# OPS-052 — Silence after a scope question revokes everything

> Where a scope-clarification message is sent and the consumer does not reply, the revocation must be treated as covering all robocalls and robotexts from the sender.

- **Rule ID:** OPS-052
- **Layer:** Operational (`OPERATIONAL`)
- **Checks:** `scope-clarification timeout handling`
- **Severity:** HIGH — Rejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
- **When it bites:** Falls due after approval, once you are live and sending
- **How it is detected:** Not knowable before submission — reported with its deadline
- **Fix type:** Wait on an external system or a required interval
- **Required by:** FCC
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/operational/ops-052/

## Why this rule exists

Asking which messages to stop is permitted, but it cannot be a way of keeping somebody subscribed by default. A consumer who said stop and then ignored a follow-up question has not narrowed anything — and a system that treats no reply as "carry on with the rest" has converted a revocation into a menu the consumer never answered.

## How to fix it

Suppress everything at the moment the revocation arrives, and treat any reply to the scope question as a request to re-subscribe to a subset. Done when no reply leaves the consumer receiving nothing.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
STOP → suppress all → "You have been unsubscribed from all Acme Coffee texts. Reply ORDERS if you would still like order updates."
```

## Common mistakes

- Suppressing only after a timeout expires leaves a window in which the programme is still sending to somebody who revoked — suppress first, ask second.

## Check this yourself

**If a consumer sends STOP and never replies to your scope question, do they receive nothing?**

1. Confirm the handler suppresses everything the moment the revocation arrives, before the question is sent.
2. Treat any reply to the scope question as a request to re-subscribe to a subset, not as permission to continue.
3. Test it: send STOP, ignore the follow-up, and check nothing else arrives.

*What wrong looks like:* Suppressing only after a timeout leaves a window in which the programme is still sending to someone who revoked, and a system that reads no reply as "carry on with the rest" has converted a revocation into a menu nobody answered.

## Notes

Only reachable once a scope question has been sent, which is a design choice the registration does not record. OPS-051 is the registration-side twin: it checks that the declared confirmation only asks a scope question where the consent covered several categories.