Adverse reputation on the domain blocks the brand

The requirementstatement

Third-party reputation signals on the domain — prior compromise, complaint volume, adverse media, blocklist entries — block the registration.

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: brand.website domain reputation
Where it liveslayer: WebsiteWEBSITE
How Ekas settles itdetectability: External recordEXTERNAL_DATA; The fact that settles it lives in a register we cannot query, such as the IRS file, a postal database, or another provider’s tenant. Reported as a warning with the evidence to check, not as a pass.
What the fix involvesfailureClass: Wait on someone elseTERMINAL_EXTERNAL; Needs an external system or a waiting period, such as IRS propagation, a vetting result, or a carrier queue.
Who requires itauthorities: Bandwidth
When it appliesapplicabilityText: Applies to every 10DLC registration.

Why this rule existsrationale

Carriers buy reputation data and apply it before anyone reads the site, so a domain that was compromised two owners ago arrives already refused. The business has no visibility into which feed flagged it or why, and the rejection names none of that, which is why brands re-submit unchanged registrations several times before anyone tells them the domain is the problem.

How to fix itremediation

Check the domain against the public blocklists and safe-browsing services before registering, and clear whatever they report — a compromised page, an old redirect, a listing from a previous owner. Where the history belongs to a previous owner, expect to have to appeal with evidence of the transfer.

Provider rejection codescodes

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

Provider	Code	Resubmit
Bandwidth	TFV 1604	Yes
Bandwidth	TFV 1609	Yes

Check this yourselfattestation

No tool can settle this one for you. Here is the check, and what wrong looks like.

Is this domain clean on the public blocklists and safe-browsing services today?

1Check it against Google Safe Browsing, VirusTotal and the major blocklists — these are the feeds the vendors draw on.
2Clear whatever they report: a compromised page, an old redirect, a listing left by a previous owner.
3Where the history belongs to a previous owner, have evidence of the transfer ready for an appeal.

What wrong looks like: A domain compromised two owners ago arrives already refused. The rejection names no feed and no reason, so unchanged registrations are submitted several times before anyone mentions the domain.

Notesnotes

Absorbs WEB-082, prior compromise being one of the signals the same lookup returns. We query no reputation source. The user has to run this themselves — Google Safe Browsing, VirusTotal and the major blocklists are the ones the vendors draw on — and to do it before submitting, because a blocked domain burns the registration rather than pausing it.

Rules you will hit next

Other website rules at the same severity. A registration is judged as a whole, not rule by rule.

WEB-001A brand website URL is requiredBlockingBLOCKING WEB-009The website must resolve and return contentBlockingBLOCKING WEB-012A parked or for-sale domain is not a websiteBlockingBLOCKING WEB-013A pre-launch placeholder is not a websiteBlockingBLOCKING WEB-014Staging, admin and internal hosts must not be the brand websiteBlockingBLOCKING WEB-016The website must be machine-crawlableBlockingBLOCKING

All website rules

WEB-085 is one of 93 website rules in the 915-rule 10DLC registry. Free to cite under CC BY 4.0.