,

The Importance of Vetting Buyers and how it Relates to the FCC’s one-to-one Consent Guidelines

Vetting partners and vendors checklist

The FCC’s new guidelines, closing the “lead generation loophole,” emphasizes one-to-one consent for calls and texts. Because of this change, vetting your buyers is now more relevant than ever. You can use Assumed’s decoy contacts for your partner, buyer and vendor vetting needs!

How using decoy contacts works

Decoy contacts are fictitious consumer details with an actual email and number attached. These are used to monitor how vendors handle and share data. Using Assumed Data Leak Monitoring, you can track what is being sent to that contact by filling out a form with the contact information. Everything that is sent to that contact via email, text or call, will be shown in the Assumed inbox. You can get a bird’s eye view of what is being sent, how frequently, and where the messages are coming from. Assumed contacts can be seeded into lists as well. 

Are your buyers/vendors reselling your leads without you knowing?

By monitoring interactions initiated towards these decoy contacts, businesses can assess whether vendors comply with one-to-one consent principles and responsible data-sharing practices. For example, suppose you fill out one of your vendor’s forms and consent to being contacted by a specific business. If that contact receives any communications from anywhere else, the vendor is selling that lead to somewhere they shouldn’t be, or they may have a data leak problem on their hands. 

Decoy contacts reveal if vendors share data without proper consent, which is a violation of the FCC ruling. This also comes back to Know Your Customer and minimizing the risk of working with vendors that engage in unlawful or unethical practices. By ensuring that your vendors respect the FCC’s guidelines about consent, your business will safeguard its reputation and consumer’s trust. If it is known that you are monitoring your vendors, you can garner more confidence in your business as well. 

Utilizing decoy contacts for vetting provides an innovative way to ensure vendors align with the FCC’s one-to-one consent guidelines. This proactive approach is another piece to add to your arsenal when maintaining compliance, protecting consumer data and upholding industry integrity.