Terms of Service

1. Agreement to these Terms

These Terms of Service (“Terms”) are a legal agreement between you and Venture Matching LLC (“Venture Matching LLC,” “we,” “us” or “our”), which operates Phone Number Credit Score, the website at phonenumbercreditscore.com and its subdomains, and all related applications, APIs, reports, scores and services (together, the “Services”). Phone Number Credit Score is a brand of Venture Matching LLC.

By accessing or using the Services, creating an account, joining a waitlist, purchasing anything, or clicking to accept these Terms, you agree to these Terms and to our Privacy Policy, which is incorporated by reference. If you use the Services on behalf of a business or other organization, you represent that you are authorized to bind it, and “you” includes that organization. If you do not agree, do not use the Services.

Some Services may be subject to additional terms, order forms, product-specific certifications or policies presented when you use them (“Additional Terms”). Additional Terms form part of these Terms and control if they conflict with these Terms.

2. Our Services

We offer, or plan to offer, information products about phone numbers and the people and businesses associated with them, including:

• Phone intelligence: carrier, line type (mobile, landline or VoIP), validity, location and formatting information about a phone number.
• Caller identification: the caller ID (CNAM) name associated with a number.
• Risk and fraud indicators: proprietary scores and signals estimating the likelihood that a number is associated with fraud, spam or other risk, including scores branded “Phone Number Credit Score.”
• Background and people search: information about individuals and businesses compiled from public records, publicly available sources and commercial data providers, such as names, aliases, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, relatives and associates, and records maintained by government bodies (together with phone intelligence, caller identification and risk indicators, the “Search Products”).
• Credit products: where available, consumer credit information and credit-based scores, including FICO® Score 4, obtained from consumer reporting agencies (the “Credit Products”).

Some Services are not yet available, and we may add, change, limit or discontinue any Service, feature, data source or price at any time. Availability may depend on your location, identity verification, the type of account you hold and the requirements of our data suppliers.

3. Eligibility and accounts

• The Services are offered only to persons who are at least 18 years old and located in the United States. By using the Services you represent that you meet these requirements.
• You must give accurate, current and complete information, including when we verify your identity, and keep it up to date. We may require identity verification, business verification or other information at any time and may refuse or limit access to anyone, for any lawful reason.
• You are responsible for all activity under your account and for keeping your credentials confidential. Accounts are personal to you; you may not share, sell or transfer them. Tell us immediately at [email protected] if you suspect unauthorized use.
• You may not use the Services if we have previously suspended or terminated your access, or if you are barred from receiving them under applicable law.

4. Your permission to search: required certifications

Information about people is sensitive, and the law limits how it may be obtained and used. Each time you run a search, request a report, or obtain a score through the Services, you represent, warrant and certify that:

1. you have a lawful purpose for the search and will use the results only for that purpose;
2. you are the person who is the subject of the search, or you have obtained that person’s permission and any consent, authorization or notice required by law for the search and for your intended use of the results;
3. for Credit Products, you have a permissible purpose under the Fair Credit Reporting Act as described in section 6, including where applicable the subject’s written authorization;
4. you will not use the results for any prohibited purpose described in section 5 or section 7;
5. you will keep a record of each permission, consent or authorization you rely on for at least five (5) years after the search and will give us a copy within five (5) business days of our request; and
6. all information you provide in connection with the search is true and accurate.

We rely on these certifications. We may require you to confirm them by checkbox, electronic signature or other means before a search, and your confirmation has the same effect as a signed written certification. We may refuse any search, and may audit your compliance as described in section 12. You are solely responsible for your searches and for how you use the results.

5. Search Products are not consumer reports

Except for Credit Products, Venture Matching LLC is not a “consumer reporting agency” and Search Products are not “consumer reports,” as those terms are defined in the Fair Credit Reporting Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1681 et seq. (“FCRA”). Search Products are not provided, assembled or intended to be used as a factor in deciding a person’s eligibility for anything. You may not use any Search Product, in whole or in part, as a factor in deciding:

• eligibility for credit, loans or other financing, or the terms of credit;
• eligibility for insurance, or the rates or terms of insurance;
• employment, including hiring, promotion, reassignment, retention or volunteer placement;
• tenant screening, or eligibility for housing or other rental property;
• eligibility for a government license or benefit;
• any business transaction initiated by a consumer, or the review of an existing account; or
• any other purpose for which a consumer report may be used under the FCRA or a similar state law.

If you need a consumer report for any of these purposes, you must use a Credit Product that is offered for that purpose, or a consumer reporting agency that complies with the FCRA.

6. Credit Products, FICO® Scores and the FCRA

Credit Products contain information from consumer reports and are governed by the FCRA, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and similar state laws, and by the requirements of the consumer reporting agencies that supply them. When we provide Credit Products we act as a reseller of consumer report information. Credit Products are available only after any identity, business and permissible-purpose verification we or our suppliers require.

Permissible purpose

You may request a Credit Product only if you have a permissible purpose under section 604 of the FCRA (15 U.S.C. § 1681b), and only for that purpose. Unless an Additional Term allows another permissible purpose, this means:

• Your own information: you are the consumer the report is about, and you request it for yourself; or
• Written instructions of the consumer: the consumer the report is about has given you, before the request, written instructions authorizing you to obtain their consumer report or score for the specific purpose you identify, in a form that meets our requirements.

For each request you certify the permissible purpose, that the information will be used for no other purpose, and that you will not resell, share, or disclose it except as the FCRA allows. You agree to keep each consumer’s written authorization for at least five (5) years and to provide it to us or our suppliers on request. If you take adverse action against a consumer based in whole or in part on a Credit Product, you are responsible for giving any notice the FCRA or other law requires. You must store Credit Product information securely and dispose of it properly, as required by the FCRA’s disposal rule and our suppliers.

Warning: The FCRA provides that any person who knowingly and willfully obtains information on a consumer from a consumer reporting agency under false pretenses shall be fined under title 18 of the United States Code, imprisoned for not more than two years, or both (15 U.S.C. § 1681q). Obtaining a consumer report without a permissible purpose can also lead to civil liability to the consumer and to us.

Scores

FICO is a registered trademark of Fair Isaac Corporation in the United States and other countries. A FICO® Score is shown only where it is expressly labeled as one. Other scores, ratings and indicators we provide, including scores branded “Phone Number Credit Score,” are our own proprietary estimates. They are not FICO® Scores, are not credit scores used by lenders unless expressly stated, and may differ from scores a lender or other third party uses. A score is one view of available information at a point in time and does not guarantee any outcome.

Consumer rights

Consumers have rights under the FCRA, including the right to know what is in their file and to dispute incomplete or inaccurate information. See A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Disputes about credit information may be sent to us at [email protected] or directly to the consumer reporting agency that supplied it.

7. Prohibited uses

You agree not to use the Services, or any information obtained through them, to:

• stalk, harass, threaten, intimidate, abuse, dox, embarrass or harm anyone, or to locate or contact a person who does not want to be contacted, including a person protected by a court order;
• search for information about a minor, except as allowed by law and with the consent of the minor’s parent or legal guardian;
• commit or facilitate identity theft, fraud, impersonation, pretexting, or any unfair or deceptive practice;
• discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, age, familial status or any other protected characteristic;
• obtain or use information in violation of the FCRA, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the CAN-SPAM Act, debt collection laws, state privacy laws, or any other law;
• send unsolicited calls, texts, faxes or emails, or build or clean marketing, robocall or autodialer lists, except in compliance with applicable law;
• resell, redistribute, publish, sublicense or make available any results to anyone else, or build a competing database or product, except as an Additional Term expressly permits;
• scrape, crawl, spider, or use bots, scripts or automated means to access the Services, except through an API we provide and within its documented limits;
• circumvent, disable or interfere with security features, rate limits, usage limits, verification or access controls, or probe or test the vulnerability of our systems;
• reverse engineer, decompile or attempt to derive our scoring models, data or source code;
• upload viruses or malicious code, or interfere with the Services or other users’ use of them;
• use the Services if you are a law enforcement officer, investigator or government employee acting in that capacity, unless we have agreed to it in writing; or
• help or encourage anyone else to do any of these things.

8. Data sources and accuracy

Our information comes from public records, publicly available sources, telecommunications carriers and databases, consumer reporting agencies, commercial data suppliers and other third parties. Records can be incomplete, outdated, wrongly matched or inaccurate, and two people can share a name or a phone number can change hands. We do not create the underlying records and cannot guarantee that any result is accurate, complete, current or about the person you intend.

You must independently verify any information before relying on it. We do not provide legal, financial, credit or investigative advice, and we are not a private investigator. Results are provided “as is” as described in section 14.

9. If you are the subject of a search

If you believe information about you in our Search Products is inaccurate, or you would like to request that information about you be suppressed from our Search Products, contact us at [email protected]. We may need to verify your identity. We will honor requests as required by law and may honor others at our discretion. Suppression may not remove information from public records or third-party sources, and some information may be retained where the law requires or allows. Your privacy rights are described further in our Privacy Policy.

10. Fees, subscriptions and refunds

• Fees. You agree to pay the fees shown when you make a purchase, plus applicable taxes. Prices may change at any time; changes apply to future purchases and, for subscriptions, to the next renewal period after notice.
• Payment. Payments are processed by third-party payment processors. You authorize us and our processors to charge your payment method for all fees you incur, and you represent that you are authorized to use it.
• Subscriptions and automatic renewal. If you buy a subscription or a trial that converts to one, it renews automatically at the end of each term at the then-current price, and your payment method will be charged, until you cancel. You can cancel at any time in your account settings or by emailing [email protected]; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current term. We will give any renewal and price-change notices required by law.
• Refunds. Refunds are covered by our Refund Policy, which is part of these Terms. In short, except where it or the law says otherwise, all fees are non-refundable, including for partial terms, unused searches or credits, and searches that return limited results. A search that finds no one never uses a report. We may issue refunds or credits at our sole discretion, which does not obligate us to do so again.
• Credits. Prepaid search credits have no cash value, are not transferable, and may expire as stated at purchase.
• Disputed charges. Please contact us before disputing a charge with your bank. We may suspend accounts with unpaid balances, chargebacks or suspected payment fraud.

11. Intellectual property and license

The Services, including all software, designs, text, graphics, data compilations, scores, models and trademarks, are owned by Venture Matching LLC or its licensors and are protected by law. Subject to these Terms, we grant you a limited, revocable, non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-sublicensable license to access and use the Services and the results you obtain, solely for your own lawful purpose certified under section 4. All rights not expressly granted are reserved.

If you send us feedback or suggestions, you grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, royalty-free right to use them for any purpose without obligation to you.

12. Monitoring, audits and enforcement

We and our data suppliers may monitor, log and review use of the Services, including searches and the stated purposes for them, to protect people, comply with law and supplier requirements, and enforce these Terms. You agree to cooperate with any audit and to promptly provide records of the permissions, consents, authorizations and permissible purposes you relied on. We may report suspected unlawful activity to law enforcement or affected persons, and may disclose information about you and your use as described in our Privacy Policy.

13. Suspension and termination

We may suspend, limit or terminate your access to any or all of the Services at any time, with or without notice, for any reason, including if we believe you have violated these Terms or the law, failed an audit or verification, or created risk for us, our suppliers or others. You may stop using the Services at any time. Sections that by their nature should survive termination will survive, including sections 4–9 and 11–20. Termination does not entitle you to a refund except where required by law.

14. Disclaimers

To the fullest extent permitted by law, the Services and all information, reports and scores are provided “as is” and “as available,” with all faults and without warranties of any kind, whether express, implied or statutory, including any warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, title, non-infringement, accuracy, completeness, timeliness, or that the Services will be uninterrupted, secure or error-free. Venture Matching LLC does not warrant the identity, character, background or intentions of any person, or any result you obtain by using the Services.

15. Limitation of liability

To the fullest extent permitted by law, Venture Matching LLC and its members, managers, officers, employees, agents, suppliers and licensors will not be liable for any indirect, incidental, special, consequential, exemplary or punitive damages, or for any loss of profits, revenue, data, goodwill or business opportunity, arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services, even if advised of the possibility of such damages. Our total liability for all claims arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Services will not exceed the greater of (a) the amounts you paid us for the Services in the twelve (12) months before the event giving rise to the claim, or (b) one hundred U.S. dollars ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow certain disclaimers or limitations, so some of the above may not apply to you. Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot be limited under applicable law, including rights a consumer has under the FCRA that cannot be waived.

16. Indemnification

You will defend, indemnify and hold harmless Venture Matching LLC and its members, managers, officers, employees, agents, suppliers and licensors from and against all claims, demands, investigations, losses, liabilities, damages, fines, penalties, costs and expenses (including reasonable attorneys’ fees) arising out of or relating to: (a) your use or misuse of the Services or any information obtained through them; (b) any certification you make, or any permission, consent or permissible purpose you claim, that is false or insufficient; (c) your violation of these Terms or of any law, including the FCRA; or (d) your violation of anyone’s rights. We may control the defense of any matter, at your expense, and you will cooperate with us.

17. Dispute resolution, arbitration and class action waiver

This section requires you to resolve disputes with us through individual arbitration, not in court or as part of a class. You may opt out within 30 days, as explained below.

Informal resolution first

Before starting any arbitration or court proceeding, you and we agree to try to resolve the dispute informally. You must send a written notice to [email protected] with your name, account email, a description of the dispute and the relief you want. We will send any notice to the email address associated with your account. Neither party may start a proceeding until 60 days after the notice is received, and any limitations period is tolled during those 60 days.

Agreement to arbitrate

You and Venture Matching LLC agree that any dispute, claim or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms, the Services, or your relationship with us, whether based in contract, tort, statute, fraud, misrepresentation or any other legal theory, and whether it arose before or after you agreed to these Terms (a “Dispute”), will be resolved by final and binding individual arbitration. The arbitrator, not any court, decides all questions about the scope, validity, enforceability and arbitrability of this section, except that a court decides questions about the class action waiver and the batch procedures below.

Arbitration will be administered by the American Arbitration Association (“AAA”) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules (or, if you use the Services for business purposes, its Commercial Arbitration Rules) in effect when the arbitration is filed, as modified by this section. The arbitration will be held by video or telephone, or on written submissions, unless the arbitrator decides an in-person hearing is necessary, in which case it will be held in the county where you live. Payment of filing and arbitrator fees will be governed by the AAA rules. The arbitrator may award the same individual relief a court could, but only in favor of the individual party seeking relief and only to the extent necessary for that party’s individual claim. The Federal Arbitration Act governs this section.

Exceptions

Either party may bring an individual claim in small claims court if it qualifies and stays there. Either party may also seek injunctive or other equitable relief in court to protect its intellectual property or to stop unauthorized access to or misuse of the Services or data.

Class action and jury trial waiver

You and Venture Matching LLC each agree that disputes will be brought only in an individual capacity, and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, consolidated, representative or private attorney general proceeding. The arbitrator may not consolidate more than one person’s claims. You and we each waive any right to a jury trial.

Mass filings

If 25 or more similar demands for arbitration are filed against us by or with the help of the same or coordinated counsel, they will be administered in batches of up to 25, with one arbitrator per batch, and only one batch will proceed at a time. The parties will cooperate in good faith with the AAA to implement this process, and any limitations period is tolled for claims awaiting their batch.

30-day right to opt out

You may opt out of this agreement to arbitrate by emailing [email protected] within 30 days after you first accept these Terms, with your name, account email and a clear statement that you opt out of arbitration. Opting out does not affect any other part of these Terms.

If arbitration does not apply

If you opt out, if this section is found unenforceable for a Dispute, or for claims within the exceptions above, the Dispute will be decided exclusively by the state or federal courts located in the State of Delaware, and you and we consent to their personal jurisdiction. If the class action waiver is found unenforceable for a claim, that claim must be severed and decided in court, and not in arbitration.

Governing law and time limit

These Terms are governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, applicable federal law, and the laws of the State of Delaware, without regard to its conflict-of-laws rules. To the extent permitted by law, any Dispute must be brought within one (1) year after it arose, or it is permanently barred.

18. Electronic communications

You consent to receive agreements, notices, disclosures, receipts and other communications from us electronically, by email or through the Services, and agree that they satisfy any legal requirement that they be in writing. Your electronic acceptance of these Terms, and your electronic certifications, have the same effect as a handwritten signature. You may withdraw this consent by closing your account. Marketing communications are described in our Privacy Policy.

19. Changes to the Services and these Terms

We may change these Terms at any time. We will post the updated Terms here with a new “Last updated” date and, for material changes, may also notify you by email or through the Services. Changes take effect when posted unless we say otherwise, and your continued use of the Services after that means you accept them. Changes to the dispute resolution section will not apply to Disputes of which we had notice before the change.

20. General terms

• Entire agreement. These Terms, the Privacy Policy and any Additional Terms are the entire agreement between you and us about the Services and supersede any prior agreements.
• Severability. If any provision is held unenforceable, it will be enforced to the maximum extent possible and the rest will remain in effect.
• No waiver. Our failure to enforce any provision is not a waiver of our right to do so later.
• Assignment. You may not assign or transfer these Terms without our prior written consent. We may assign them without restriction, including in connection with a merger, acquisition, reorganization or sale of assets.
• Force majeure. We are not liable for any delay or failure caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including outages of our suppliers, carriers or data sources.
• Relationship. No agency, partnership, joint venture or employment relationship is created by these Terms.
• Third parties. Our data suppliers are intended third-party beneficiaries of the sections of these Terms that protect their data, and may enforce them. There are no other third-party beneficiaries.
• Export and location. The Services are intended for use in the United States only, and we make no representation that they are lawful or appropriate elsewhere.
• Headings. Headings are for convenience only. “Including” means “including without limitation.”

21. Contact us

Venture Matching LLC
United States
[email protected]