Voice Verify: How Phone Verification Catches Ghost Suppliers
Voice Verify places an automated call to a supplier's registered number and confirms a live contact exists before you pay. How it works, what a PASS/WARN/FAIL means, and how it fits your existing verification workflow.
A ghost supplier can have an active ABN, a current GST registration, and a real-looking website — none of that proves a real business exists behind the invoice. Voice Verify calls the supplier's registered phone number directly and confirms a live contact answers, before payment leaves your account.
How it works
| 1. Phone discovery | Gumshoe resolves the number from ABR records, your invoice details, and a Google Places cross-reference. You confirm or override the number before dialling. |
| 2. Automated call | An automated voice call is placed to the number — no human intervention required. Every call is logged with timestamp, duration, and outcome. |
| 3. Live response check | Voice Verify confirms whether the number connects, whether a live person (not voicemail) answers, and whether the business name is confirmed in the greeting. |
| 4. Result on your report | The outcome is added to your verification report alongside every other check. |
Reading the result
| Result | Meaning |
|---|---|
| PASS | Call connected, a live person answered, business identity confirmed verbally. |
| WARN | Call reached voicemail only — the number is real but no live confirmation was obtained. Not necessarily a red flag; try again during business hours. |
| FAIL | Number disconnected, not in service, or never answered after repeated attempts — a strong ghost-supplier signal. |
Why a phone call catches what register checks miss
- Ghost suppliers pass register checks. An ABN can be active, GST current, a domain can resolve — none of that proves a real business exists. A phone that rings out or disconnects does.
- Payment redirection fraud starts with contact substitution. When a supplier's bank details change, Voice Verify calls the number on the original invoice — not the new details supplied with the change request — to confirm the change is legitimate before you act on it.
- Documented audit trail. Every call is logged with a call ID, timestamp, duration, and live/voicemail/disconnected status, sitting alongside your verification report.
- Works alongside Phoenix Shield. When Phoenix Shield's monthly re-verification flags an associate-linked risk or status change on a monitored supplier, Voice Verify can run the phone check automatically as part of that re-verification.
Pricing and limits
Voice Verify is a premium, pay-per-use check — A$2.00 per call, no subscription required to use it standalone. The Individual plan ($10/month) includes 30 Phone Verify checks per month; the Enterprise plan ($200/month) includes unlimited premium checks. Voice Verify only counts toward your assurance score denominator if you actually run it — an unrun premium check never drags your score down.
Under the hood (for the curious)
Calls are placed over Twilio, but all verification intelligence — the IVR script, call registry, recording mirror, and transcript parsing — lives in Gumshoe's own systems, not the carrier. Call transcripts are parsed by an on-box AI model (zero per-call API cost) into a structured PASS/WARN/FAIL result, and the recording is mirrored to permanent local storage rather than relying on the carrier to retain it.