AfterDawn: Tech news

Pokemon Go cheaters get warnings, permanent bans

Written by James Delahunty @ 25 Feb 2021 1:35

Pokemon Go cheaters get warnings, permanent bans

Niantic has targeted more than five million players identified by its anti-cheat system, some of whom have received permanent bans.
The developer has provided details on actions it has taken against players of Pokemon Go, Ingress, and Harry Potter Wizards Unite. In total, more than five million have been targeted since last year, and of them, around 20 percent have been banned permanently for persistent offenses.

"More than 90% of users who received their first warning, stopped cheating afterward. This is quite encouraging for us, as we continue to find the right balance between punishing casual cheaters versus the more egregious ones," the developer wrote on a blog.

"We are committed to ensuring fair gameplay across our game portfolio. Every day newer forms of cheating or spoofing tools are made available on the internet, and we are continuously working to combat these cheaters and focus on improving our detection and enforcement; as they have no place in our games."



Niantic has also reminded players only to download the official versions of its games from Google Play, the Apple App Store, and Samsung Galaxy Store. Furthermore, it stresses that jailbroken and rooted devices are unsupported.

One of the primary means of cheating with Pokemon Go involved GPS location spoofing. By changing the location reported by the device, players were able to stay at home and pretend to have gone to a certain location in order to play.

Previous Next  
Comments have been disabled for this article.

Latest news

The era of cheap AI is about to end - consumers and companies may experience a harsh reality very soon The era of cheap AI is about to end - consumers and companies may experience a harsh reality very soon (19 Apr 2026 12:58)
AI companies have allowed both consumers and businesses to use their developed AI models at a significantly lower cost than their actual expenses. A clear change is now coming to this, which could significantly alter the market.
Defunct companies started selling their former employees' email and Slack messages to AI companies Defunct companies started selling their former employees' email and Slack messages to AI companies (18 Apr 2026 12:27)
Technology companies that have gone bankrupt or have simply been shut down have found a new way to make a little more money at their final gasp. The companies are selling their employees' Slack, Teams, and email messages as training material for AI compan
Google starts penalizing sites that hijack the browser back button Google starts penalizing sites that "hijack" the browser back button (18 Apr 2026 2:35)
Google has announced that starting from June 2026 it will begin penalizing websites that hijack the browser back button.
Installing a fresh Windows 11 is now up to half an hour faster Installing a fresh Windows 11 is now up to half an hour faster (17 Apr 2026 11:11)
The update to Windows 11 released in April 2026 changes the way Windows is installed on a computer for the first time. User can now skip the previously mandatory updates during the installation phase.
EU age verification app humiliated: Researcher bypassed protections in two minutes EU age verification app humiliated: Researcher bypassed protections in two minutes (17 Apr 2026 9:57)
The official EU age verification app released this week is reportedly easy to crack. Security researchers claim that it can be circumvented within two minutes.

News archive