What 'Acceptable Use' Means for a Random Address Generator
'Acceptable use' for a random address generator means synthetic, non-deliverable test data used inside a development or testing environment, never data presented to a real system as if it described a real person or place. Fake Addresses is built for QA engineers populating a staging database, developers seeding a demo environment, and anyone needing sample data for a spreadsheet, a mockup, or a load test.
The tool works the same way regardless of what a visitor intends to do with the output, because there is no way to verify intent at generation time — the acceptable-use rule exists precisely because the software cannot enforce it technically, only describe it clearly and refuse to pretend the risk doesn't exist. This is the same reason the rule is published here in plain view, not buried inside a longer terms-of-service document nobody reads.
Every use case Fake Addresses was actually built for — CI fixtures, demo data, load testing, edge-case testing — sits comfortably inside the acceptable-use rule below without needing an exception or a special case. If a use case requires the generated data to be mistaken for a real person's real information by a system that depends on it being real, it was never an acceptable use in the first place, and no wording change would make it one.
Prohibited uses of Fake Addresses test dataProhibited use
Do not use these addresses to deceive anyone. Do not use them on government forms, tax filings, financial or KYC applications, school-enrolment records, voter registration, insurance claims, shipping labels, or anywhere a truthful address is legally required. In the US, using a fictitious address to defraud through the mail is a federal crime under 18 U.S.C. § 1342.
Why Each Prohibited Use Is Prohibited
Fake Addresses prohibits seven specific categories of use for one shared reason: each recipient system is entitled to a truthful answer to a factual question, and a generated test address is never that answer. Government forms and tax filings top the prohibited-use list because a false address on either one is a direct misrepresentation to a government agency, frequently backed by its own separate false-statement statute independent of anything postal-related. Financial and KYC applications are prohibited for the same reason banks and lenders run address checks in the first place — to confirm who they are actually extending credit or opening an account for.
School-enrolment records and voter registration both tie a benefit — a school seat, a ballot — to a real residential address, and a fictitious address on either one is a residency-fraud problem regardless of whether mail fraud is also involved. Insurance claims often use a policyholder's address to determine coverage territory or risk rating, so a false address can itself be the misrepresentation that voids a claim.
Shipping labels are the most literal case: a package addressed to a non-deliverable, deliberately synthetic address will not arrive, and using one specifically to receive goods under a false identity is exactly the pattern 18 U.S.C. § 1342 was written to reach when the postal system carries it.
None of these categories are prohibited because the address format is wrong — Fake Addresses output is postal-format-valid in every case. They are prohibited because the recipient system is entitled to a truthful answer to a factual question, and a generated test address is never that answer.
Reporting Misuse and Consequences
Reporting misuse of Fake Addresses — a case where generated output is being used to defraud a real system — can be sent to hello@fakeaddresses.com. Reports involving an active crime should also go to local law enforcement or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service directly, since Fake Addresses has no investigative authority of its own.
Consequences for violating this policy include losing API access: the published rate limit can be tightened or revoked for a specific caller pattern associated with abuse, even though the API requires no account today. Fake Addresses also reserves the right to add technical friction — additional rate limiting, CAPTCHA challenges, blocked ranges — if a pattern of abuse against the acceptable-use rule is detected at scale.
The legal consequences described in the flagship guide on 18 U.S.C. § 1342 apply independently of anything Fake Addresses does or does not do technically. Using generated output to defraud a real person, business, or government system carries the legal risk that guide describes, regardless of whether Fake Addresses ever notices the misuse at all.
Fake Addresses does not, and cannot, monitor every use of publicly generated output after the fact. The acceptable-use rule is the boundary of what the tool is built and licensed for, not a promise of active enforcement against every violation.
Frequently asked questions
Can I get in trouble for using Fake Addresses?
Not for generating or testing with the data itself. Trouble follows from how the data is used — submitting it to a real government form, financial application, or shipping label is what the Acceptable Use policy and, in the U.S., 18 U.S.C. § 1342 actually prohibit.
How do I report someone misusing Fake Addresses' output?
Email hello@fakeaddresses.com with what you observed. If the misuse involves an active crime, such as mail fraud, also contact local law enforcement or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service directly — Fake Addresses can restrict API access but has no investigative authority.