Fraud and sanctions

1. Prohibited conduct

KiftMe is built on trust and good faith. Any fraudulent or abusive conduct is strictly prohibited, including:

• Providing a fake document, a falsified document, one belonging to a third party, from another business, or showing an altered amount.
• Reusing the same document for several Kifts or several validations.
• Submitting an AI-generated or AI-edited image to simulate proof.
• Attempting to manipulate, deceive or circumvent the verification systems, including by injecting text or codes.
• Declaring an inaccurate service, business or amount to obtain an undue advantage.
• Circumventing limits, caps, checks or a suspension, in particular by creating multiple accounts.
• Colluding with a third party - recipient, loved one or business - to misuse the service (see §3).
• Using the service for illegal purposes, money laundering, or contrary to its purpose.

This list is not exhaustive. KiftMe may consider as abusive any conduct that manifestly and in bad faith circumvents the spirit of the service, assessed against objective criteria and subject to review by the courts.

2. Receipt fraud

Validation by receipt relies on automated checks and, where applicable, human reviews. These checks are not infallible: the fact that a fraud was not detected immediately does not make it lawful.

• KiftMe analyses the authenticity, consistency and uniqueness of the document - in particular through technical fingerprints, metadata and comparison with the reference - via fraud-detection systems.
• A document detected as fake, reused, AI-generated, manipulated, unpaid, cancelled or unrelated is refused.
• KiftMe may, at any time, carry out an after-the-fact check and reverse a validation already granted.
• Any receipt fraud results in the sanctions provided in §4, up to and including a permanent ban and a report to the authorities.

The exact parameters of the detection systems are not published, in order to preserve their effectiveness.

3. Collusion and arrangements

Any arrangement aimed at misusing the service is prohibited and may constitute an offence (fraud, deception). The following are in particular targeted:

• An arrangement between a Kifter and a recipient to simulate consumption and obtain an undue payout.
• An arrangement with a business to issue a complaisance document, simulate consumption, or organise a refund intended to avoid commissions.
• The use of shared devices, payment methods, bank details or accounts to circumvent checks.

KiftMe operates systems to detect networks and coordinated behaviour (recurrence of relationships, sharing of devices, addresses, payment methods or bank accounts).

A payment method (card) or a payout bank account identified as fraudulent, because it is linked to a banned account, results in the cancellation or blocking of the operation concerned: a payment made with such a card is refunded, with KiftMe retaining its fees; a payout to such an account is refused and the amount refunded to the payer. The account using it is banned.

Where collusion is established, KiftMe retains the evidence, refuses or recovers the amounts unduly paid, terminates the accounts involved and reports the matter to the competent authorities.

4. Applicable sanctions

Depending on the seriousness and repetition of the breaches, and in accordance with the principle of proportionality, KiftMe may apply one or more of the following measures:

• A warning.
• Routing to a manual review, refusal or suspension of a payout.
• Restriction or lowering of caps and limits.
• Temporary suspension of the account or of certain features.
• Permanent termination of the account (a ban), immediate and without notice in the event of a serious breach.
• Refusal of payout and refund to the payer; creation of a debt borne by the person responsible.
• For a business: suspension of activity, exclusion (offboarding) and termination.

Examples: a business found to have delivered, for a Kift, a service different from the one provided, or to have issued a complaisance document, may be permanently excluded. A user who has committed receipt fraud may be permanently banned and reported to the authorities.

5. Reporting to authorities and legal action

Fraud and collusion are not merely contractual breaches: they may constitute criminal offences.

• KiftMe reserves the right to report any fraudulent or illegal conduct to the competent administrative and judicial authorities, and to provide them with the evidence.
• KiftMe may bring any civil or criminal action and claim compensation for its loss as well as the return of the amounts unduly received.
• You remain responsible for the consequences of your fraudulent conduct, including the costs incurred by KiftMe to establish and address it.

6. Retention of evidence

For the purposes of combating fraud and, where applicable, of legal action, KiftMe retains the elements necessary to establish the facts:

• Technical fingerprints of documents, metadata, signatures and decision elements.
• Pseudonymised technical signals (device identifiers, addresses, payment methods) in a form that is not directly identifying.
• Logs of actions and decisions.

The retention periods and arrangements are set out in the Privacy Policy. These retentions are based on the legitimate interest of fraud prevention and, where applicable, on a legal obligation.