Evidence, not a description
What the gate actually catches.
Every verdict below came back from the live engine, not from a slide. The sentence in each card was pasted in exactly as written, and the ruling is what the checker returned.
Real estate · Fair Housing
“Charming home in a safe, family-friendly neighborhood near great schools. Perfect for families!”
- “safe neighborhood”
- “family-friendly”
- “great schools”
- “perfect for families”
Four phrases, none of them rude, all of them steering — the sentence that gets written a hundred times a month, and the one that draws a complaint.
Look again at the first flag. The sentence never says “safe neighborhood”. It says “safe, family-friendly neighborhood”, and the gate caught it anyway, because it reads a phrase whose words have been split by another clause. That is the obvious way round a word list, and it does not work here. The honest cost of that behaviour: it can occasionally stop a sentence that meant nothing by it, which is why a person reads every flag before anything changes.
Mortgage · RESPA
“Refer your buyers to me and I will pay for your marketing this quarter.”
- “pay for your marketing”
Nothing about rates, nothing exaggerated, and still refused. Paying for a referral partner’s marketing is a thing of value for referrals, which is the part people do not expect.
Investing · Reg D
“We are now accepting investors for our next deal. Only a few spots left.”
- “now accepting investors”
- “spots left”
- “our next deal”
The trap here is not hype, it is solicitation. Under a 506(b) raise, saying this in public can cost the exemption.
Contracting · storm season
“We waive your deductible on every storm claim. Free roof for qualified homeowners.”
- “we waive your deductible”
- “free roof”
The two offers that bring a contractor to a regulator’s attention faster than anything else in the trade.
Medical · treatment claims
“This treatment is clinically proven and FDA approved, with no side effects.”
- “clinically proven”
- “FDA approved”
- “no side effects”
Three claims a regulator reads as substantiation problems. “FDA approved” is usually not true of the treatment as delivered: devices are cleared, protocols are not.
Mortgage · the version that ships
“Call for a free consultation and we will quote today’s rate for your file, with the APR and terms in writing.”
Same offer, same call to action, nothing blocked. The gate is not a vocabulary ban — it is the difference between a promise you cannot keep and an invitation you can.
It is not a word filter, and this is how you can tell.
A list of banned words would refuse the sentence on the left, because the word is in it. The engine holds 29 negation words, so it reads what the sentence does with the word rather than whether the word is present.
“We cannot guarantee a closing date, and we never promise a rate before underwriting.”
Clear. “Uses ‘guarantee’ in the negative. Reads as safe, worth a glance.”
Noted, and cleared. A tool that blocked that sentence would train you to ignore it.
Run your own. The checker is free, needs no sign-in, and runs this same engine. Check a line of your copy →