Took it, good luck!

This sounds interesting. I assume it's mainly focusing on US companies which are non compliant, right?

dam

Hey, thanks for checking it out! Yep, we're mainly focusing on U.S. companies that aren't following the federal rules. We're trying to help folks like you go after those annoying telemarketers who ignore the Do Not Call list. While our current focus is on U.S. regulations and companies, we're exploring ways to address similar issues in other countries in the future. Our main goal is to help shut down scam call centers, but this is also part of our offering. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Hey there! Good catch, it's not our main selling point. It's first fighting robocall scammers. I totally get why you'd be skeptical. There are indeed a lot of apps out there that just block calls. We need to fund the robocall block aspect and the TCPA is a nice add on. Let me break down our pricing model and be as transparent as possible about why we charge a monthly fee and why it's still worth it.

First off, our app does have a monthly fee and here's why: We're using cutting-edge AI and machine learning technologies to identify and filter unwanted calls and texts in real-time. This isn't just simple filtering, we're constantly updating our models to adapt to new spam tactics. We even use deepfake detection to protect against scammers who mimic voices to trick people. All this heavy lifting happens in the cloud, which incurs significant cloud and operational costs.

Unlike other apps that just block calls or play pre-recorded messages, our digital AI receptionist actually interacts with callers in real conversations. This requires complex algorithms and real-time processing power.

Finally we need to keep the lights on to pay staff. We need to retain a team of attorneys, paralegals, and investigators working to build strong cases and pursue legal action. You are going to have a hard time finding a lawyer willing to take a small case unless you are paying their hourly rate. There simply is not enough money in a less than $10K case to make it worth their time and it has to be a solid case. TCPA cases typically take about a year to resolve, similar to other civil cases, but can vary significantly based on complexity and court resources. Our legal professionals need to be paid for their time and expertise.

These cases take time and aren't guaranteed, so the subscription helps us sustain the service in the meantime. Our main goal is to not just block unwanted communications but our main goal is to fight back against overseas scammers and end their call centers for good and the secondary part of our service is to also go after illegal telemarketers. We report all these violators to the proper agencies and work to bring them to justice.

Moreover, pursuing these cases on your own could be costly and time-consuming. We handle all the legal work on a contingency basis we only get paid a portion if we're successful in recovering funds from the violators. This means no upfront legal fees for you.

We're committed to transparency and genuinely believe in the value our app provides. As we grow and scale, we hope to bring the subscription cost down, maybe even make it free. Unfortunately, for now, the subscription helps us cover the advanced technology, evidence gathering, research, legal efforts, and staff needed to make a real impact.

I hope this helps clear things up! We're definitely not trying to pull a bait and switch. We're offering something that goes beyond what standard spam-blocking apps provide. If you have more questions, I'm happy to chat with you offline as feedback like this is great!

There was a guy in McKinney who was doing something similar, but basically teaching people how to go after these companies. Essentially trying to track down who the actual owners are of the companies making the calls, and then threatening to sue if they don't agree to settle out of court for a smaller amount than the fines. I had heard about him and one of the local DFW news stations did a story on him. This was a few years ago.

If your app actually does the legwork and gets results, not a bad idea.

Hey htxag09 and Proposition Joe, thanks so much for taking the survey and sharing your thoughts! I really appreciate your feedback. It's super valuable for us.

I just posted the response and I hear you on wishing it could be free. Believe me, we'd love that too! Unfortunately, the tech and legal work behind our service are pretty resource-intensive, so we can't operate at a loss like Amazon or Uber did in their early days.

We're actively exploring ways to make the service more accessible, including seeking VC funding. Our goal is to bring costs down as we scale up, hopefully making it free in the future. Thanks again for the input!

seems like you could leave the heavy lifting of spam blocking to other apps and carve out a niche of perusing the violators directly.

it sounds like a lot of the expense on the front end is for features that already exist (many included by the carrier).

why not focus on the unique aspect of the service and drop the monthly charges?

Hey Diggity, the way the app works is that all calls will have to through our AI service, so we can't allow other apps to take over as the main call control.

Yes, carriers are already leveraging call blocking technologies and some of them charge a monthly fee like Verizon Call Filter at $47.88/year, AT&T Active Armor at $47.88/year and T-Mobile's Scam Shield at $48/year. We take over that part and give you a bonus of filing TCPA lawsuits. We have to identify all calls. The carriers STIR/SHAKEN technology still isn't 100% foolproof and they just silence the calls. Rather them than fixing the leak, they're selling you buckets to catch the water.

Will take the feedback on the focus. Thanks!

I don't think I pay extra for Scam Shield. There might be a premium version, but the one I get for free seems to work fine.

it seems like a simple enough action for the user to "report" an incoming spam message to your app, without all the AI nonsense.

If you're married to the idea of the extra services, could you not make them part of the "premium service" and make the spam reporting part of a "free" version?

Full disclosure I am overly critical and often times don't see the future use of technology/apps - I think I told Diggity 20 years ago that I didn't see Youtube and low res videos taking off.

That being said..., a few scattershot points:

1) Consumers don't care who you have to pay. The why isn't important to them, only the $$$ is.

2) Is this a call screening service, an anti-spoofing app, or both? If it's a screening service, can you charge less than a person in the Phillipines I can pay $5 to screen?

3) You seem to be promoting it as a "make $1000 going after these guys -- we'll do the legwork", but then seem to imply that 99% of the value of the app will be in anti-spam. If it's the latter, you are going to be very hard-pressed to find anyone willing to pay a subscription fee and just hope your product works better than the free products.

4) What do you think the monthly $$$ value of your app is to a non-business user? As mentioned before, business users can get a virtual screener/secretary for cheap (that also handles a lot of other tasks), so if your target is the regular Joe... at this point how many regular Joe's are picking up the phone if it's a number they don't know?

5) If you do prove that consumers are willing to pay, what will keep the service providers from offering their own service for free?

6) Would customers be constantly updated on the legal status of their cases for each and every number? Would they just have to trust that if there's eventually a winner in there that you'll let them know? If you actually are able to get funds? A year+ later? It's a nice carrot on a stick to get people onboard, but the carrot is a lottery ticket at best it sounds like.

7) I think what it boils down to is that it's a major problem, but it's also simply an annoyance -- and people aren't going to pay $60 a year to maybe have that annoyance lessened but likely not eradicated... They'll wait until some kind of legislation forces the carriers to do so - which I have to assume is coming - as with anything it's just gonna take a Congressman to get his number spoofed and embarrassed somehow. So to go along with #6 above, the consumer has to hope the company pays out AND is not rendered obsolete over the course of a year.


With the increase in data breaches and identify fraud, giving a new company complete access to your phone and every single incoming call with just the hope that it will lessen an annoyance... and having to pay for it to boot? Just doesn't seem like it would have enough signups for any consumer to have confidence that they'll actually have a chance at a lottery ticket, much less get the money from one.

I'd say unless you are free, or free with ads, you won't get enough signups.

Proposition Joe, I really appreciate you taking the time for this. Let me tackle your points:

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You're right, consumers care about value. We're working to make that value clear and immediate, beyond just the potential payouts.

We're both a call screening service and an anti-scam app, but with advanced AI that actively engages scammers. This goes beyond what a human screener can do, as our AI can waste scammers' time at scale. The more time wasted on a scammer the less they can affect hurting other people. We also share this data to authorities.

Fair point! We're pivoting our messaging to focus more on immediate benefits such as protection and peace of mind, rather than potential payouts.

For non-business users, we're targeting those who are frequently targeted by scammers or highly value their time and privacy. We looked at overseas answering services and they are costly, charging a fixed amount then overages per minute based on the tiered cost. These are for the business users as you pointed out. We know that conversational AI will disrupt them.

Great question. Our advantage is specialization and advanced AI. We're betting we can do this better and more cost-effectively than service providers. I worked with AT&T and Verizon in the past and these guys are slow. They just acquire companies due to their lack of innovation.

You're right, transparency is key. We're developing a dashboard to keep users updated on case statuses and any recoveries.

Valid concerns. We're focusing on providing immediate value (fewer disruptions, peace of mind) while pursuing the longer-term goal of making scamming and illegal telemarketing unprofitable.

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Regarding data privacy and security, we take this extremely seriously. We are working hard to get to ISO and SOC2-Type2 certification. We're exploring ways to provide our service with minimal data access, such as not uploading your contacts list to our cloud.

You've raised some crucial points about our business model and value proposition and will take your feedback into consideration.

Thanks again for your deep insights!

If you need any assistance supporting your SOC reporting or ISO certification, I'd be happy to help! Just share your contact info if you'd like to chat.