Affiliate Marketing with High Risk
Why This Rejection Happens
The vetting process identified that your campaign promotes third-party offers ("Affiliate Marketing") related to a prohibited or high-risk category, such as credit repair, debt relief, or get-rich-quick schemes. Affiliate marketing is generally frowned upon in 10DLC, but combining it with high-risk content is an automatic, permanent rejection.
Common Triggers: "Earn $500/day from home" links, credit repair affiliate offers, or lead generation for debt consolidation services.
Root Cause Analysis
Primary Triggers
- Affiliate Nature: The brand sending the message is not the brand fulfilling the service (e.g., "Click here to see offers from our partners").
- Prohibited Topic: The "partner offers" are for high-risk financial services, gambling, or questionable health supplements.
- Shared Shorteners: Using a public affiliate link shortener (like `bit.ly` or specialized affiliate tracking domains) known for spam.
Required Elements
| Issue | Standard | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| Affiliate + High Risk | Strictly Prohibited | Campaign blocked. Number may be blacklisted. |
| Affiliate (General) | Allowed with Controls | Must check "Affiliate Marketing" attribute (Code 2200). |
| Direct Marketing | Preferred | Send traffic for your own brand only. |
Step-by-Step Remediation
Analyze Your Business Model
Are you selling your own product, or earning a commission for sending traffic to someone else? If you are an affiliate marketer for high-risk verticals (loans, credit, crypto), you cannot use 10DLC.
Pivot to Direct Marketing
If you have your own legitimate brand, remove all third-party affiliate links from your SMS templates. Send users to your website first, where you control the content.
✓ Direct (Allowed)
"New blog post on financial tips! Read it at mybrand.com/blog"
✗ Affiliate (Blocked)
"Fix your credit score now! Click affiliate-link.com/offer123"
Audit Your Privacy Policy
Ensure your privacy policy does not say "We share your data with marketing partners." This is a hallmark of lead generation/affiliate schemes and triggers Code 7103.
Carrier-Specific Requirements
T-Mobile
- Zero tolerance for affiliate marketing in high-risk verticals. "Get Rich Quick" and "Work from Home" schemes are aggressively filtered.
AT&T
- Flags domains associated with known affiliate networks (ClickBank, JVZoo, etc.) as spam. Use a branded domain.
MyTCRPlus Tools That Can Help
Content Policy Scanner
Scan your message templates for prohibited affiliate keywords and link patterns.
Use This Tool →Industry Vertical Checker
See if your business category is flagged as "High Risk" regardless of your message content.
Use This Tool →Pre-Resubmission Checklist
- I have removed all third-party affiliate links.
- I am sending traffic to my own owned-and-operated domain.
- My content does not relate to credit repair, debt relief, or get-rich-quick.
- My privacy policy prohibits selling/sharing consumer data.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
❌ Cloaking Links
Using a redirect to hide an affiliate link (`mybrand.com/goto/offer`) does not work. Carriers follow the redirect path and will block the final destination if it's prohibited.
❌ "Biz Opp" Marketing
Multi-level marketing (MLM) and "Business Opportunity" offers are frequently categorized as high-risk affiliate content. Avoid "be your own boss" language.
Expected Timeline
This guidance provides general information about 10DLC compliance requirements. High-risk affiliate marketing is fundamentally incompatible with standard 10DLC routes due to high spam rates and consumer complaints. Organizations should evaluate whether their business model is suitable for A2P messaging. MyTCRPlus does not provide legal advisory services or regulatory representation.