Flagged account: cannot appeal — support form has no +86 SMS option, and support@github.com bounces (paying Copilot Pro subscriber)

[flydog-ai]

🏷️ Discussion Type

Product Feedback

💬 Feature/Topic Area

Account Related

Body

Note: I'm posting from a secondary account. My main account @YangYongAn posted this same request as discussion #201804, but content from that account appears to be shadow-hidden — the discussion returns 404 for logged-out visitors, so nobody can actually see it. That hiding is itself part of the problem described below.

Summary

My main account @YangYongAn was recently flagged, and I believe it's a false positive. My real problem is that every official appeal channel is unreachable for me, so I'm posting here as a last resort.

Why I can't reach support

1. Support form: it requires SMS verification, but mainland China (+86) is not in the phone country-code list. I only have a Chinese mobile number, so I cannot complete the form at all.
2. Email: messages to support@github.com bounce with a 5.7.1 policy rejection.
3. Community: posts from the flagged account are shadow-hidden (see Flagged account: can't appeal — support form has no +86 SMS option, and support@github.com bounces (paying Copilot Pro subscriber) #201804), so even asking for help publicly doesn't work from that account.

If there is any working path for users in mainland China to file an account-restoration appeal, please point me to it.

What happened

With no change in how I use GitHub, I suddenly found:

• GitHub OAuth sign-in to third-party sites no longer works.
• Copilot is locked: at github.com/settings/copilot/features almost everything shows "Your organization(s) have not enabled use of this feature" — even though the account belongs to no organizations. "Copilot Chat in GitHub.com" is disabled.

This is despite an active paid Copilot Pro (Annual) subscription (Aug 21, 2025 – Aug 20, 2026). Together these point to an account-level flag, not a Copilot-only issue.

Context

• GitHub user for 10+ years, continuous paying customer; subscribed to Copilot early and switched to the annual plan as soon as it was available.
• Ordinary individual developer usage: public repos, daily code completion. Nothing abusive.
• My guess is a location/compliance false positive: I'm based in Beijing, and accessing GitHub through different network routes may have produced inconsistent sign-in locations. I've since switched to a stable connection.
• I can provide invoice numbers, transaction IDs, and any identity/payment verification privately to GitHub staff.

Questions

1. How can a user in mainland China (no +86 in the SMS list, email bouncing) actually reach account support to appeal a flag?
2. Can anyone from GitHub help escalate this? Copilot Pro is still billed but completely unusable.

Thank you. 🙏

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[Mr-Nilarnab]

@flydog-ai

That sounds like a particularly difficult situation, especially since you've described multiple independent barriers preventing you from contacting GitHub through the normal support channels.

Based on what you've shared, this doesn't appear to be just a Copilot issue. The combination of OAuth failures, Copilot features being unavailable despite an active annual subscription, and content from your primary account reportedly being hidden all points toward an account-level restriction rather than a problem with your subscription itself.

Unfortunately, the GitHub Community cannot access account records, investigate account flags, review Trust & Safety decisions, or escalate individual cases. Those actions can only be performed by GitHub staff.

One part of your report that stands out is the inability to complete the support process itself. If the support form truly does not allow verification with a mainland China (+86) phone number, and emails to support@github.com are being rejected before they reach GitHub, then affected users may have no practical way to submit an appeal through the official channels. If confirmed, that would be an important accessibility gap in the account recovery process.

To help GitHub staff understand the issue more quickly, it may be useful to clarify a few points if you're able to share them:

• Whether the support form explicitly omits +86 from the country-code list or returns an error when you select your region.
• Whether the email rejection is immediate (SMTP 5.7.1 policy rejection) or occurs after the message is accepted.
• Whether your paid Copilot subscription is still active and being billed while the account remains restricted.
• Whether you've attempted to use GitHub Support from a different browser, device, or network with the same result.

Hopefully a GitHub staff member monitoring these discussions can determine whether your account is awaiting review and, just as importantly, whether there is an official appeal path available for users who cannot complete SMS verification due to regional limitations.

I hope you're able to regain access to your account soon.

[flydog-ai]

Hi @Mr-Nilarnab, thank you for the thoughtful reply. Happy to clarify each point:

1. Is +86 explicitly omitted from the country-code list?
Yes — explicitly omitted. On the support form's SMS verification step, the country-code dropdown simply
does not contain mainland China (+86). It's not an error after selection; the option is absent, so
verification cannot even be attempted with a Chinese mobile number.

2. Is the email rejection immediate (SMTP-level) or after acceptance?
Immediate, at SMTP time. The DSN shows the message was rejected during delivery (arrival and last-attempt
timestamps are 2 seconds apart):

Reporting-MTA: dns; googlemail.com
Final-Recipient: rfc822; support@github.com
Action: failed
Status: 5.7.1
Diagnostic-Code: smtp; The user or domain that you are sending to (or from)
has a policy that prohibited the mail that you sent.

The wording ("the response from the recipient enterprise administrator") indicates a recipient-side policy
rejection before the message ever reached a mailbox. For completeness: my sending domain initially lacked
SPF/DKIM, which I have since fixed (SPF, DKIM and DMARC now published) — but as I understand it,
support@github.com is no longer a monitored support channel regardless.

3. Is the paid Copilot subscription still active and billed?
Yes. Copilot Pro (Annual), current term Aug 21, 2025 – Aug 20, 2026, already paid in full ($100 USD,
invoice available and can be provided to staff privately). The subscription shows as active while every
Copilot feature is locked with "Your organization(s) have not enabled use of this feature" — despite the
account belonging to no organizations.

4. Different browser / device / network?
Yes — I tested with different browsers, and the result is identical: the +86 option is simply missing from
the dropdown list. This is the form's own country list, so it does not vary by environment.

To summarize the current scope of the restriction on @YangYongAn, all of the following are broken:

• Signing in to third-party services via GitHub OAuth
• Commenting or posting under any Issue
• Public visibility: my profile and public repositories return 404 for other visitors

Thanks again — hoping a staff member can confirm whether there is any appeal path that doesn't require SMS
verification with an unsupported country code.

[Mr-Nilarnab]

@flydog-ai

Thank you for providing those additional details and screenshots. They make the situation much clearer.

Based on everything you've shared, there appear to be two separate issues occurring simultaneously:

1. An account-level restriction

   • GitHub OAuth authentication to third-party services no longer works.
   • Public profile and repositories reportedly return 404 for other users.
   • Posting and commenting from the primary account appears to be restricted.
   • Copilot features are unavailable despite the account not belonging to any organization.

2. No accessible appeal path

   • The support form cannot be completed because the SMS verification flow does not offer a mainland China (+86) phone number.
   • Email to support@github.com is rejected immediately with SMTP 5.7.1, so that route is also unavailable.
   • Community posts from the affected account are reportedly hidden, preventing the issue from even reaching other users.

The billing screenshots also add important context.

They show that:

• Copilot Pro (Annual) was successfully charged.
• The subscription period is active.
• Payment history reports a successful transaction.
• The subscription has already been paid in full.

That strongly suggests this is not a billing failure or an expired subscription. Instead, the subscription exists, but the account itself appears to be restricted from using the service.

From a user perspective, that's the most concerning part: a customer with an active paid subscription has no working mechanism to request an account review because every official contact path is blocked.

At this point, I don't think anyone in the GitHub Community can resolve this directly, since community members don't have access to account flags or Trust & Safety decisions.

Hopefully a GitHub staff member can verify one or more of the following:

• Whether the account is currently under review.
• Whether there is an alternative appeal process that does not require SMS verification.
• Whether mainland China (+86) users have another supported method of identity verification.
• Whether the Copilot subscription can be suspended, refunded, or restored while the account issue is being investigated.

If the screenshots and SMTP logs are accurate, this appears to be less of an individual account problem and more of a support accessibility issue affecting users who cannot complete the current verification workflow.

I hope a GitHub staff member is able to review this case, because the evidence you've provided is detailed, reproducible, and points to a genuine gap in the current account recovery process.

[flydog-ai]

Two updates, as promised:

1. Email appeal — successfully delivered via my secondary verified email.
To be precise: my earlier bounced attempt was sent from my primary email, which is on a personal custom
domain — and in fairness, that rejection may well have been caused by my own domain's mail configuration at
the time (it lacked SPF/DKIM, which I have since fixed). This time I sent the appeal from a secondary
email address that is verified on the affected GitHub account, hosted by a mainstream mail provider. It
went through with no bounce, so the appeal has now actually reached the support mailbox. Hoping this helps
the case get picked up and speeds things up — I'll report back when I hear anything.

2. Screenshot: +86 is genuinely absent from the support form's country list.
Attached is the SMS verification step of the official support form. The country-code list is alphabetized —
it goes straight from Chile to the next entry with China (+86) missing entirely from the "C"
range. So this is not a matter of overlooking the option; it simply is not offered.

[Mr-Nilarnab]

@flydog-ai

Thank you for the update.

The successful delivery of your appeal via a verified secondary email is good news, as it means GitHub Support should now have an opportunity to review the account directly.

The screenshot is also valuable because it objectively shows that the SMS verification form does not currently list mainland China (+86) in the country-code dropdown. Assuming this reflects the current production form, it appears to be a genuine limitation of the verification workflow rather than user error.

Hopefully GitHub Support can now address both aspects:

• Review the account restriction itself.
• Confirm whether the omission of +86 is intentional or an issue with the support verification flow.

Please keep this discussion updated when you receive a response. It could help other users who encounter the same situation in the future.

I hope everything is resolved soon.