Messaging Policy
What businesses that send SMS, WhatsApp and voice messages through Claform must do, what they must never send, and what happens when the rules are broken.
On this page
1. Who this policy applies to
This Messaging Policy applies to every business and individual using Claform ("Customer") to send messages to contacts by SMS, MMS, WhatsApp or voice call, whether from a number or sender registered through Claform or from a WhatsApp Business account connected to Claform. It forms part of our Terms of Service and mirrors the rules of the mobile carriers, the CTIA Messaging Principles and Best Practices, the 10DLC registration requirements, the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy and Commerce Policy, and the laws that apply to telemarketing and automated messages, including the TCPA and state laws in the United States.
Claform is operated by ClaRock, Inc. Claform acts as the Customer's service provider: the Customer named in a message is its sender and is responsible for the consent, content and handling of that message. Claform enforces this policy automatically before every send and may suspend sending immediately.
2. Consent requirements
A Customer may message a contact only with that contact's prior express consent, obtained and recorded before the first message.
- Transactional and customer-care messages (survey invitations tied to a prior interaction, confirmations, account notices) require prior express consent: the contact knowingly gave the Customer their number for that purpose, through a web form, a checkbox, a keyword, a signed form or a verbal opt-in that was recorded.
- Marketing and promotional messages, including any survey invitation that offers a prize, discount, gift card, raffle, giveaway, coupon or voucher, require prior express written consent: a clear, conspicuous disclosure naming the business, stating that messages are automated, that message frequency varies, that message and data rates may apply, that consent is not a condition of purchase, and how to opt out, with the contact's affirmative action recorded.
- Purchased, rented, scraped or shared contact lists are never permitted. Consent obtained by another business cannot be transferred to the Customer.
- Every imported contact list must carry a consent attestation that describes how and where the consent was collected. Claform records the attestation with the import and refuses lists without a source.
- Consent records (the consent text shown, the date and time, the source URL or channel, the IP address and user agent where available) are kept for at least five years and are available to the Customer for carrier audits.
- Opt-outs are honored immediately, apply to every message type from that sender, and are never overridden. A contact who opted out can only be messaged again after a new, documented opt-in.
3. Required message elements
Every message sent through Claform must contain, and every text program must disclose:
- Brand name: The Customer's recognisable business name appears in the body of every message.
- Opt-out instructions: "Reply STOP to opt out" (or equivalent) on the first message to a contact and on every marketing message. STOP, END, QUIT, UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, REVOKE and OPT OUT are always honored, as is any other reasonable request to stop.
- Help instructions: "Reply HELP for help" and a support email address or phone number in the program disclosure and in the HELP reply.
- Frequency: "Message frequency varies" or the actual number of messages per period, in the opt-in disclosure.
- Rates: "Message and data rates may apply" in the opt-in disclosure.
- Links: Full links only, on app.claform.com or a domain the Customer has verified. Public link shorteners (bit.ly, tinyurl, t.co and similar) and tracking-redirect domains are refused.
- Length: At most three SMS segments per message; shorter, plain-text messages without emoji deliver best.
4. Prohibited industries and content
The following may not be sent through Claform on any channel, and businesses in these industries cannot register a sender. Claform refuses the registration or the message, and may suspend the account.
Prohibited industries and use cases
- Sex, adult content and sexually explicit services, including dating services that are sexual in nature
- Hate speech, harassment and content that discriminates against or attacks a person or group
- Alcohol, except where the Customer holds a licence and has age-gated its opt-in
- Firearms, ammunition, weapons and weapon accessories
- Tobacco, vaping and nicotine products
- Cannabis, CBD, hemp-derived THC and related products, even where legal locally
- Gambling, betting, lotteries, sweepstakes and casino promotions
- Payday loans, short-term high-interest loans, debt relief, debt forgiveness and other high-risk financial offers
- Debt collection and payment-demand messages
- Third-party lead generation, affiliate marketing and the resale of contact data
- Multi-level marketing and work-from-home or get-rich-quick schemes
- Phishing, fraud, impersonation of another business or authority, and deceptive offers
- Illegal drugs, controlled substances and drug paraphernalia
- Unauthorized medical offers, prescription drugs without a prescription, and unapproved health claims
- Counterfeit goods, stolen goods and content that infringes intellectual property
- Political campaigning and fundraising without a registered political campaign sender
Prohibited content on any channel
- Messages to contacts who did not opt in, or who opted out
- Misleading sender names, spoofed numbers, or messages that hide who the sender is
- Content that is deceptive, defamatory, obscene or threatening, or that incites violence
- Profanity, abusive language and content sent to minors
- Snowshoeing: splitting traffic across numbers or senders to evade filtering, throughput limits or registration
- Malware, links to unsafe sites, and attempts to collect passwords, card numbers, government identifiers or health data by message
- Content that violates the WhatsApp Business Messaging Policy or Commerce Policy, including adult content, weapons, drugs, tobacco, unapproved medical products, real-money gambling, and the sale of live animals or body parts
5. Quiet hours and frequency
Claform schedules messages inside the recipient's local sending window and defers anything outside it to the next open slot. Messages are never dropped silently.
- Default window: 9:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the recipient's local time, which satisfies the federal and state windows in the United States.
- Texas: no messages on Sunday before 12:00 p.m. local time.
- Egypt: no marketing messages between 9:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m., and none on Friday or Saturday. Saudi Arabia: marketing only between 9:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. United Arab Emirates: no marketing between 9:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. France: no marketing between 10:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. or on Sunday.
- Verification codes requested by the recipient, and replies inside an open WhatsApp conversation window, are exempt.
- Marketing frequency is capped at one marketing message per contact per 24 hours and four per seven days from the same Customer.
- Newly registered numbers warm up: 200 messages on the first day, doubling daily up to the carrier-assigned cap.
6. WhatsApp-specific rules
- Opt-in names the business: A WhatsApp opt-in must state clearly that the person agrees to receive messages from the Customer on WhatsApp and must name the Customer's business. Claform stores the opt-in text shown with every consent.
- 24-hour conversation window: Free-form messages may be sent only within 24 hours of the contact's last message. Outside that window, only approved message templates can be sent.
- Template categories: Templates must be submitted in the correct category. A survey invitation that references a specific prior interaction is Utility; any invitation with an incentive, or sent without a prior interaction, is Marketing. Claform sets the category from the survey's content and refuses a template that claims Utility for marketing content.
- Quality and limits: Sending is limited to 80% of the number's messaging tier and spread over hours. When Meta rates a number's quality Yellow, Claform halves the daily volume; when it is Red, Claform pauses marketing from that number until the rating recovers.
- Blocks and reports: Contacts who block or report a Customer count against the Customer's quality rating. Contacts who do not respond to two consecutive marketing templates are suppressed from further marketing.
7. Enforcement
Claform may suspend sending immediately, without prior notice, for any Customer, sender or message that breaches this policy. In particular:
- Every outbound message is checked by Claform's compliance engine before it reaches a carrier or Meta; messages that fail the checks are refused and the reason is recorded.
- Automatic pauses apply when a sender's carrier error rate exceeds 10% over an hour, when Meta rates a WhatsApp number Red, when a spam report is received, or when a sender's 10DLC campaign leaves the active state.
- An opt-out rate above 3%, or more than 5% of contacts replying STOP within an hour of a first message, triggers a review and may lead to suspension.
- Repeated or serious breaches, including sending to purchased lists, prohibited content, or ignoring opt-outs, result in termination of messaging features and, where warranted, of the Claform account. Carrier fees and fines caused by a Customer's breach are charged to the Customer.
- Claform cooperates with carriers, Meta and regulators and provides consent and opt-out records on request.
8. Reporting abuse
If you received a message through Claform that you did not consent to, that continued after you replied STOP, or that breaches this policy, forward it with the sending number to [email protected]. We investigate every report and suspend senders that breach this policy.
9. Changes to this policy
We update this policy when carrier, Meta or legal requirements change. Material changes are announced to Customers who have registered a sender, and continued sending after a change constitutes acceptance.