Spark rolls out service to tackle phone scams, believes banks could benefit
Friday, 5 June 2026
Spark has begun rolling out a service designed to thwart phone scams, one it believes could be of interest to businesses including the country’s banks.
When an organisation calls a customer, its Verified Call service can display their name, reason for calling and a “verification badge” on the recipient’s smartphone, with the goal of assuring them the call is genuine before they pick up.
Spark has debuted the service for its own business, to verify calls it makes to customers.
Customers need to have the Spark app installed on their phone for the feature to work, as that triggers the on-screen messaging.
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Anti-fraud lead Ross Dickson said it was exploring how the capability could be deployed by other organisations “as part of a wider, coordinated push to extend trust in phone communications”.
A spokesperson said it envisaged banks could be among the organisations that could consider deploying it, to combat bank fraud.
ASB already operates a call-verification service that works broadly similarly.
Its Caller Check security feature uses ASB’s app to trigger a verification message on users’ phones when its staff call customers.
Customers must allow its app to send “push notifications” for that service to work. Caller Check also allows ASB staff to verify the identity of incoming callers, via their app.
Other banks commonly advise customers to hang up if they receive a call purporting to come from their bank, and to then call them back on their listed number.
Spark said “impersonation scams” remained one of the most common tactics used by scammers, with criminals increasingly mimicking trusted organisations such as Spark to gain access to personal or financial information.
Chief brand officer Leela Ashford said that over the past year it had blocked more than 1.2 million scam calls from being placed through its network.
But because scammers were evolving their tactics “it is important we not only continue our network-level protections, but also equip our customers with the tools and information they need to protect themselves”.