Claude ban wave: five automated triggers behind account closures
The post says Anthropic banned 11.4M accounts in H1 2026 with 89.45% of appeals rejected, and lists five common triggers including third-party OAuth, VPN IP hops and plan upgrades.
Why so many paying Claude Pro & Max ($200) developers are waking up to the “Your account will remain closed” screen right now: Anthropic banned 11.4M accounts in H1 2026 (up 7.9×), and 89.45% of appeals (356K of 398K) get permanently rejected. The 5 automated triggers catching normal developers: 1️⃣ Third-party OAuth → Logging into OpenCode, Roo Code, Cline, or OpenClaw with a Pro/Max subscription instead of an API key 2️⃣ VPN & IP hops → Switching VPN nodes, using Hetzner/VPS datacenter IPs, or traveling abroad 3️⃣ Billing changes → Upgrading 5x → 20x Max or switching cards (GitHub Issue #5088) 4️⃣ Automated cron/bots → Calling consumer plans via scripts 5️⃣ Security prompts → Running cyber/red-team code without enterprise clearance Export your local `.md` context regularly once this screen hits, there is no second appeal.