These rules govern what you can and cannot do with a number from PrivacyNumber. Violating them terminates your service immediately and forfeits any unused balance.
Privacy uses are welcome
Buying a virtual number to avoid spam, dodge KYC creep, separate your work and personal lines, hide your real number from a service that doesn't deserve it, run a business from abroad, or stay anonymous online is fine. We exist for that. The list below isn't about restricting privacy — it's about preventing harm to others and keeping our carriers from being forced to shut us down.
What you may not do
Illegal conduct
Don't break the laws that apply to you. Wire fraud, drug trafficking, weapons trafficking, terrorism financing, child sexual abuse material, and similar crimes are categorically prohibited. We cooperate with valid law enforcement requests for the limited data we hold (see our Privacy Policy for what that is).
Fraud and scams
No phishing campaigns, romance scams, investment fraud, fake-tech-support, business-email-compromise, or impersonation of banks, government agencies, postal services, or PrivacyNumber itself.
Harassment, threats, stalking
Don't use our numbers to threaten, harass, or stalk anyone — including former partners, journalists, ex-colleagues, or anyone else. Repeated unwanted contact after the recipient has asked you to stop is harassment and we will end your service.
Doxxing
Don't use our service to publish or threaten to publish private information about non-public individuals without their consent.
Spam, robocalls, mass SMS
No mass unsolicited SMS, no robocalls, no autodialer-driven outreach, no political spam, no marketing blasts to people who didn't opt in. Our carriers detect this within minutes via volume signals and terminate the line before we even see it.
Bypassing security with malicious intent
Specifically: SIM-swap-related fraud, hijacking 2FA on accounts you don't own, abusing account-recovery flows, and similar identity-theft tactics. Receiving 2FA codes for your own accounts on services that don't accept VoIP is fine; we encourage it.
CSAM — zero tolerance
Child sexual abuse material is prohibited categorically and absolutely. If we detect or are credibly informed that a PrivacyNumber line was used to receive or coordinate CSAM, we report it to the relevant authorities (NCMEC in the US, equivalent national hotlines elsewhere), terminate the service, retain available forensic data, and assist any subsequent investigation. There are no privacy carve-outs here.
Enforcement
If we see or are credibly informed of a violation we suspend the number while we investigate. We send a single notice to the contact method you've registered (or, if you registered none, we don't). Confirmed violations end the service with no refund and may include forwarding evidence to your local authorities.
Reporting abuse against you
If a PrivacyNumber line is harassing or defrauding you, contact us through the channel listed in any active order's panel. Include the number, the time, and as much context as you can. Credible reports get acted on within hours during business days, and we follow up.