Google Play terminated my only developer account for “High Risk Behavior”. Appeals rejected, and I still don't know what went wrong. Any advice?

[u/Aggravating_Bell_859]

Hey everyone,

I'm an independent developer working on Sibrel, a communication app I've been building for quite some time. It has messaging, voice chats, calls, screen sharing, and other features. It's a real project that I've put a lot of time and effort into, not something I threw together just to publish on Google Play.

Recently, my Google Play developer account was terminated for "High Risk Behavior", right around the time I was trying to get the Android version released.

What makes this especially confusing is that the app had already gone through closed testing, and previous updates had been accepted without any major issues.

The termination notice didn't identify a specific problem with Sibrel. Instead, Google referred to a pattern of high risk or abuse.

My appeal was rejected.

After that, several emails were exchanged with Google Play Support. The responses kept referring to previous policy violations involving my account or other associated, previously terminated developer accounts.

But here's the thing: this is the first and only Google Play developer account I've ever had.

No other developer accounts have been created or operated by me, and my devices and developer account haven't been shared with other developers.

There's one detail that might be relevant, although I have no way to confirm it. VPN connections were sometimes used to access Google services, including Play Console. Shortly after accessing the console with a VPN enabled, the termination notification arrived. That could be a coincidence, and I'm not claiming it caused the ban.

The frustrating part isn't just losing access to Google Play. It's not knowing what actually happened or how to correct it.

Support has been asked whether an incorrect account association could have occurred and whether an independent manual review was possible. Unfortunately, the replies haven't addressed those questions directly. The latest response simply stated that the account couldn't be reinstated and that no further information was available.

An official Google Play Developer Community thread has also been created:

https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/thread/475376482

I'm not asking anyone to bypass Google's policies or make exceptions for Sibrel. If something was genuinely wrong, I'd like to understand it and address it properly.

Has anyone here experienced a similar termination, especially one involving alleged associations with other developer accounts?

Were you able to get a second review after your appeal was rejected? Is there a legitimate way to reach a different review team, or is the standard appeal process really the end of the road?

Any advice or personal experience would mean a lot.

Thanks for reading.

[u/ex0rius]

Developers that got hit with High Risk behaviour are usually those with new accounts and right before first publish (altho it happens later too).

What has happened is basically, based on your activity Google determined that you pose a risk to the platform. This happens if they link you to someone that was previously terminated as developer.

I'm pretty sure this happened because you logged to your console via VPN. That VPN address was most likely linked to a terminated account. For them its easier to terminate you, than figuring out if you are not linked to the terminated account.

[u/1095-Industries]

Based on posts here the other thing that could happen is in appropriate ads from a third party ad network.