# OPS-252 — Consent collected away from the handset should be confirmed on it

> Where consent is collected outside the SMS channel — web, phone, point of sale or paper — the programme should send a double opt-in confirmation before recurring messages.

- **Rule ID:** OPS-252
- **Layer:** Operational (`OPERATIONAL`)
- **Checks:** `campaign.message_flow + campaign.optin_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
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** T-Mobile, CTIA
- **Applies:** Applies when consent was NOT collected by text-to-join keyword.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/operational/ops-252/

## Why this rule exists

Off-channel opt-ins are the ones where the number can be wrong: mistyped on a form, misheard on a call, or written illegibly on a card. A confirmation text is the only step that proves the number reached the person who agreed, and it converts a typo from a stranger receiving your marketing into a message nobody answers. It is also what a carrier looks for when a programme built from paper forms starts generating complaints.

## How to fix it

Send one confirmation to the number as collected, asking for a reply to activate, and enrol only on that reply. Where a full double opt-in is not workable, at minimum send a single confirmation that names the brand and how to stop before any other message. Done when the flow says what the number receives first.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
After a checkout opt-in we text: "Acme Coffee: reply YES to confirm you want offers and order updates. Msg&data rates may apply. Reply STOP to cancel." Numbers are enrolled only on YES.
```

## Notes

Not tagged away from paper, point-of-sale or verbal methods — those are the cases it exists for. It is excluded only where consent arrived on the handset itself, as an SMS keyword, since the number is already proven there.