Policy on Reporting Abuse

1. Introduction

Budget Proxies ("we", "us", "our") treats abuse of our network as a serious matter. We build these proxies for honest, privacy-minded work, and the great majority of our customers use them responsibly. Break that trust and we would rather hear about it quickly, so we can investigate and act. Set out on this page: how to report abuse, what to put in the report, how fast we reply, and how we approach takedowns and cooperation with the authorities. It sits alongside our Acceptable Use Policy and Proxy Usage Policy.

2. Our commitment

Running a network that gives abuse nowhere to hide is what we are set on. Every credible report that reaches us gets looked into. Confirmed, serious abuse meets firm action, and valid legal requests get our cooperation. Fairness matters here too: we weigh the evidence, we let an account holder answer where the case is less clear-cut, and we shield anyone who reports abuse in good faith. Nobody tackles abuse alone. A prompt report with solid evidence behind it remains far and away the most effective help you can give us in protecting the network and the wider internet.

3. How to report abuse

Email your report across to us at [email protected]. To help us pin down the account at fault and reply quickly, please use a clear subject line such as "Abuse report" and write in English where you can.

4. What to include

The quality of an abuse report decides how fast we can move on it. Customer traffic goes unlogged here, which makes the evidence you supply vital to tracing activity back to an account. Please send as much of the following as you are able to:

• The source IP address tied to the activity.
• Timestamps for each event, ideally in UTC and with the time zone noted.
• Relevant log excerpts (raw and unedited where possible) showing the activity.
• A straightforward description of the abuse, and of the harm that resulted from it.
• Any further evidence — headers, request details, screenshots or message contents, for example.
• Your contact details, so we can come back to you if any point needs clearing up.

5. Response times

Our aim is to acknowledge every abuse report inside one business day. How long an investigation takes depends on how involved the report is and the evidence supplied, but confirmed, serious abuse goes to the front of the queue and is acted on as fast as we can. We will keep a good-faith reporter posted on the outcome where it is appropriate and lawful to do so.

6. Our investigation process

Every report that lands with us goes through the same steady process, so each case is judged fairly and on its evidence:

• We acknowledge the report and may ask for clarification or extra evidence.
• Our operational and billing records come out first, and we check the IP addresses and timestamps in your report for a match against one account.
• Where a case is less clear-cut, we may put it to the account holder for an explanation before deciding.
• We judge whether the activity breaks our Acceptable Use Policy or the law.
• Action follows in proportion, and where it is appropriate and lawful we tell the reporter the outcome.

No log of customer traffic exists on our side, so the strength of your evidence shapes how confidently, and how quickly, we can trace activity back to an account.

7. Actions we take

Once abuse is confirmed, whatever we do is scaled to its seriousness, and it may include:

• A warning and a demand to stop the activity straight away.
• Suspension of the relevant proxies or the account to halt ongoing harm, sometimes without warning for clear, serious abuse.
• Closure of the account for serious or repeated abuse, without refund, in keeping with our Acceptable Use Policy and Refund & Replacement Policy.
• Referral to the relevant authorities where the activity looks unlawful.

8. Working with law enforcement and with legal requests

We cooperate with valid legal requests and with law-enforcement investigations. Send the request on official letterhead, or through the proper legal channel, and name the IP addresses, the timestamps and the information you are seeking. Lawful requests get an answer from us in keeping with the applicable law and with our Privacy Policy, and unless the law prevents us, we may inform the affected account holder.

9. What data we can hand over, and what we cannot

Best to be plain here about what you can expect: we run a no-traffic-logs network. We do not record the content of the requests our customers route through the service, so we cannot produce traffic logs, browsing histories or the substance of any session — those records simply do not exist. In answer to a valid request, what we can hand over is limited to the account, billing and operational metadata we genuinely hold, such as account details, payment records and the limited connection metadata needed to run the service. We will not invent or piece together data we do not keep.

10. Good-faith reports, and no retaliation

Nobody who reports suspected abuse in good faith faces retaliation from us, and no customer gets punished for raising a genuine concern about the way our network is being used. Reports stay confidential, as far as the law and the investigation allow. Honesty is the one thing we ask in return; a report known to be false, or made out of malice, carries no protection.

11. Repeat offenders

Customers who abuse the network over and over, or who open fresh accounts to dodge enforcement, get no patience from us. Where abuse is repeated or flagrant, the account closes permanently, any allowance still sitting on it is lost with no refund, and the matter goes to the authorities where that is appropriate. Service may also be refused to individuals or organisations we have removed for abuse before.

12. Changes to this policy

From time to time we may revise this Abuse Reporting Policy, keeping pace with changes to our service, to our processes, or to the law. Anything significant shows in the "Last updated" date at the top of this page. Carry on using the service after an update and you accept the revised policy.

13. Contact

General enquiries, the ones that are not abuse reports, should go through our contact page. For abuse and security matters, email [email protected] directly so your report lands with the right team.