Verbal opt-in grants no relief on sample content

The requirementstatement

Samples must carry the brand name and opt-out instructions even when consent was collected verbally rather than on a web form.

Severityseverity: BlockingBLOCKINGBreaking this rule gets the submission rejected. There is no partial credit.
When it bitesphase: Gates approvalapprovalGet this wrong and the brand or campaign is refused at registration.
What is checkedobject: campaign.sample[]
Where it liveslayer: Message contentMESSAGE_CONTENT
How Ekas settles itdetectability: DeterministicDETERMINISTIC; Settled in code from the values you submitted. No model involved, no judgement call, same answer every time.
What the fix involvesfailureClass: Fix the fieldRETRY_FIELD; A better value in the form fixes it. Ekas can rewrite it and re-check.
Who requires itauthorities: AWS
When it appliesapplicabilityText: Applies when consent was collected by live verbal and IVR.

Why this rule existsrationale

Collecting consent by phone changes what evidence you file, and nothing about what the messages have to say — but the belief that it does is widespread, because the agent already identified the business on the call and already said the customer could stop at any time. The recipient is a different person by the time the text arrives: hours later, looking at an unknown number, with none of the call in front of them. AWS states the requirement explicitly for exactly this reason, and it is the anti-exemption that stops an offline consent method quietly suppressing the two rules every message owes.

How to fix itremediation

Add the registered brand name to the start of every sample and "Reply STOP to opt out" to the end, exactly as a web-opt-in campaign would. Done when a sample read cold, with no memory of the call, still says who is texting and how to stop it.

A compliant exampleexample

Acme Coffee: your support ticket 4471 is now with a specialist. We will text an update within one business day. Reply STOP to opt out.

Common mistakespitfalls

Naming the brand in the verbal script does not discharge this — the script is consent evidence, the samples are message content, and reviewers check them separately.

Provider rejection codescodes

The code you get back when this rule is what failed, and whether that provider lets you resubmit.

Provider	Code	Resubmit
AWS	SAMPLE_MESSAGE_MISMATCH	Yes

Notesnotes

Deliberately overlaps XBC-010 and MSG-SAMPLES-OPTOUT, which are universal and already require both elements. It exists as its own rule because the catalog records the anti-exemption separately: an author narrowing either of those to web surfaces would silently exempt verbal campaigns, and this rule is what would go red.

Rules you will hit next

6 other rules read campaign.sample[]. Fixing one field to satisfy a single rule is how a resubmission trades one rejection for another, so read these before you change anything.

CMP-SAMPLE-COUNTAt least two sample messages are requiredBlockingBLOCKING CMP-SAMPLE-LENEach sample message must be 20–1024 charactersBlockingBLOCKING MSG-031Sample messages must be in EnglishBlockingBLOCKING MSG-042Every message must identify who is sending itBlockingBLOCKING MSG-171Messages must not harass, intimidate or threaten the recipientBlockingBLOCKING MSG-210A political donation programme may not include gaming-related fundraisingBlockingBLOCKING

All message content rules

MSG-293 is one of 122 message content rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.