reported_abuse

Your own account reported abuse for the number

The Spaw phone risk signal reported_abuse adds 60 points to risk_score when your own account reported an abused outcome for the number within the last 90 days, through the phone feedback endpoint or the dashboard (dataset delivery-feedback).

risk weight: +60
dataset: delivery-feedback
reads from: no field of its own
default SMS policy: blocks it: reported_abuse is one of the default block_signals (fictional, disposable, reported_abuse, reported_abuse_widely, premium_rate).

What it means

POST /api/v1/phone/feedback records what happened after you sent an SMS. An abused report says the code was used by someone who was not the recipient, or the number was involved in fraud. Any such report from your account within the last 90 days adds this weight to your account's later lookups of the number, whatever you reported after it, and the dataset is delivery-feedback.

Your reports feed only your own lookups. Another account sees an abuse report only as part of a count, once 3 or more accounts have reported the same number (reported_abuse_widely). An abuse report also puts the number on your suppression list, where it stays until you remove it.

What it cannot tell you

It says what your own systems reported, not what the number is: a report made in error keeps scoring until it is older than 90 days.
It never reflects another account's reports; that is reported_abuse_widely, which reads only a count.

What to do

Treat it as your own decision coming back: refuse the number in the flow that was abused. The default SMS policy blocks on it: an answer carrying it is ok_to_send false whatever the score.

The SMS policy is set per account with PUT /api/v1/phone/policy or the dashboard’s SMS policy tab, and its block_signals may list any signal, this one included; the phone guide lists every rule and its default.

Example response

An excerpt of an answer carrying this signal alone, with the number and the other fields left out, because no test number answers it. The score and the decision are worked out as the lookup and the default SMS policy work them out.

{
    "valid": true,
    "country": "GB",
    "line_type": "mobile",
    "line_type_source": "numbering_plan",
    "risk_score": 60,
    "risk_level": "high",
    "risk_signals": [
        {
            "signal": "reported_abuse",
            "weight": 60,
            "dataset": "delivery-feedback"
        }
    ],
    "ok_to_send": false,
    "blocked_by": "reported_abuse"
}

A real answer carries every field, listed in the validate-phone reference; the weights of every entry in risk_signals sum to risk_score, capped at 100.

markdown version: /docs/signals/phone/reported_abuse.md

reported_abuse

What it means

What it cannot tell you

What to do

Example response

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