Community guidelines

• Report what happened to you, with the number it came from.
• Pick the patterns that fit. Leave out the ones that don't, even if they'd make it look worse.
• Keep the note about what they did and said. "Asked me to buy gift cards after two days of chatting" is exactly right.
• Report a number even if you didn't lose anything. A pattern is most useful before it costs someone.
• Flag reports that break these rules. It takes a few seconds and a person reads it.
• Treat everything here as one signal, unverified. Numbers get spoofed and reassigned.

• Don't identify anyone. No names, handles, emails, addresses, workplaces, schools, photos, license plates, or other phone numbers in the note. The form refuses most of these; describing someone closely enough to identify them counts too.
• Don't report things you didn't experience yourself. A friend's screenshot, a story from a group chat: ask them to report it.
• Don't file false or retaliatory reports about an ex, a rival, a neighbor, or a business you're annoyed with. That's the fastest way to be removed and blocked.
• Don't report the same thing twice, or from several accounts or connections.
• Don't use the site to find, contact, threaten, or "warn" the person behind a number.
• Don't describe someone's race, religion, disability, or similar. It's never a pattern, and it comes down.
• Don't put your own contact details in a note. Notes are public.
• Don't scrape or bulk-download the site.

• Unverified. The default, and where most reports stay. Nobody here has checked it. It's one person's account.
• Reviewed. A moderator read it and it follows the rules. That doesn't mean it's true; it means it's about behavior and doesn't identify anyone. Reviewed reports count a little more toward the signal level.
• Disputed. Someone with a stake in the number, usually its owner, told us it's wrong and we're looking. The report stays visible with the label, and counts much less.
• Removed. Hidden everywhere and doesn't count. We keep the record so we can explain the decision later, and never show it again.
• Held. Not shown yet. The number was getting a burst of reports, or the form was sent faster than a person could fill it in, so a person looks first.

Some of it is automatic and happens before a report is saved:

• Notes with names, contact details, addresses, workplaces, or links are refused.
• Rate limits: 5 reports per 15 minutes, 20 a day, one per number per person per month.
• Bursts of reports on one number from different people within an hour are held for a look.
• Forms sent faster than a person could fill them in are held.

The rest is people. A moderator reviews flags, held reports, and disputes, and the response scales with the problem:

1. Label it (reviewed or disputed) so readers know how to weigh it.
2. Redact the part that breaks the rules and keep the rest.
3. Remove the report.
4. Take the number's page down. That hides every report on it and stops new ones.
5. Restrict the account or connection that keeps breaking the rules.

Every action is logged with a reason. If your report is removed and you have an account, its status shows under Account. If you think we got it wrong, email hello@beforeyoupickup.com and say which report.

On any report, choose Flag. Pick the reason that fits best (it's about you and it's wrong, it identifies someone, harassment, a threat, spam, something else), add a line if you like, and send it. No account needed. One flag per person per report is enough; a person reads it either way. For anything urgent, email abuse@beforeyoupickup.com with the link.

If your number, or a number belonging to someone you know, is listed and it shouldn't be, go to Dispute or remove a listing. Enter the number, say how you're connected to it, give us an email to reply to, and tell us what's wrong: how long you've had the number, and whether you know why it might have been reported. It's free and doesn't need an account.

While we look, we may mark the reports disputed. Then a person decides whether to keep them, remove some or all, or take the page down, and tells you which. We aim to answer within a few business days. We can't tell you who reported the number.