Prohibited Activities and Jurisdictions

1. Scope

1.1 What this covers. This Policy sets out the businesses, transactions, activities and jurisdictions that are prohibited or restricted on the Platform. It applies to every user and every transaction, and forms part of the Terms and Conditions at https://nelvoi.com/terms-conditions.

1.2 Where the rules come from. Three rulebooks apply at once: the law of the jurisdictions involved, the rules of the card networks, and the requirements of the licensed institution issuing the cards. A prohibition can come from any of them, and breaching one can cost the whole programme its right to operate — which is why these are enforced rather than displayed. Where a restriction is genuinely our own commercial choice, this Policy says so.

1.3 Changes. This Policy changes with sanctions designations and with guidance from bodies such as the Financial Action Task Force and the sanctions authorities of the jurisdictions we operate under. Those changes can take effect immediately and without notice, because that is how sanctions work.

Prohibited Activity

Not exhaustive. It covers what accounts for the overwhelming majority of what gets refused.

Anything illegal where it happens

Controlled substances, weapons, stolen goods or data, counterfeit products, child sexual abuse material, human trafficking. Required by law. There is no jurisdictional argument to be had here and no appeal that will succeed.

Sanctions evasion

Transactions involving sanctioned countries, entities or individuals, and any arrangement designed to disguise them. Required by law, imposed by governments, and not something any provider can grant an exception to.

Third-party and nominee use

Using an account for someone else, opening one on another person's behalf, or letting another person use yours. Required by law. Accounts are personal because verification is personal — an account operated by an unverified person defeats the entire mechanism.

Structuring

Splitting transactions to stay below reporting or verification thresholds. Required by law and an offence in most jurisdictions in its own right, independently of whatever the underlying money was.

Fraud and unauthorised transactions

Using card details you are not entitled to use, deliberate chargeback abuse, or obtaining goods with no intention of paying. Required by law and by the card networks.

Gambling, adult content and certain high-risk categories

Card networks classify some legal businesses as high-risk and issuers commonly restrict them. Where that applies, a payment declines regardless of the merchant's legality in your country. Network and issuer rule, not ours — and one we cannot override on request.

Money transmission and reselling the service

Operating a money-transfer, exchange or payment business on top of a personal account. Doing that lawfully requires its own licence, and doing it on a personal account is how an unlicensed money service business is built. Business use has its own route: corporate accounts.

Automated abuse of the service

Scripted account creation, credential stuffing, scraping and load that degrades the service for others. Our own rule, and the one restriction here we would keep even if nobody required it.

3. Prohibited Transactions

In addition to the categories above, the following transactions are not permitted: purchase or sale of controlled substances without authorisation; use of stolen, forged or unauthorised payment instruments, identity documents or credentials; funding of cybercrime, malware, hacking services or darknet marketplaces; unauthorised trade in weapons, ammunition or explosives; unlicensed online pharmacies; trafficking in personal data; unlicensed lending or debt collection; trade in endangered species or protected cultural artefacts; and any transaction designed to circumvent sanctions, export controls or reporting thresholds.

Structuring. Deliberately splitting transactions to stay below a reporting or verification threshold is itself an offence in most jurisdictions, independently of whatever the underlying money was, and it is one of the specific patterns transaction monitoring is built to detect.

Sanctions. No transaction may involve a person or entity designated on an applicable sanctions list, an entity owned or controlled by such a party, or any arrangement that would cause us or our partners to breach sanctions law.

4. Activities Requiring Enhanced Due Diligence

Some businesses are lawful but carry elevated financial-crime risk, and can be served only after enhanced due diligence and explicit approval. These include money services businesses; cryptocurrency exchanges, brokers and wallet providers; gambling, betting and gaming platforms; charities and foundations; adult content and creator monetisation platforms; dealers in precious metals, gems and high-value goods; and businesses in sectors with elevated regulatory risk.

What approval requires. Full licensing and registration with every applicable authority; a demonstrable anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist-financing programme; customer due diligence procedures; audited financial statements or equivalent; and a clean regulatory history with no unresolved actions.

Ongoing conditions. Approved higher-risk relationships are subject to periodic review and enhanced transaction monitoring, and approval can be withdrawn if the conditions on which it was given stop being met.

5. Jurisdictions We Cannot Serve

5.1 Comprehensive sanctions. No regulated provider can serve jurisdictions and territories subject to comprehensive international sanctions programmes. At the date of this Policy that includes Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria, together with occupied and non-government-controlled territories of Ukraine — Crimea, and the areas of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson that are not under Ukrainian government control. This is not our decision, it is not open to appeal, and no commercial consideration overrides it.

5.2 Extensive measures. Russia and Belarus are subject to extensive financial sanctions across the jurisdictions relevant to this programme, and cannot be served.

5.3 Additional restrictions. Beyond the above, an issuing partner's own permissions and risk appetite restrict further countries, typically including those on the Financial Action Task Force's lists of jurisdictions under increased monitoring or subject to a call for action. The complete country list depends on the issuing partner and will be published on this page before accounts open. We are not publishing a list now that we might have to contradict.

5.4 Your responsibility. You are responsible for not using the Platform in breach of these restrictions. Accounts found to be operated from, or used to route transactions to or from, a restricted jurisdiction will be suspended.

5.5 Travel is not residence. Spending abroad and being resident abroad are different questions. A short trip is not a change of residence; relocating is, and it affects which rules apply to your account. Tell us if you move.

What Happens If You Breach It

Response is proportionate. Most breaches are ambiguous rather than deliberate, and they are treated that way — with the exception of the first two categories above, where the law removes our discretion.

A transaction declines

The most common outcome by far. A payment into a restricted category simply does not go through, often with no further consequence and no mark against your account.

We ask you about it

Where activity looks inconsistent with a personal account, we ask before acting. Answering promptly usually ends the matter — most of what looks unusual has an ordinary explanation.

The account is restricted

Where a breach is serious or the explanation does not resolve it. Your balance remains yours; access to spending is suspended while it is examined.

The relationship ends

For serious or repeated breaches. Your remaining balance is returned, subject to the checks that apply to withdrawals and to any legal hold. Where the law requires a report, we are prohibited from telling you that we made one.

7. Monitoring and Enforcement

7.1 Monitoring. We and our partners operate automated and manual monitoring: transaction screening, sanctions screening of customers and counterparties, periodic account review, and analysis of patterns that suggest an attempt to circumvent a restriction.

7.2 Investigation. Where a breach is suspected we may suspend the account and hold funds, request documentation, restrict specific features, and engage external specialists. Suspension during an investigation is proportionate to the issue and is not a finding.

7.3 Consequences. A confirmed breach may result in suspension or closure of the account, reporting to regulators, financial intelligence units or law enforcement, and civil or criminal proceedings where warranted. Where the law requires a report, it also prohibits us from telling you it was made.

7.4 Cooperation. We cooperate with properly constituted requests from law enforcement and regulators, and we preserve records where an investigation requires it. We do not hand over customer data on an informal approach.

8. Your Obligations and Reporting

8.1 Obligations. Comply with this Policy and applicable law; give accurate and complete information at onboarding and afterwards; tell us promptly if your activities, ownership or regulatory status change; and cooperate with compliance requests.

8.2 Reporting. If you become aware of activity on the Platform that may breach this Policy, report it to [email protected]. Reports may be made confidentially.

8.3 If you think we got it wrong. We do. Automated rules flag ordinary things, and a card network's category classification sometimes fits a merchant badly. Write to [email protected] with the date, amount and merchant and ask for a review. Where we can change it, we will; where the restriction comes from law, a sanctions designation or a network rule, we cannot, and we will say so plainly rather than let you keep trying.