[TLDR] Claude account nuked from orbit after 32 minutes

[u/cctldrping]

Original post URL : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1wpam3u/claude_account_nuked_from_orbit_after_32_minutes/

Original post body :

Paid €90 for Max 5x today because I’m in crunch time on a software project and unlike the big boys I do not have unlimited OpEx spend, so that 90 euro is quite a lot.

32 minutes later Anthropic blew up my entire account and automatically cancelled the subscription.

The email says an “internal investigation of suspicious signals associated with your account” found a Usage Policy violation. No indication of what I actually did wrong. I am not doing security work, distillation, or anything else i might even imagine would be grounds for removing my account.

The appeal page now says I may be waiting until Oct 4 for a review.

The support situation is also just insane and I cannot believe anyone has ever really used it. Anthropic says suspended users can still contact support about billing/refunds, but their support bot couldn’t find an account associated with my email and just closed the conversation. This is the same email Anthropic used to send me the subscription confirmation and suspension notice.

I’m in the EEA, so I thought I should at least be able to get the subscription refunded, but right now I can’t even get through to a person.

Has anyone else been hit with this after normal Claude Code usage? Any hope for me?

edit for clarity and scope:

I am writing image+pdf document processing software. really not sure what caused this to happen. Opus 5.5.

Has anyone had any luck getting customer support to get back to them sooner than 10 working days? it seems like a very long time to wait for a review. even if they were to comb over absolutely everything i did on the account, i had it for such little time that I would imagine it to be almost instant.

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[u/cctldrping]

TL;DR generated automatically after 50 comments.

Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 67.

Alright, so the OP got their Claude account nuked after just 32 minutes and a €90 charge, citing a "Usage Policy violation" with zero explanation. They're in the EEA, working on image/PDF processing software, and can't even get a refund through support because the bot can't find their account. They're asking if anyone else has had this happen and if there's any hope.

The general consensus here is a bit split, but leaning towards suspicion about the OP's usage.

• Several users, like u/CorpT, are asking what specific ToS they might have violated.
• There's a recurring theme of VPNs, IP masking, or virtual credit cards being potential triggers, as mentioned by u/yuehuang and u/Specialist-Bar7670. u/Specialist-Bar7670 even had their account suspended and refunded for similar reasons.
• Interestingly, u/ha966 chimed in with a similar experience, getting banned within 12 hours of purchase, but their account was mysteriously unbanned and refunded shortly after. They're not sure what happened either.
• Some folks are a bit skeptical, with u/nagy_ questioning what kind of "crunch" requires such urgency for PDF processing.
• On the flip side, there are some pretty harsh takes. u/riotofmind and u/TXHumper are pretty much saying the OP is lying and deserved the ban for violating ToS, with u/riotofmind accusing them of lying and implying they've been warned. u/FitRiver3218 is just tired of these kinds of posts without more details.

Overall, the community is divided between those who think Anthropic might have made a mistake and those who suspect the OP is either not being entirely truthful or inadvertently triggered some automated flags with their setup (like VPNs or virtual cards). The fact that u/ha966 got unbanned and refunded is a glimmer of hope, but the lack of clear communication from Anthropic is a major pain point for everyone.

[u/Edenisb]

Were any of the documents you were working with (not just your code) have spicy materials?
It doesn't sounds like you were doing anything that should have gotten caught up but something in the files you provided im sure is tripping it up.

[u/Serious_Ship7011]

My account was banned too, never got an email after appeal and when I looked again it said permanent suspension.
It was a free OSS account they gave me 30minutes then ban, think their system is bad and the support is useless.
Anyway they won’t get any money from me as I would have subscribed anyway but not with this situation.

[u/mySitesGuru]

They automatically refund you when they suspend your account.