Terms of Service

1. Agreement to these terms

These Terms of Service ("Terms") form a binding agreement between you and PhoneBorn ("PhoneBorn", "we", "us") and govern your access to phoneborn.com, the PhoneBorn dashboard, the public API and all related services (together, the "Service"). By creating an account, topping up your wallet or otherwise using the Service, you confirm that you have read, understood and agree to these Terms, our Privacy Policy and our Refund Policy.

If you do not agree, do not use the Service. You must be at least 18 years old, or the age of legal majority where you live, to use PhoneBorn.

2. The Service

PhoneBorn provides real mobile phone numbers that can receive and send SMS and make and receive calls. We currently offer two products:

• Phone-number plans — a number assigned exclusively to your account for a plan period of 30 days (monthly) or 365 days (yearly), renewable for as long as you want, with optional automatic renewal. Each plan includes unlimited incoming SMS, 500 outgoing SMS per month, 1,000 minutes of outgoing calls per month and unlimited incoming calls (the "Plan Allowances"). Monthly allowances refresh every 30 days, including on yearly plans; unused outgoing SMS and minutes do not carry over.
• OTP numbers — a single-use number for receiving one verification code from a selected service within a limited time window, after which the number is released. OTP numbers cannot send SMS or make calls, and Plan Allowances do not apply to them.

Numbers are provided through third-party telecom providers; we do not own the underlying numbering resources and a number never becomes your property, although it stays assigned to you for as long as your plan is active and renewed. We do not guarantee that any particular third-party platform will accept a given number, or that a given destination can be reached by SMS or call, because those decisions are made by the platform or the receiving network.

3. Your account

You need an account to purchase anything. We only ask for an email address and a password — we do not perform identity verification ("KYC"). You are responsible for keeping your credentials and API keys secret and for all activity under your account. Notify us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorised access.

Because we hold no identity information, the email address on your account is the only way to prove ownership. If you lose access to that email, we may be unable to restore your account.

4. Acceptable use

PhoneBorn exists to help people protect their privacy. Because your number can send SMS and make calls, you are responsible for every message and call it makes. You agree not to use the Service, directly or indirectly, to:

• send spam, unsolicited commercial messages, bulk or mass messaging, or marketing campaigns of any kind;
• make robocalls, automated or pre-recorded calls, auto-dialled calls, call-centre traffic or "wangiri" (missed-call) schemes;
• harass, threaten, stalk, blackmail, intimidate or abuse anyone, or contact someone who has asked you not to;
• commit, facilitate or attempt fraud, scams, phishing (including SMS phishing and voice phishing), identity theft, account takeover or any financial crime;
• impersonate any person, business or authority, spoof caller identity or misrepresent your affiliation with anyone;
• create accounts in bulk to manipulate platforms, reviews, votes, promotions or referral schemes;
• evade a ban, sanction, court order or law-enforcement action, or launder money or finance terrorism;
• access, send, receive or distribute content that is illegal, including child sexual abuse material;
• generate artificial traffic, route calls or SMS through the Service for resale, or otherwise use Plan Allowances for anything other than genuine person-to-person communication;
• resell the Service in breach of these Terms, reverse-engineer it, probe or disrupt its security, or overload it with automated requests beyond documented API limits;
• break any law or regulation that applies to you, to the person you contact or to us, including telemarketing, consent and data-protection rules.

We may apply automated limits and checks to outgoing SMS and calls (for example, rate limits or blocking of premium-rate destinations) to protect our network and other customers. You are solely responsible for how you use any number and for complying with the laws of your country and the terms of every platform you use it with. We cooperate with valid legal requests from competent authorities as described in our Privacy Policy.

5. Wallet, pricing and payments

All purchases are paid from a prepaid wallet balance denominated in US dollars. The wallet can only be topped up with cryptocurrency; we do not accept cards, bank transfers or other payment methods. Each top-up invoice states an exact amount, network and address, and is valid for a limited time.

• You must send the exact amount on the correct network. Payments sent on the wrong network, to an expired invoice, or for the wrong amount may be unrecoverable or require manual review; see the Refund Policy.
• Your wallet is credited once the payment is confirmed on-chain or by our payment processor. Network fees are your responsibility.
• Wallet balance is not a bank deposit, does not earn interest, and is not redeemable for cash or crypto except at our sole discretion.
• Prices are displayed before purchase and may change at any time. A price change never affects a purchase already completed; renewals are charged at the price in effect at renewal time.
• Promotional coupons and bonuses have no cash value, may carry conditions and may be withdrawn if abused.

6. Phone-number plans, renewals and expiry

A phone-number plan is yours exclusively from activation until the end of the paid period, and you may keep renewing it for as long as you want. Each renewal extends the plan on the same number. If auto-renew is on, we attempt renewal from your wallet within 24 hours before expiry. If renewal fails for lack of balance, the number enters a short grace period (currently 3 days) during which you may renew; after that it expires and is released, and messages and calls to it will no longer reach you.

7-day money-back guarantee. If your number has not sent or received a single SMS or call, you can get a full refund within 7 days of purchase — no questions asked. The same rule applies to a renewal, counting activity from that renewal. Eligibility, the refund process and fair-use limits are set out in our Refund Policy.

In rare cases an upstream provider may withdraw a number. If that happens during a paid period we will, at our option, replace the number or credit the unused portion to your wallet.

7. Temporary OTP numbers

An OTP order reserves a number for one service for a limited window (currently 20 minutes). The order is charged when created and refunded to your wallet if you cancel before a code arrives or if no code arrives within the window. Once a code is received the order is complete and not refundable. OTP numbers are not intended for re-use or for receiving more than one message.

8. API and resellers

API access is provided under the same Terms. You may integrate PhoneBorn into your own products and resell access provided that your customers are bound by acceptable-use rules at least as strict as these, and you remain responsible for all usage under your API keys. We may apply rate limits and may suspend keys used abusively.

9. Suspension and termination

We may suspend outgoing SMS and calls, suspend or terminate your account, release your numbers and cancel pending orders, with or without notice, if we reasonably believe you have breached these Terms (including sending spam, bulk messages or robocalls), if we receive credible abuse reports about your number, if your use creates risk or legal exposure for PhoneBorn, our providers or others, or if required by law. Where termination results from a breach of the acceptable-use rules, any remaining wallet balance is forfeited.

You may close your account at any time from your dashboard settings. Closing your account releases your numbers immediately; unused wallet balance is not refunded except at our discretion.

10. Disclaimers

The Service is provided "as is" and "as available". To the fullest extent permitted by law we disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose and non-infringement. We do not warrant that the Service will be uninterrupted or error-free, that any message or call will be delivered or connected, that call quality will be uninterrupted, or that any third-party platform will accept a number. The Service is not a replacement for a regular phone line for emergency calls: do not rely on PhoneBorn to contact emergency services.

11. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, PhoneBorn will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, data, accounts, access to third-party services or goodwill, arising from or related to your use of the Service — including loss of access to an account because a number expired or was released.

Our total aggregate liability for any claim relating to the Service is limited to the amount you paid to PhoneBorn in the three (3) months before the event giving rise to the claim.

12. Indemnity

You agree to indemnify and hold harmless PhoneBorn and its operators from any claim, loss or expense (including reasonable legal fees) arising from your breach of these Terms or your misuse of the Service.

13. Changes to these terms

We may update these Terms from time to time. The "last updated" date shows when they last changed. Material changes will be announced on the website or by email. Continuing to use the Service after changes take effect means you accept the updated Terms.

14. General

If any provision of these Terms is found unenforceable, the rest remain in effect. Our failure to enforce a right is not a waiver of it. You may not assign these Terms without our consent; we may assign them as part of a reorganisation or sale. These Terms are the entire agreement between you and PhoneBorn regarding the Service. Contact: [email protected].