Acceptable Use Policy.

01Overview

This Acceptable Use Policy (the "AUP") supplements the Message Terms of Use. By using the Message platform, including chat, ticketing, voice, SMS, and AI features, you and every Agent or End User you authorise agree to comply with this AUP. Violations may result in immediate suspension or termination without refund and may be reported to law enforcement and to our upstream carriers and other vendors.

Message provides communications infrastructure that is regulated under the U.S. Communications Act of 1934, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA), the CAN-SPAM Act, the Telecommunications Industry Association rules, the TRACED Act, FCC orders, and equivalent international laws. We hold ourselves and our customers to those standards.

02Who this applies to

This AUP applies to:

• All Message customers and their authorised Agents
• All End Users who interact with a customer's account through the Service
• All traffic originated, received, processed, or stored on the Message platform, including voice calls, SMS, MMS, faxes, chat messages, ticket replies, and AI-generated content
• All numbers, short codes, brands, and campaigns provisioned through Message

03General prohibitions

You may not use the Service to:

• Violate any applicable law, regulation, treaty, or court order
• Send unsolicited bulk messages, spam, phishing, or smishing content
• Transmit malware, viruses, worms, trojans, or any code designed to harm a system
• Engage in social-engineering attacks, identity theft, or unauthorised access
• Harass, threaten, defame, intimidate, dox, or extort any person
• Misrepresent your identity, your sender identity, or the origin of any message
• Collect personal data without a lawful basis or required consent
• Probe, scan, or test the vulnerability of the Service outside our published responsible-disclosure programme
• Interfere with or disrupt the Service, including denial-of-service or volumetric abuse
• Resell, rent, sublicense, or repackage the Service except as expressly authorised in writing
• Use the Service to facilitate illegal gambling, weapons sales, controlled substances, money laundering, or sanctioned-party transactions
• Engage in High-Risk Activities where failure could lead to death, serious injury, or environmental damage

04Voice and calling

Voice calling on Message is subject to additional restrictions reflecting our obligations as a regulated communications provider:

• No robocalls. You must not use an autodialer, predictive dialer, soundboard, or pre-recorded message to call any mobile or residential number without prior express written consent meeting TCPA standards.
• National Do Not Call Registry. You must scrub outbound calling lists against the National DNC Registry at least every 31 days and against applicable state DNC lists. Internal company DNC requests must be honoured for at least five years.
• Calling hours. No calls before 8:00am or after 9:00pm in the called party's local time, except where state law is stricter.
• Caller ID accuracy. Outbound calls must transmit a caller ID that is accurate, that you or your customer have the right to use, and that connects to a working number.
• Recording disclosure. Where the called party's jurisdiction requires consent for call recording (including all-party-consent states such as California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Washington), you must obtain and document that consent. Message offers configurable disclosure prompts; use of them is required where applicable.
• Emergency calls. Message Phone is not a replacement for traditional telephone service. You must register an accurate service address for each number used for outbound calling. End users must be informed that 911 / 112 emergency calling may be limited or unavailable.
• International calls. You must not place international traffic that violates the destination country's laws.

05SMS, MMS, and A2P 10DLC

SMS and MMS originated through Message are subject to The Campaign Registry (TCR) and the U.S. carriers' A2P 10DLC framework, the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, and equivalent international codes.

• 10DLC registration. Brands and campaigns must be registered before traffic is enabled. Misrepresenting a brand or campaign is prohibited.
• Opt-in required. Express consent is required before sending any A2P message to a U.S. number. Consent records must be retained for at least four years.
• STOP / HELP keywords. Every program must support STOP, UNSUBSCRIBE, END, QUIT, CANCEL, OPT-OUT, and HELP keywords. STOP responses must be honoured within five seconds and confirmed.
• No URL shorteners. Public URL shorteners (bit.ly, tinyurl, etc.) are prohibited; use a brand-owned domain.
• Throughput limits. Outbound throughput is governed by your campaign vetting score and carrier filters. Attempting to bypass filters is prohibited.
• International SMS. Where regional registration is required (e.g., UK Short Code Group, Singapore SSIR, Indian DLT), you must register before sending.

06STIR/SHAKEN and caller ID

Message and our upstream carriers participate in the STIR/SHAKEN framework for caller-ID authentication. Outbound traffic from Message is signed with an A-level attestation for numbers we have verified the customer is authorised to use, B-level for numbers we have associated with the customer, and C-level otherwise.

• You must not attempt to use a calling number you do not own or are not authorised to use as caller ID
• You must not request or attempt unauthorised attestation upgrades
• Number-presented and ANI must match the source of the call unless an authorised number-aliasing arrangement is in place
• Spoofing protected numbers (e.g., 911, government, medical, financial-fraud helplines) is strictly prohibited

07High-risk traffic and fraud

We do not permit, and we actively filter against, the following:

• Traffic pumping, access stimulation, or revenue-share fraud against any carrier
• International Revenue Share Fraud (IRSF) destinations and shared-cost / premium-rate numbers where the call pattern suggests fraud
• Wangiri (one-ring) fraud schemes
• Toll-fraud techniques, PBX hacking, or call-routing manipulation
• Fax broadcasts to unsolicited recipients, in violation of the Junk Fax Prevention Act
• Calls that originate from compromised credentials or stolen accounts
• Mass calling campaigns whose purpose is to harass, threaten, or intimidate

Message may block, throttle, or rate-limit traffic that triggers carrier alerts, exceeds fraud-pattern thresholds, or that we reasonably believe is abusive, without notice, to protect the platform and other customers.

08SHAFT content

U.S. carriers prohibit messaging that contains Sex, Hate speech, Alcohol, Firearms, or Tobacco ("SHAFT") content unless the brand has been specifically vetted for that category and age-gating is in place. You must not originate SHAFT content without prior written approval from Message and the carriers.

Even with approval, alcohol, firearms, and tobacco programs must implement age verification, opt-in records sufficient to demonstrate the recipient is of legal age, and operate in jurisdictions where the product is legal.

09Data and consent

• You are responsible for the lawful basis for any personal data you submit to Message, including consent, contract, or legitimate interests as applicable
• You must honour End User opt-out, deletion, and data-subject-access requests promptly
• You must not import contact lists you did not collect yourself, did not properly consent, or that were obtained through scraping or purchase from non-vetted sources
• You must maintain Customer Proprietary Network Information (CPNI) safeguards equivalent to those Message provides, see our Trust & Compliance page for our CPNI policy

10Enforcement

We monitor the platform for AUP violations through automated abuse detection, carrier feedback loops, regulator complaints, and user reports.

If we detect or are notified of a suspected violation we may, in our discretion and without prior notice:

• Suspend or rate-limit the offending traffic
• Disable specific numbers, campaigns, or brands
• Suspend or terminate the Customer account
• Report the activity to law enforcement, the FCC, the FTC, the relevant state attorney general, or international regulators
• Cooperate with carriers in placing the originating number, brand, or domain on industry-wide blocklists
• Seek recovery of carrier fines, traceback investigation fees, or other costs caused by your violation

For severe violations, including illegal robocalls, financial fraud, child sexual abuse material, or threats to life, we will act immediately, will not refund pre-paid fees, and will preserve and disclose data as required by lawful process.

11Reporting abuse

We aim to acknowledge abuse reports within 24 hours and to investigate within 5 business days.

Trust & Safety contact
Message.com LLC
363 North Sam Houston Pkwy E, Suite 125
Houston, TX 77060, United States
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (844) 600-8444

For traceback requests from upstream carriers, the Industry Traceback Group (ITG), or law-enforcement authorities, contact [email protected]. We respond to verified ITG and law-enforcement traceback requests within the timeframes required by the TRACED Act and our carrier agreements.