Disallowed Content for A2P Messaging in the United States & Canada – Sinch

Sinch’s goal is to engage businesses and consumers in a mutually beneficial relationship via text messaging. We believe this is the backbone to growing the industry in a positive way and that doing this correctly will drive adoption of business texting for everyone. To achieve this goal, it is imperative that we keep the industry clean to the best of our abilities and continue to provide value to the end consumer. This is why Sinch has updated its disallowed content policy.

The following categories have been attributed to be harmful or deceitful to the end consumer and cannot be run on any US or CA Messaging Product (LN, TFN or SC):

Category	Examples	Notes
High-Risk Financial Services	Payday Loans Short-Term, High-Interest Loans Loan advertisements *CBC (Case-by-Case) exception for messages from direct lenders for secured loans Student Loans Debt Collection Gambling/Bingo Stock Alerts Cryptocurrency Account-related messages from direct lenders is allowed with express consent. No promotional messaging or messaging from third-party lenders is allowed.	"Third-party" refers to any entity other than the one providing the loan. Content related to first-party loans is acceptable if it is not promotional, CBC (Case-by-Case) on an approved Short Code. Businesses focused exclusively on stocks, investing, or cryptocurrency are only allowed to send SMS messages related to two-factor authentication (2FA).
Get Rich Quick Schemes	Deceptive Work-from-Home Programs Risk Investment Opportunities Multi-Level Marketing	Use cases in this category involve minimal effort for substantial and/or assured financial gains. Such cases often lead to high consumer complaints in the telecom industry and are therefore not allowed on carrier routes.
Job Postings	Exceptions permitted if the message sender is the one doing the hiring	Third-party job boards are disallowed; only the hiring brand itself should be registered. This restriction is due to concerns about potential misuse, information sharing, and high rates of spam complaints associated with third-party job boards. As a result, carriers do not permit this use-case on their networks.
3rd Party Debt Forgiveness	Debt Consolidation Debt Reduction Credit Repair Programs Lead Generation	"Third-party" means originating from any party other than the one who is owed the debt. For example, a hospital could send messages regarding bills for its own patients, assuming they provided opt-in to receive that messaging. While third-party debt collection is not permitted, a debt collection business that has direct consent from end-users to send related content may do so. Debt consolidation, debt reduction and credit repair programs are prohibited regardless of first-party consent.
Illegal Substances	Cannabis, CBD and Synthetic Cannabinoids, Kratom All Schedule 1-4 drugs. CBC (Case-by-Case) exception for prescriptions Tobacco and Vaping--(Not Federally illegal) *Must have an age gate)	Businesses dealing with Cannabis, CBD, Kratom, or drug paraphernalia are prohibited from using SMS/MMS messaging on Sinch in the US and Canada, regardless of the content. These restrictions apply regardless of federal or state legality. No use-cases for these businesses, including those involving 2FA, are allowed to send SMS messages, whether or not they pertain to cannabis-related content. The carriers simply do not allow it across their networks.
Phishing	Social Engineering Scams Impersonation of Legitimate Businesses Fake or fraudulent content Fraud
*SHAFT (see below )**	Sex, Hate, Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco
Pornography
Tobacco and Alcohol	Only through carrier approval and “Age-Gating”	In the US, alcohol-, tobacco-, and vape-related messaging is permitted on Short Code, and Long Code, provided that proper age verification procedures are implemented. ONLY alcohol-related content is allowed on Toll-Free with a proper age-gate. Age verification must require users to enter their date of birth, rather than simply answering "yes" or "no." Messaging related to firearms is not allowed on Short Code, Toll-Free, or Long Code, regardless of age verification. Messaging related to firearm "parts" is okay on 10DLC. Tobacco/Vape messaging is permitted on Short Code with appropriate age verification, but is not allowed on Toll-Free. In Canada, all age-restricted content must be blocked across Toll-Free, Short Code, and Long Code. To send age-restricted content into Canada, even with proper age verification, a special carrier exemption is required. Allowed age-restricted content in Canada includes pocketknives, lighters, and non-alcoholic beverages.
Profanity or Hate Speech
Gambling & Raffles	*Non promotional only. Carrier approval may still be required. Casino Apps are prohibited. Betting or Sports/Teams "picks" are not permitted. Links to content or sites that promote gambling or games of chance are not permitted.	Gambling traffic is prohibited in the US and Canada on all number types (Toll Free, Short Code, Long Code). Raffle campaigns are also prohibited as the carriers consider this gambling. Bingo-related messages are allowed on an approved Short Code and 10DLC. Community- or local-based Bingo-related messaging are permissible on carrier networks.
Fraud or Scam
Deceptive Marketing	Deceptive marketing is not permitted.	PII Farming: Services subscribed to or advertised over SMS/MMS. All third-party use cases are strictly forbidden. Consent must be obtained directly from end-users.
Lead Generation	*Any special considerations for Affiliate Marketing must be carrier approved. Affiliate lending is not permitted. Affiliate marketing, consent is always 1-1 for the campaign on record.	Any third-party use cases are strictly forbidden. Consent must be obtained directly from end-users. Political use-case customers sending SMS messages are not able to use voter registration databases to collect consent and outreach end-users. Any business with a terms of service or privacy policy that mentions sharing or selling consumer data/opt-in information is considered noncompliant.

Message senders are expected to enforce restrictions on their own networks to prevent onboarding these types of content at the intake source. This is verbatim in one or more of the US MNO's Code of Conduct. Upon investigation, if determined to be a part of at least one of the categories above, Sinch may suspend traffic or may request that you stop sending the traffic. Sinch reserves the right to all, and not limited to, the following actions: the suspension of sending rights for a Campaign, suspension of a provisioned phone number or pool; restriction of high-throughput access; suspension of provisioning rights for new phone numbers; and/or suspension of all network services.

If you have additional questions, please don’t hesitate to contact Sinch.

Take a look at the Sinch SMS Product page to learn more about our SMS products, or click here to sign up to our self-service portal and get started today.

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