Forbidden content

SHAFT

The classic CTIA acronym. All five are restricted; some have narrow regional exceptions.

• S — Sex. Adult content or services. Not permitted.
• H — Hate. Hate speech, discriminatory content, profanity-laden harassment. Not permitted.
• A — Alcohol. Restricted. May be allowed in the US with a functional age gate at opt-in (DD/MM/YYYY birthdate verification, not a yes/no toggle) and a campaign that doesn't target minors.
• F — Firearms. Sales of weapons and ammunition are not permitted on standard channels. Educational content from a licensed dealer may be permitted with prior carrier approval.
• T — Tobacco / Vape. Including e-cigarettes and nicotine products. Not permitted on standard channels regardless of age gating.

Cannabis and CBD

Even where cannabis is state-legal, federal status keeps it on the carrier-blocked list. Any submission related to cannabis, CBD, hemp, hemp-derived products, or related teas, beauty products, or supplements is automatically rejected (error code 701). This applies to dispensaries, delivery services, growers, and ancillary businesses whose primary marketing is cannabis-adjacent.

Gambling and betting

Online casinos, sports betting, lotteries, betting tips, odds promotion. Some approved short-code programs exist with prior carrier approval — but these are not the standard 10DLC or toll-free channel. Treat gambling content as forbidden on the channels you'll use here.

High-risk financial

• Payday loans and short-term high-interest lending.
• Non-direct lenders (lead-gen for loans, "we'll match you with a lender").
• Debt collection from third-party collectors. First-party collection by the original creditor may be permitted as Customer Care.
• Cryptocurrency trading platforms and exchanges. Some education-only campaigns may pass; trading promotion does not.
• Stock trading tips and pump-style promotion.

Lead generation and affiliate marketing

Sharing or selling a recipient's information to a third party for marketing is forbidden across all channels (error codes 708, 709). This includes:

• Forms whose intent is to capture a lead and forward it to an unknown buyer.
• Affiliate funnels where the SMS sender is not the brand the recipient signed up with.
• "Click here for a quote from one of our partners" flows that hand the conversation to a different brand mid-stream.

Deceptive content

• Phishing or impersonation — pretending to be a bank, government agency, or platform you're not.
• Misleading financial offers — "guaranteed returns", "you've been pre-approved", lottery / inheritance / sweepstakes scams.
• Bait-and-switch — promising one product in the SMS, delivering the recipient to a different one.
• URL shorteners on shared domains — bit.ly, tinyurl, t.co. Carriers treat these as obscured intent. Use a branded domain.

Restricted business models

Some businesses are restricted not by individual content but by the model itself. Examples:

• Operations whose primary business is one of the forbidden categories above.
• Use cases attempting to evade carrier safeguards (e.g. "we just send an opt-in confirmation; the real campaign is somewhere else").