Acceptable Use Policy

1. At a glance

SMSGELY may be used only for lawful messaging to people you are permitted to contact.
Fraud, phishing, impersonation, threats, harassment, spam and the other activities listed in Section 5 are prohibited.
You are responsible for all activity on your account, including your team members, your API integrations and any customers you serve through SMSGELY.
We use layered controls, including KYC, Sender ID review, content and link checks, campaign review and risk monitoring. No control is perfect, and these controls do not reduce your own responsibility for what you send.
Breaches may lead to blocked messages, rejected campaigns, restrictions, suspension or termination, and to reports to providers or authorities where required.
Anyone can report abuse at any time at /report-abuse.

2. Purpose of this policy

SMS reaches people on their personal phones, often within seconds. When it is misused, the harm can be immediate: lost savings, stolen accounts, fear and distress, and a loss of trust in genuine messages from banks, mobile financial services, schools, hospitals and businesses.

This Acceptable Use Policy ("AUP") explains what you may and may not do with SMSGELY. It forms part of our Terms of Service and should be read together with:

the Anti-Spam & Responsible Messaging Policy, which sets out consent, opt-out and sending rules;
the Prohibited Content Policy, which describes prohibited and restricted content in more detail;
the Sender ID Policy and the KYC Policy; and
the Account Suspension Policy, which explains how enforcement works.

Where this AUP is stricter than applicable law, this AUP applies to your use of SMSGELY. Telecom providers and mobile operators may impose additional requirements, and we may enforce those requirements as well.

3. Who this policy applies to

This AUP applies to every use of SMSGELY, however the platform is accessed. It covers:

Account holders — the individual or organisation that registered the account and accepted our Terms.
Team members — anyone you invite to, or allow to use, your account, including employees, contractors and agencies.
API integrations — any website, app, plugin, server or automated system that uses your API keys or account credentials.
Your customers — if you provide services to others using SMSGELY (where we have permitted this), the people and businesses you serve.

As the account holder, you must make sure that everyone in this list complies with this AUP. Activity carried out through your account or with your API keys is treated as your activity.

4. Permitted use

You may use SMSGELY to send lawful messages that recipients have agreed to receive or would reasonably expect from you. Examples include:

one-time passwords (OTPs), verification codes and security alerts;
order, booking, delivery, payment and appointment notifications;
service updates, reminders and notices to customers, members, students, guardians or employees;
promotional messages to people who have given you permission to send them marketing, sent in line with the Anti-Spam & Responsible Messaging Policy.

In every case you must:

have a lawful basis or permission to contact each recipient;
identify yourself clearly, through your approved Sender ID or in the message text;
keep message content accurate and not misleading;
label each campaign correctly as promotional or transactional;
honour opt-out requests promptly; and
comply with applicable laws and with SMSGELY and provider requirements.

5. Prohibited activities

You must not use SMSGELY, or allow anyone else to use your account, for any of the activities below. The list gives examples and is not exhaustive. More detail and examples are in the Prohibited Content Policy.

5.1 Fraud, deception and impersonation

fraud or scams of any kind, including fake prizes, lotteries, job offers, loans, investments and advance-fee schemes;
phishing — messages designed to trick people into revealing personal, financial or account information;
credential theft, including any request for passwords, PINs, OTPs or card details;
fake login pages, or links to them;
impersonation of any person, business, brand, organisation or authority;
unauthorised sender identities, including Sender IDs, brand names or signatures you are not authorised to use;
fake bank messages, such as false "account blocked" or "card suspended" alerts;
fake mobile financial service messages, including messages that falsely appear to come from bKash, Nagad, Rocket, Upay or any other MFS provider;
fake government messages, including false fines, tax demands, allowance or benefit notices;
fake law-enforcement messages, including messages falsely claiming to come from the police or any other agency;
fake emergency messages, including false disaster, health or public-safety alerts.

5.2 Malware and malicious links

distributing malware, spyware, ransomware or unauthorised app downloads;
malicious links, including links that hide their real destination in order to deceive, redirect to harmful sites, or imitate the website of a bank, MFS provider or government body.

5.3 Threats, harassment and abuse

threats of violence or other harm;
blackmail or extortion;
harassment, intimidation or bullying;
stalking, or any messaging that monitors or pursues a person against their will;
unlawful debt collection, including threats, abusive language, contacting family members or other third parties to shame a debtor, and false claims of legal action.

5.4 Illegal goods, services and schemes

illegal gambling or betting;
unlawful financial schemes, including pyramid schemes, unlawful multi-level marketing, unlicensed lending or deposit-taking, and "double your money" offers;
illegal drugs, and the promotion of controlled substances without the required licences or permissions;
weapons, counterfeit goods, or any other goods or services that are unlawful to sell or promote.

5.5 Harmful and unlawful content

sexually exploitative content of any kind;
child sexual abuse material — any content that sexualises children. We will report such content to the appropriate authorities where required or permitted by law;
extremist or terrorist recruitment or support, including propaganda, fundraising or incitement;
content that unlawfully incites hatred or violence against any person or group;
unlawful political messaging, and any political or election messaging sent without the prior written approval described in the Prohibited Content Policy;
deceptive advertising, including false claims, hidden charges, fake discounts and invented deadlines.

5.6 Spam and unlawful marketing

spam and unsolicited bulk messaging;
sending to purchased, rented, scraped or harvested contact lists, to randomly generated numbers, or to lists otherwise obtained unlawfully or used where prohibited;
continuing to message people who have opted out;
labelling promotional messages as transactional;
using SMSGELY to get around operator-level Do Not Disturb (DND) preferences.

5.7 Platform misuse and evasion

evading, or attempting to evade, our controls, limits, reviews or a suspension — for example by using obfuscated text, look-alike characters, deliberate misspellings, rotating links or rotating Sender IDs;
creating or using multiple accounts, or splitting traffic between accounts, to bypass limits, reviews or enforcement;
reselling, sublicensing or otherwise providing access to SMSGELY to third parties without our prior written permission;
interfering with or disrupting the service, our providers or other customers, including by deliberately overloading the platform;
probing, scanning or testing the security of SMSGELY outside the process described in our Security Policy;
accessing, or attempting to access, accounts, data or systems you are not authorised to access;
sharing, selling or publishing API keys or account credentials.

5.8 General

any activity that violates applicable law, including telecommunications, cyber security, consumer protection and data protection laws;
any activity that violates SMSGELY requirements, or the requirements of our telecom providers and mobile operators, as published on our website or notified to you.

6. Account and API security responsibilities

You are responsible for keeping your account secure. In particular, you must:

use a strong, unique password and keep login details confidential;
give team members only the access they need, and remove access promptly when someone leaves;
keep API keys secret — store them on your server, and never place them in mobile apps, browser code or public code repositories;
never share API keys with third parties, and rotate or revoke a key immediately if you believe it has been exposed;
monitor your account activity, wallet balance and campaigns, and investigate anything unexpected; and
tell us promptly through our contact page if you suspect unauthorised access or misuse.

You remain responsible for messages sent with your credentials until you revoke them, including messages sent by someone who obtained them because they were not kept secure. You can manage team members and API keys in your dashboard.

7. Monitoring and enforcement

We use several layers of control to help prevent misuse:

Identity checks (KYC) — verification of account holders, which is required before masking Sender IDs can be used. See the KYC Policy.
Sender ID review — staff review masking Sender ID requests. Names associated with protected brands, such as banks, mobile financial services, mobile operators, government bodies, regulators, the police, the Election Commission and SMSGELY itself, require proof of authorisation.
Content and link checks — automated checks that may allow a message, flag it, hold it for review or block it. Links that use shorteners, look-alike domains of banks, MFS providers or government bodies, raw IP addresses or hidden destinations receive closer scrutiny.
Campaign compliance review — some campaigns are held for review before they are sent. While a campaign is held, the funds for it stay reserved. If it is not approved, nothing is sent and the reserved funds are returned to your wallet.
Campaign confirmation — before every bulk campaign you confirm that you have the necessary authorisation or lawful basis to send it. The confirmation is recorded and cannot be deleted by you.
Suppression lists — opt-outs, numbers reported for abuse, network or provider blocks and regulatory restrictions are honoured on every sending path.
Limits and risk monitoring — rate limits, daily limits and monitoring that looks at a combination of signals, such as complaints, delivery failures, sudden changes in volume, link patterns and account history. No single keyword on its own leads to a ban.

These controls reduce risk, but they cannot catch everything. Automated checks can miss harmful messages and can occasionally flag legitimate ones. Passing our checks does not mean that a message is lawful or approved, and it does not shift responsibility for the message to SMSGELY.

We may review message content, recipient lists, Sender IDs and account activity where reasonably necessary to operate the service, investigate a suspected breach, respond to a report or complaint, meet a provider requirement or comply with the law.

8. Consequences of a breach

If we reasonably believe that this AUP has been breached, or that an account puts recipients, providers or the platform at risk, we may take one or more of the actions below. We aim to act in proportion to the seriousness of the issue, but we may act immediately and without prior notice where that is needed to prevent harm.

removing or blocking messages or content, or cancelling queued and scheduled messages;
holding or rejecting a campaign;
requiring you to change content, remove recipients or provide records of consent;
issuing a warning;
restricting features, lowering limits, suspending Sender IDs or revoking API keys;
suspending the account;
terminating the account;
reporting the activity, and sharing relevant information, to telecom providers, operators, regulators or law-enforcement authorities where required or permitted by law; and
withholding amounts connected with fraudulent or unlawful activity, where permitted by applicable law and as described in our Refund Policy.

How warnings, restrictions, suspensions, appeals and terminations work is explained in the Account Suspension Policy. We cooperate with lawful requests from authorities, as described in our Legal Requests Policy.

You may be responsible for penalties, fines, charges or costs imposed on SMSGELY as a result of your breach, as set out in the Terms of Service.

9. Reporting abuse

If you received a message sent through SMSGELY that you believe is fraudulent, abusive or unwanted, please report it at /report-abuse. If you can, include:

the Sender ID or number shown on your phone;
the date and time you received the message; and
the full message text, or a screenshot.

Please do not click links in a suspicious message or reply with any personal information. We review reports, and a report may lead to the number being added to our suppression list and to action against the sender. We may not always be able to tell you the outcome. See the Abuse Reporting Policy for more information.

If you believe you have found a security vulnerability in SMSGELY, please report it privately as described in the Security Policy, rather than testing it further.

10. Changes to this policy

We may update this AUP to reflect new risks, changes in law or regulation, or provider requirements. The current version and its effective date are always shown on this page. Where reasonably possible, we will notify account holders of material changes in advance. Urgent changes needed to prevent fraud or to comply with the law may take effect immediately.

This policy is published in English and Bangla. If the two versions conflict, the version designated by SMSGELY after legal review applies.

11. Important notice

SMSGELY provides messaging infrastructure and related technology services. Customers remain responsible for message content, recipient lists, recipient consent, sender identity and authorisation, the legality of their campaigns, applicable marketing, telecom and data-protection obligations, and compliance with all applicable laws.

SMSGELY does not authorise unlawful use of the platform. No review, approval or automated check by SMSGELY means that a message or campaign is lawful. SMSGELY operates subject to applicable laws, regulations, telecom-provider requirements and contractual restrictions.

Questions about this policy can be sent through our contact page.