, Director of Business Development in Africa said, “Fraud continues to be a major issue across Africa and as a company, Truecaller wanted to provide solutions on a business level as well as a personal level. Trust is at the heart of everything we do and with so much of our lives lived through our phone, we need to ensure that our communication happens in a safe environment and that was also part of the strategy behind our campaign in March this year on harassment. The campaign called #itsnotok showed the level of sexual harassment across the world with inappropriate phone calls and messages. Shockingly, the research reported that nine out of ten women in Kenya had been harassed over their phones by anonymous callers.”

Importantly, Truecaller’s spam algorithms will continue to work and active users will be able to mark calls that are potentially spam/scam/sales calls, even if they have a verified badge and Caller ID.