Why this page exists.
SenteMe is a tool for pooling money from a real-world group for a real-world reason. That is a narrow product, and the licensed payment rails that make it possible come with strict rules about what they will and will not process, rules SenteMe enforces on top of its own. This page spells out the boundary so you do not start a campaign, post content, or behave in a way that gets the campaign paused, your account closed, or, in serious cases, funds reversed. The rules below apply to coordinators, contributors, and anyone using a public link.
Causes you cannot run a campaign for.
These are blanket prohibitions: SenteMe's standing prohibited-category list, which mirrors the standard restrictions every licensed mobile-money aggregator enforces, plus our own additions. We will not process contributions or disbursements for: sanctioned entities or persons on US, UN, or EU sanctions lists; gambling, betting, or any form of online wagering; controlled drugs or substances (including non-prescription supplements making medical claims); pyramid schemes, multi-level marketing, or "passive income" / "get rich quick" programmes; weapons, defence equipment, or paramilitary supplies; escort, sex work, or adult-content subscriptions; pharmacies or medical products not registered in the user's jurisdiction; shell companies, including those set up only to receive campaign proceeds; counterfeit or trademark-infringing goods; or unregistered charities soliciting contributions as if they were registered. If your campaign falls into any of these categories, do not start it on SenteMe, we will pause it and refund contributors. We do not negotiate exceptions on these.
Fraud and misrepresentation.
You cannot impersonate someone else, a public figure, a bereaved family member, a charity, or any real person who has not consented to you campaign in their name. You cannot fabricate the cause of a campaign (an emergency that did not happen, a beneficiary that does not exist, a target amount that bears no relation to the actual need). You cannot inflate contributor counts or running totals with fake contributions, including from accounts you control or from collusion with a steward. If we have a reasonable basis to believe a campaign is fraudulent, we will pause disbursements while we investigate and may refund contributors. We will share evidence with law-enforcement agencies when we are required to.
Cover photos.
Every campaign must have a cover photo that genuinely reflects the cause, the person, family, project, equipment, or event the contributions support. Stock-photo placeholders, screenshots from elsewhere on the internet, and AI-generated images are not allowed. AI-generated images in particular are an easy way to fabricate a beneficiary or invent a scene that never happened, and we treat them the same way we treat any other form of misrepresentation: the campaign is removed and the coordinator's account is reviewed. If you do not have a photo, take one, a real shot from a phone is always more trustworthy than a polished synthetic one.
Harassment, threats, and hateful content.
Campaign pages, contribution names, updates, and any other text you post on SenteMe must not target a person or group with harassment, threats of violence, sexual content involving minors, or content that promotes hate or violence against people based on their ethnicity, religion, nationality, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, or any other protected characteristic. This applies to the public-facing text and to anything you send to other users through SenteMe messaging when that ships. Repeated or severe violations close the account.
Spam, mass solicitation, and platform abuse.
SenteMe is designed for groups that already know each other in real life. Mass-broadcasting campaign links to people who have no prior connection to the cause, especially across WhatsApp groups, social-media platforms, or email lists you do not own, is platform abuse and a frequent vector for fraud. We monitor for sudden inbound traffic from suspicious sources and will pause a campaign if the contribution pattern looks bought, paid for, or coordinated. Similarly, using SenteMe to test payment cards, probe rails, or recycle the same beneficiary phone across many short-lived campaigns all trips the abuse detection and is not allowed.
Rules about who can be a beneficiary.
For personal-cause campaigns (medical, funeral, send-off, wedding), the beneficiary must be a real person and you must either be them, be authorised by them, or be an immediate family member acting in good faith. For foundation, business, or community campaigns, the beneficiary must be a real organisation or project that the coordinator can document. When the amount disbursed to a single beneficiary in a calendar quarter exceeds roughly USD 500 to USD 2,000 equivalent (the exact threshold varies by country), we are required to KYC the beneficiary, that means ID, payment reference, and proof of the relationship. Coordinators who cannot complete this when asked will see further disbursements paused.
Technical abuse of the platform.
Do not attempt to bypass our rate limits, scrape contributor data beyond what is public, automate account creation, exploit a security vulnerability without reporting it, or use SenteMe APIs in a way the documentation does not describe. Security researchers acting in good faith should email [email protected] before testing, we will scope a coordinate-disclosure window so neither side has to react to an incident in public.
What happens when these rules are broken.
For first or borderline incidents (a vague campaign description, a flagged keyword) we contact the coordinator and ask for clarification or a correction. For clear violations of a prohibited category, fraud, or harassment we pause the campaign immediately, freeze the available balance, and notify contributors that disbursement is on hold while we investigate. Confirmed violations close the account, refund pending contributions where we can, and may be reported to our payment partners or to law-enforcement depending on severity. Coordinators with a closed account cannot create a new one under a different email, we de-duplicate on the mobile-money payout number, which is hard to fake.
How to report a campaign.
If you see a SenteMe campaign that violates this policy, fraud, a prohibited category, harassment, an impersonation, email [email protected] with the link and a one-sentence description of what is wrong. You do not need to be a contributor to that campaign to report it. Reports are reviewed within two business days; severe or time-sensitive cases (active fraud) get an out-of-hours response. We never disclose who reported a campaign unless we are legally compelled to.
When this page changes.
Prohibited-category lists move when our payment partners update their own AML / CFT policies, when an operating-country regulator publishes new guidance, or when we add new constraints based on what we see. When we make a substantive change we email all coordinators and post a banner on the dashboard at least seven days before it takes effect. The "Last updated" date at the top of this page changes any time the page changes.
