# OPS-081 — The HELP reply must send people somewhere that answers

> Every destination named in the HELP reply — a phone number, a URL or an email address — must actually reach help.

- **Rule ID:** OPS-081
- **Layer:** Operational (`OPERATIONAL`)
- **Checks:** `campaign.help_message`
- **Severity:** HIGH — Rejected by at least one carrier or provider, and a common cause of failure at the rest.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** AI judgement over the submitted form; Human check — only someone holding the document can settle it
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** CTIA, MMA
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/operational/ops-081/

## Why this rule exists

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.

## How to fix it

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 of a compliant value

```text
Acme Coffee: for help, email support@acmecoffee.com or call 415-555-0134. Msg & data rates may apply. Reply STOP to unsubscribe.
```

## Common mistakes

- A support address that auto-replies "this mailbox is not monitored" is a dead end with extra steps, and reviewers treat it as one.

## Check this yourself

**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?**

1. Dial the number and confirm a person who can help answers.
2. Send a message to the address and confirm a human replies.
3. Open the link and confirm it loads a page that answers the question a confused recipient has.

*What wrong looks like:* 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.

## 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.