Marketplace Terms

The Lead Market is the part of LeadsByCity where independent sellers list lead files and buyers purchase them. These terms apply to every listing, every order, the chat between buyers and sellers, and the Requests board.

Sellers also agree to the Seller Agreement. Everyone agrees to the Prohibited Data Policy and the Acceptable Use rules. Refunds are described in the Refund Policy.

• You need an account to buy or sell on the Lead Market.
• Sellers pass an ID check before any payout. Business sellers also give their company details.
• You are responsible for what happens under your account. Keep your password to yourself.
• A banned account can still sign in and read its history, but it cannot buy, sell or chat.

Every Lead Market order follows the same path. The buyer’s money is held in escrow from the moment the payment is confirmed until the order is accepted or refunded.

1. 1Checkout. The buyer presses Buy now on a fixed-price listing, or accepts a custom offer. Checkout shows the price plus the 5% platform fee.
2. 2Payment. The buyer pays the invoice in USDT or USDC. An invoice stays open for 60 minutes. If it is not paid in that time it expires and the order is closed.
3. 3Funded. The order is funded only when the payment is confirmed on the network. A payment that is still waiting or confirming does not count.
4. 4Release. The file is released to the buyer’s protected viewer. Listings set to release automatically do this at once. Otherwise the seller releases the file by hand within 24 hours. If the seller does not, the order is cancelled and the buyer is refunded.
5. 5Inspection. The buyer has 48 hours from release to inspect the file. The buyer either presses Accept and download or presses Report a problem. With no action, the order is accepted automatically when the window ends.
6. 6Completion. The seller is paid only after the order has been accepted.

• Sellers set their own prices. The lowest price a listing or a custom offer can have is $20.
• The buyer pays the price plus a 5% platform fee. Checkout shows the full amount before anything is paid.
• What a seller pays is set out in the Seller Agreement.
• Payment is in USDT on Tron (TRC-20) or USDC on Solana or Base. Card payments are not available yet.

Example: on a $200 listing the buyer pays $210.

A listing shows the niche, the location, the row count, the columns, the date the data was collected, how it was collected, the quality report from the automatic checks, the seller’s level and rating, and 5 sample rows with the contact fields hidden. The full file is never shown before purchase.

During the inspection window the buyer reads the full file in a protected viewer.

• The file is shown as a paged, view-only table. Rows are drawn as images on the server, not as text that can be copied.
• Every page carries a tiled watermark with the buyer's email address, the order number and the time.
• Copy, print, right-click and export are disabled.
• Page views are rate-limited and logged.

Until an order is accepted, the buyer has only the right to inspect the file. A buyer must not copy or capture what the protected viewer shows, by any means. That includes screenshots, photographs, screen recording, typing rows out, and automated tools.

No website can block a screenshot or a phone camera, so this rule is backed by evidence instead: the watermark identifies the account, the view log shows what was opened and when, and control records show whether the data was used. Breaking this rule can lead to a rejected problem report and a banned account.

Pressing Accept and download accepts the file and ends the inspection window. Once a buyer has downloaded the file, the order can no longer be disputed or refunded on the platform.

The same is true when the 48-hour window ends without a problem report: the order is accepted automatically, and it can no longer be disputed.

During the inspection window, and before downloading, a buyer can report a problem. The buyer picks a reason and adds examples from the file. The reasons are:

• Rows short
• Wrong location or niche
• Emails invalid above the listed rate
• Duplicates
• Does not match the listing

The LeadsByCity team runs the automatic checks on the file again and reviews the report within 48 hours. The file is judged against the quality report that was on the listing when the buyer paid. There are three possible outcomes:

Released to the seller

The file matches the listing. The order is accepted and the seller is paid.

Partial refund

Part of the file is bad. The buyer gets back the share of what they paid that matches the share of bad rows. Example: if 600 of 2,400 rows are bad on a $200 order, $52.50 of the $210.00 paid goes back to the buyer.

Full refund

The file does not match the listing. Everything the buyer paid goes back to the buyer and the seller is not paid.

Refunds are sent to the refund wallet the buyer gave at checkout.

Every buyer’s copy of a file contains a few control rows that are unique to that buyer. They look like ordinary business contacts, and their email addresses are on mail domains that LeadsByCity controls. This is a long-standing practice in the list rental industry, and we disclose it here so that nobody is surprised by it.

• If a control address receives email, LeadsByCity knows that the copy issued to that buyer was used or leaked.
• If control records show that a buyer used the data while a problem report is open, the report is rejected, the seller is paid, and the buyer's account is reviewed.
• If control records show that a purchased file was leaked or resold, the account it was issued to is banned.

• A purchased file is for the buyer's own use. It must not be resold, shared or published.
• Every download comes with a licence notice and the buyer compliance guide.
• The buyer is responsible for following the email and privacy rules of the countries they send to.

• Until an order exists, the chat hides email addresses, phone numbers, links, and Telegram or WhatsApp handles.
• A deal made off the platform has no escrow, no inspection window and no problem review.
• Accounts that repeatedly try to move deals off the platform are removed.

• On a “contact for price” listing the buyer presses Request price, which opens a chat with the seller.
• The seller can send a custom offer in the chat with a price, a row count and a delivery time.
• An offer stays open for 72 hours. When the buyer accepts it and pays, the order follows the same path as a fixed-price order.
• For a custom job the seller uploads the file after the offer is accepted. The same automatic checks run before the file is released.
• Buyers can also post what they need on the Requests board. A request stays open for 14 days, and sellers answer it with offers.

When an order is final, both the buyer and the seller are asked to leave a review. Only the buyer and the seller of a real order can review each other.

• A file with prohibited data is rejected. Repeat attempts mean a ban.
• A seller who resells a copy of someone else's file can lose the listing, and repeat offenders are banned.
• A buyer who leaks or resells a purchased file is banned.
• A buyer who copies the data in the viewer and then reports a false problem has the report rejected.
• Accounts that repeatedly move deals off the platform are removed.