I register an account, when i type phone number and watting for get code, it show that “Your account was flagged for potential abuse. If you feel this is an error, please contact us at help.openai.com”. How can I fix that. I can’t register by any mail.
30 Likes
Same problem. And I can’t write anything in help.openai.com
7 Likes
Yeah, I have also been experiencing this issue - there are no help articles that address this, and the chat doesn’t seem to have an option for it either.
5 Likes
Your account was flagged for potential abuse. If you feel this is an error, please contact us at help.openai.com, please advise.
3 Likes
How can we contact help.openai.com because it does not work without log in and the log in does not work 
5 Likes
This is not the case for all of you, but it is a general procedure:
first thing is to check this site: look for the region you’re trying to access your OpenAI account, ChatGPT, etc.:
Supported countries and territories
Even so, there are cases of local blocking of OpenAI services in a supported country: the most recent example is Italy - listed as a supported country, but the access was suspended by the local Government.
If you can’t find the country or region you’re accessing from on the list or it is under local blocking/suspension, there are some turnarounds - such as VPN. However, some of these VPNs are blacklisted in Cloudflare Login system - not all VPNs could access OpenAI services. There are some reliable VPN services but some of them can provide your current location and network - if requested. In the same example of Italy - the users can access through a reliable VPN, usually American and Western European ones since Italy is a supported country.
When you register an account directly to OpenAI, it is accepted because OpenAI doesn’t check your network address - only the data you provided. After that, a third-party system Cloudflare, not OpenAI, performs all login and security management. Your account is recognized as existent, but it is trying to access from a non-supported region or country - it is considered as an “abuse” by Cloudflare.
Some anti-viruses use VPNs underneath their activities, such as Norton. If the country you are in is a supported one, you’re not using any VPN, then check if your anti-viruses are using a VPN, turn off the VPN or the anti-virus, and try to access again.
In the same cases as above, check your browser: it must be updated for security reasons - no older versions are accepted, and no fake user-agent extensions are accepted - and, as always, clean the cache and cookies - the latter is the most important because cookies hold the previous “abusive” login information - and Cloudflare read them. Once you delete cookies, it is similar to logging in for the first time with that computer/browser.
In this forum, we understand how frustrating could be for a potential user under these circumstances. Keep in mind this is a new technology under the scrutiny of national security organizations not from one country only - that makes it difficult for people like us to have free and open access to our enthusiasm with this technology.
Please advise if you could access it successfully or if you found some other issues - it will help others.
5 Likes
so how can I contact the support? The chat option comes only with some preconfigured question and there is no topic matching the issue
2 Likes
btw. non of that helped, I tried all of those options and non does apply
Contact Support: If none of the above solutions work, the best option may be to contact ChatGPT support directly. They can help you troubleshoot the issue and provide a solution that is specific to your situation. You can contact support via email, chat, or phone, depending on their available support channels.
is the only option here which might help, but there is no support 
5 Likes
same here, this is total nonsense. I tried to create an account for the first time using Google account login and then provided my phone number, and already at this stage, I get an error “for potential abuse”, and it’s not even clear how to contact support. WTF?!
4 Likes
Yes, it is true.
Unfortunately, we don’t see the OpenAI Support for weeks by now. Some say since February.
Sometimes, the Forum administrators were supportive of posting procedures and solutions for the most technical cases. But even those contacted by private messages had no replies at all - some forum cases are open for 3 weeks now.
In the help.openai.com there is chat/message window - never responded - nobody knows if it was designed for humans or an AI to respond.
After the GPT-4 release, Support was missing even for individual or small business paid accounts, OpenAI gave more and more access to the older models for the general public. And then the last weeks this Forum was flooded with cases like these - “I don’t access this…”, “I paid the subscription but I can’t…”, etc. - most of them free accounts.
When this Forum was founded, its primary goal was to get new ideas and developments for AI and to support AI developers on another level. Now, most of the supporters are wasted helping new users - the Forum became a kind of discount support - every supporter here is doing a “payless job”. Some believe this will get over soon and everything will be back to normal again.
You are very welcome to find the Support as it should be. We appreciate it if you please advise how could you find it.
2 Likes
Same here, i was just trying to create a new account today and recieved the same message
3 Likes
I have the same problem, please help. How to contact support
4 Likes
Facing the same issue here, mark as if any update came out.
2 Likes
same，i even bought a new phone card, but it still dosent work.
3 Likes
Same here I was using a new phone number too. But there seems to be no phone helpline neither. I’m gonna wait 24hrs to see if my phone number can be used again because I’m about to tear out my hair in anger.
4 Likes
I don’t know why specifically this platform is full of problems!!! You try to pay Plus you face error “card declined”… You try open account you face "signup currently not available " You try again you face "your account flagged… " After hundreds of tries you enter account you try to write something to chat you get “something was wrong please contact support” ppffff oh god that’s crazy
3 Likes
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We made some research about this “flagged for potential abuse” issue, and we just noticed some similarities (or coincidences) in the:
- Hardware: computer, cell phone (maker and model), etc.;
- Software: operating system (Windows, Android, etc.) and browser (Chrome, Edge, Firefox, etc.);
- Connection configuration: WiFi, Mobile data (3G, 4G, 5G), VPN, etc.;
- Email domain: connected to the account (for example @myemaildomain.com.xx);
- ISP domain: when trying to access the account (for example myisp.net.yy);
- VPN domain: if used (for example myvpn.com.zz);
For both: to create (if successful) or to access an OpenAI account. But we don’t have data enough to confirm.
We suppose, but we are not sure, that the Supported Countries List may affect even more than the user’s current location only. It may affect for example cell phone makers and connection configuration with 5G with technologies made or provided by non-supported countries. Please read my previous post above.
If someone could remember some events in the last 2 years, a famous 5G cell phone maker from a non-supported country had issues related to the national security of some supported countries - these issues were not well resolved, and probably, such hardware and connection configuration are not considered “trusted”. We can’t say for sure.
Please remind this is a sensitive technology under scrutiny by security organizations. Cloudflare at the service of OpenAI demands full identification from the users and their access platforms, for high-level security reasons.
If you are in a supported country but your account is flagged - a good suggestion is to create or open your account on a plain and clean computer with simple software, let’s say a Windows, Chrome, or Edge browser on a WiFi network with no VPN at first. Preferred using a Google or Microsoft account to be connected to OpenAI account.
Then you can try more “risky” forms of access - but maybe your account will be flagged.
About Credit Cards:
For those with credit card problems (not accepted) - a good suggestion is to try a free account OpenAI before the paid one. It is known that many credit cards in India were not accepted for unknown reasons a few weeks ago - not sure if the issue was fixed. More recently it was noticed that few virtual banks or virtual credit cards in Canada were not accepted as well.
We are open to any ideas: how can we be sure about these assumptions?
1 Like
Yes but the annoying thing is I wish it would tell us the reason to being flagged then we could fix our mistakes because I’m not sure what I did wrong unless I get told why my account was flagged
3 Likes
This is such a joke.
Tried to sign up using my own email and phone number, flagged for abuse when I pressed the button to send the sms verification. Went through the account creation flow without a vpn, on my long-standing Comcast gig home internet. My cell provider is T-Mobile US, the account is about 8 years old, has multiple lines and is in good standing. Tried again with another email and the account was flagged before even entering cell.
Either I was flagged due to my email address being at a personally owned domain or having a tmo cell phone. Cute, OpenAI. What a misnomer.
Guessing you should sign up with a yahoo or gmail account first try. Maybe change carriers if you’re on tmo (/s).
Hope the above information helps others.
3 Likes
You guys living in the supported countries right? If you have tried with your wifi before, use mobile data to see if that makes any difference.
-
Mobile data IP addresses are assigned by the mobile provider for as long as the device is connected. The addresses are publicly visible and reachable addresses on the Internet.
-
Wifi IP addresses are assigned by the DHCP server used by the WiFi network.
2 Likes