# BRD-012 — Name fields must read as natural business text

> The display name, company name, and any first and last name fields must contain real, natural text — not obfuscated, garbled, or placeholder strings.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-012
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `brand.display_name + brand.company_name + brand.first_name + brand.last_name`
- **Severity:** BLOCKING — Breaking this rule gets the submission rejected outright.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** AI judgement over the submitted form
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** TCR, Twilio, Vonage
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-012/

## Why this rule exists

Obfuscated names are how bad actors evade brand-level blocklists, so the check exists to catch deliberate garbling — but it also catches honest submissions, because an internal reference like "ACME-STORE-04" or a keyboard-mashed test value left in place looks identical to evasion from the outside. The reviewer cannot tell the difference and does not try.

## How to fix it

Replace the value with the name a customer would recognise, written the way it appears on the shopfront or the website. Internal identifiers, store codes and account numbers belong in the reference id field. Done when every name field reads as something you could say aloud to a customer.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
display_name: Acme Coffee — not "ACME-STORE-04", "acme test", or "Xx_acme_xX"
```

## Common mistakes

- A test brand created during an integration and then promoted to production carries the test name with it, and nothing in the promotion path re-reads that field.

## Provider rejection codes

| Provider | Code | Resubmission allowed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Twilio | `30756` | yes |
| TCR | `556` | yes |

## Notes

TCR enforces the obfuscation check explicitly on sole-proprietor brands, where the first and last name fields are the identity; Twilio 30756 applies it to every brand. Authored universally, per the strict-superset model.