{
  "id": "OPS-081",
  "slug": "ops-081",
  "title": "The HELP reply must send people somewhere that answers",
  "statement": "Every destination named in the HELP reply — a phone number, a URL or an email address — must actually reach help.",
  "rationale": "HELP exists so a recipient who does not recognise a number can find out who is texting and how to make it stop. A reply pointing at a number that rings out, a mailbox nobody reads, or a URL that 404s satisfies a presence check and fails the consumer entirely, which is why the handbook names dead ends specifically. The usual cause is a support address that was retired after the auto-reply was written.",
  "layer": "OPERATIONAL",
  "layerSlug": "operational",
  "object": "campaign.help_message",
  "severity": "HIGH",
  "detectability": [
    "AI_FORM",
    "HUMAN"
  ],
  "failureClass": "RETRY_FIELD",
  "authorities": [
    "CTIA",
    "MMA"
  ],
  "applicabilityText": "Applies to every 10DLC registration.",
  "universal": true,
  "remediation": "Test every destination in the HELP reply the way a recipient would: dial the number, send a message to the address, open the link. Replace anything that does not reach a person who can help. Done when each destination has been exercised end to end since the reply was last edited.",
  "example": "Acme Coffee: for help, email support@acmecoffee.com or call 415-555-0134. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to unsubscribe.",
  "pitfalls": [
    "A support address that auto-replies \"this mailbox is not monitored\" is a dead end with extra steps, and reviewers treat it as one."
  ],
  "notes": "Only partly settleable from here. We can see whether the destination belongs to the brand and whether the site corroborates it, and we can flag one that plainly does not — but whether a number is answered is not observable from a registration. The user has to place the call, send the email and open the link themselves, from outside their own network, and confirm each reaches a person.",
  "phase": "approval",
  "automated": true,
  "attestation": {
    "question": "Have you dialled the number, mailed the address and opened the link in the HELP reply yourself, from outside your own network, since it was last edited?",
    "howToCheck": [
      "Dial the number and confirm a person who can help answers.",
      "Send a message to the address and confirm a human replies.",
      "Open the link and confirm it loads a page that answers the question a confused recipient has."
    ],
    "failureLooksLike": "A support address retired after the auto-reply was written. A mailbox that auto-replies \"this mailbox is not monitored\" is a dead end with extra steps, and reviewers treat it as one."
  },
  "url": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/operational/ops-081/",
  "markdown": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/operational/ops-081.md",
  "registry": "https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/",
  "updated": "2026-07-25",
  "licence": "CC BY 4.0 — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
}