There have been multiple posts lately concerning accounts being flagged and most seem to blame a VPN for the issue. I use a vpn everyday, all day on all of my devices without issue. So, in an effort to narrow down the issue for the community, I was wondering a few things. If you are flagged or have been flagged and have used a vpn, please contribute below.
What VPN were you using when you were flagged?
Were you using your VPN normally or using it to frequently change regions?
Iāve been a Brave browser user for over 1 year and always have VPN enabled due to my countryās strict piracy laws. During this time, never noticed any changes to how Brave Rewards presents me with ads or my account being flagged. I also have used a variety of different VPN providers in the past: ExpressVPN, NordVPN, Surfshark, IPVanish, etcā¦ I currently use ExpressVPN and iām connecting from Europe to mostly other countries in Europe and the US.
I think if users are being flagged is due to their own suspicious activity with Brave Rewards enabled and not VPN being the culprit. Brave browser has the privacy of their users at the forefront so it would be dumb to restrict VPN use in some way.
The problem is not the VPN at all.
If you downloaded directory ads without VPN,and during the day you will use a browser with VPN,then there will be no problems. But if you repeatedly download directories via VPN, it increases the risk of being blocked
My account has been flagged for months. I Use a VPN (japan, netherlands)(proton vpn) not getting pop up ads but still getting main page ads. MY THESIS is i was flagged for syncing 5 devices. (2 main computers, 2 laptops and a phone. not sure why id be flagged for that
That is my assumption as well, but if there is an actual issue, Iām curious to find out what it is. Especially if it happens with certain VPNās over other VPNās and if there is a bunch of region hopping.
Not flagged but I always use a VPN on one of my PCs, set to my own region. Occationally I have to change to another local region if the speeds slow but generally had a good experience with a VPN, no issue with ads here
In fact I just got an ad for āthe best VPNs to use with brave browserā lol
I wonder if (Uphold/Gemini) accounts are being flagged by Brave because those accounts all have 4 (or more) Brave rewards profiles linked and all of them are active daily receiving BAT and somehow that triggered Braveās detection for fraudulent bot use? If someone is always actively browsing on all of their devices 24/7 seeing ads that would definitely seem suspicious despite Brave limiting how many ads you can be delivered per day.
I wouldnāt think this would flag your account either. Five devices and multiple profiles synced doesnāt seem unreasonable. However, having the browser open at the same time on all devices with intermittent activity, constantly changing profiles, and jumping around vpn locations might beā¦ could be an indication of trying to milk adsā¦
Just wondering, have you tried removing a device and/or profiles from the sync chain to see if your account(s) get unflagged? If you think that is the reason, might be a way to test.
Unless you are part of the test group for removing linking limits, you shouldnāt be able to link more than 4 accounts to a custodial provider. Unless you meant 4 with Gemini and 4 with Uphold? I would think this was suspicious activity too.
Of course, as an example, someone could own a business and have all their employees using Brave on company devices and depositing BAT into the ownerās account(s). I donāt know if this is against Brave ToS or not. Could be a gray area. Could get your account flagged. I donāt have an opinion about this, would have to really think about it. And read the ToS again, ugh. Just donāt have the want to. lol
Interesting thought process. Of course, we are never going to know what the criteria is for getting flagged. Which is as it should be imo. I donāt think the majority of users are trying to game the system, but I do think there are those individuals (and groups) whose soul purpose for using Brave is just that. It has to be difficult for Brave to set flagging criteria to catch the bad actors knowing that some who are not trying to game the system are going to be caught in the net!
Update: Well, I think 3/4 profiles are flagged (or at least not getting ads/earnings) on my Release version. lol I donāt think it has to do with vpn though. I think it was because I had 4 instances of the browser open at the same time and was bouncing between them. The weird thing is I am not getting a āflaggedā message and I could disconnect and reconnect to my custodial account with no problem. Donāt know what that is about. I wonder if Brave is changing up ads delivery and disabled somethingā¦
I am not receiving notifications or inline ads on the 3 profiles. I do receive NTP ads (rarely) but do not earn BAT for viewing or clicking. Started on the 14th and still ongoing. Waiting to see if ads start back up without me doing anything as far as submitting a support request.
Still receiving NTP and notifications on Beta and one other profile on Release version, but no inline ads. Leaving vpn on because I donāt really think that has anything to do with my current situation. Besides, I like having vpn on! Guess Iāll be using Beta for a while if I want to earn me some BAT. lol
Update2: Uhmā¦ went and checked some of my vpn settings and had the ad blocker onā¦ now I am wondering if that was causing a problemā¦ bah. I disabled that in the vpn but now wonāt be able to tell one way or the other what was likely happening if ads start up! Sheesh. lol
Really posting a video for awareness on how or why a profile can be flagged is Bad?. I hope you run out of countries to flag or ban. Maybe launch your services on the moon and ban the entire earth so no one cheats your system
Going to add my own experience. I keep about a dozen tabs open on Brave at time (though I am not sure if that effects everyone the same). I had issues with ads several months back but that seems to have been fixed until recently.
Iāve been using both NordVPN and testing out Atlas VPN as well. Iāve been using Nord VPN for a while and never had an issue with that before, except maybe for the brief issues with ads. I was testing out Atlas VPN and did connect to both the Netherlands and Japan. I think its is possible Brave may have flagged my account for that thinking I was gaming the system. Though, I did have my account verified with Uphold and never had issues with payouts before. That was three or four days ago. I only received the flag this morning and submitted a support ticket. If I use my VPN, Iāll probably stick to in country locations.
I also use Brave mobile a lot but my account has been disconnected for a while. I donāt think that had anything to do with it.
I definitely think it has something to do with VPN switch frequency and possibly the volume of tabs you keep open (other users will have to let me know how many they keep open). There has also been a spike in users reporting being flag so it may be a system error as well. I hope it gets fixed! Brave is a great browser.
