The techniques herein are directed generally to providing access control and identity verification for communications when initiating a communication to an entity to be verified. In one particular embodiment, an illustrative method according to one or more embodiments of the present disclosure may comprise: initiating, from an initiating device, a communication to a receiving device on a communication channel; determining, by the initiating device over a verification channel with a verification service, whether an identity associated with the receiving device is verified by the verification service; managing, by the initiating device in response to the identity associated with the receiving device being verified, the communication to the receiving device according to the identity being verified; and managing, by the initiating device in response to the identity associated with the receiving device being unverified, the communication to the receiving device according to the identity being unverified.