Category | Description |
Adult Content and Services | - Adult products or services (such as):
- Adult bookstores, video stores, toys
- Adult websites and content
- Adult entertainment (misc.)
- Any products on the internet containing graphic or nude content
- Audio (phone sex and adult phone conversations)
- Companion/escort services
- Dating services (sexually-oriented)
- Fetish products
- Illegal activity (e.g., child pornography, bestiality)
- Massage parlors (sexually-oriented)
- Membership, clubs, subscriptions
- Prostitution
- Gentleman’s clubs, topless bars, and strip clubs
- Video (web-based sexually oriented video)
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Restricted or Illegal Activities | - Businesses selling age or legally restricted products or services (e.g., sale of alcohol and tobacco), Internet/MOTO, including customers whose product/service may be illegal based on Local, State, or Federal Regulations, including but not limited to:
- Age-Restricted Products (i.e., alcohol sold via e-commerce without proper means of age verification)
- Tobacco Products sold via e-Commerce (without requiring or proper means to validate age)
- Prescription Medications sold via e-Commerce (without requiring or proper means to validate a prescription)
- Wire Transfers marketed via e-Commerce (without proper Anti-Money laundering policies/practices)
- Illegal drugs, substances designed to mimic illegal drugs, and/or other psychoactive products (e.g., K2, salvia divinorum, nitrate inhalers, bath salts, synthetic cannabis, herbal smoking blends, herbal incense, and HCG/HGH-like substances)
- Illegal products/services or any service providing peripheral support of illegal activities
- OFAC restricted activity
- Peptides, research chemicals
- Predatory lending businesses
- Prescription drug products sold without a prescription (e.g., contact lenses, steroids)
- Pseudo pharmaceuticals (e.g., weight-loss, anti-aging, muscle-building, sexual-stimulant supplements, colon cleansers, detox products)
- Tobacco products (including e-cigarettes), Internet/MOTO
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Fraudulent, Deceptive, or Unethical Business Practices | - Businesses with practices that can be construed to be unfair or deceptive
- Merchants engaged in any form of deceptive marketing practices, including but not limited to:
- Hidden disclosure
- Bogus claims & endorsements
- Pre-checked opt-in boxes
- Refund/Cancellation avoidance
- Poorly disclosed negative options
- Negative response marketing techniques by any type of merchant (i.e., customer is automatically charged if they don’t return the merchandise at the end of a free trial period)
- Merchants offering substantial rebates or special incentives (e.g., free gift, prize, sweepstakes, or contest) as an inducement to purchase products/services
- Merchants that have ransom-like or extortion-like basis for their business model (e.g., mugshot removal)
- Social media “click farms” (i.e., the sale of clicks/likes/reviews/endorsements on social media sites)
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Financial Services and Payment Processing | - Bail bonds
- Payday loans and unsecured loans/lines originating from non-FDIC insured banks
- Business/Investment opportunities operating as “get-rich-quick schemes” (e.g., real estate purchase with No Money Down)
- Debt consolidation and mortgage reduction/consulting services
- Money transfer and remittance businesses
- Money Service Businesses
- Third Party Payment Processors/Aggregators/Payment Service Companies (e.g., bill pay service, crowdfunding, peer-to-peer payments, digital wallets, commissary accounts) falling outside of Card Brand approved requirements (Payment Facilitators)
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Gambling and Gaming | - Fantasy sports leagues where participants receive cash or cash-equivalents or prizes with/of material value (e.g., electronics, travel, gift cards)
- Game of skill where participants receive cash or cash-equivalents or prizes with/of material value (e.g., electronics, travel, gift cards)
- Gambling involving:
- Illegal or legal gambling where the cardholder is not present when the bet is made
- Lotteries
- Illegal or legal gambling, including internet gambling
- Sports forecasting or odds making
- Off-track betting (excludes bingo, pickle cards, and raffles for charitable purposes)
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Products or Services That Foster Deception | - Counterfeit goods/replicas (i.e., knock-offs, imitations, bootlegs)
- Fake references and other services/products that foster deception (including fake IDs and government documents)
- Essay mills/paper mills (i.e., ghostwriting services that sell essays, term papers, etc. with intent that the purchaser will submit documentation as their own)
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Technology Misuse and Intellectual Property Violations | - Decryption and descrambler products including mod chips
- File sharing services
- Jammers or devices that are designed to block, jam, or interfere with cellular and personal communication devices/signals
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Other Restricted Products or Services | - Airlines
- Chain letters
- Charities without 501(c)(3) or equivalent status
- Collection agencies or firms involved in recovering/collecting past-due receivables
- Cruise lines
- Door-to-Door sales
- Embassies, Foreign Consulates, or Other Foreign Government entities
- Extended warranties
- Medical benefit packages
- Membership/Subscriptions in excess of one year (i.e., two-year, three-year, lifetime, etc.)
- Security brokers, funding portals, and other similar investment entities
- Shipping/forwarding brokers
- Timeshares
- Virtual currency that can be monetized, re-sold, or converted to physical/digital goods/services or otherwise exit the virtual world
- Weapons, ammunition, and firearm parts, Internet/MOTO
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