Gear downgraded from pvp I didn't even start

I was at a boss fight and someone "flagged up" on me, so I fought back and hit him, I then got spawn killed multiple times, died to the boss a couple of times and now all my gear is fucked up. I got told it was because I "flagged up" and got negative karma, but I don't even know how to flag up and don't even pvp, I've been playing here for about 2 months and worked on my gear to the point where I was nearly pen everything apart from accessories and to lose it like this is pretty ridiculous.

If someone could help me, I'd greatly appreciate it....

Thanks,
Liam.

 

If when you hit back you killed anyone with less gear than you, then your Karma probably turned red.
If that was the case, notice that Red Karma does have a chance to downgrade items if you die to any Monster with less than 5 crystals equipped.
The only place safe for Red Karma is at the Desert, where instead of losing something, you get send to the jail.

 

so there's nothing that can be done? all I did was fight back and got punished for it?

 

Since it's a game mechanic, there's nothing that can be done. If you turn into Karma Red than you have to deal with the consequences.
Note that you don't have to open PvP (ctrl c) in order to fight back, when someone open PvP on you, you have the chance to respond w/o doing so, that way you shouldn't lose karma.