My Ingress account banned!
I'm XiFanU, enlightened agent since 2017 and now level 16+12, my account was suddenly blocked ! I didn't receive any mail notification. When I login to the ingress_intel_web, I found that my account was blocked. I submitted Niantic Support. However, they were still informed of the ban. I attended a lot of first Saturday, many portal have been submitted in my city, +1000 agreement in Wayfarer, recharged many CMU. I haven't had any unusual activities recently, and the activity area is only in my hometown and neighboring cities. I don't want to lose my achievements and wayfarer qualification. I hope NIA worker investigate carefully. This is really important to me.
Do I need to ask my agent friend to reply to this post?
My mobile info now: Redmi K50 (OS: MIUI 13.0.24)
Attach my related game pictures.
A screenshot of other agent checking my profile.








Comments
Hi,
This account ban is incorrect. I have met XifanU in person and have been battling him head to head in our remote land of Penglai, Shandong over the last 6 months. During my time in Penglai I have seen no mysterious actions from his account.
Please reinstate his position as my sole opposition, life is boring playing against decay times. I will never get to L16 for recursion if he is not re-activated.
Regards,
David aka Batfink762
Can a set of appeal mechanism be established that, if the banned player can obtain the vouch of a certain number of subscribing players, then Niantic will disclose the specific game behavior that triggered the ban, and will consider the rebuttal evidence provided by the player.
Of course, for the number of vouch a subscribing player can offer, there can be an uplimit. And the discussion between Niantic and the banned player may be subject to a confidentiality clause.
If Niantic is willing to set up the above appeal mechanism, I will restart the subscription, change my rating in play store from 1* to 5*, and vouch for XifanU.
No player can vouch 100% for anyone other than themselves. You simply have no visibility of what someone else does with their account, nor who else has access to it.
@XifanU is a decent person who always helps others people in Ingress community. He provides a public VPN to play Ingress easily for years to the people in China mainland. I feel sad when I heard this bad news. I'm been helped in how to build my own server. And I also use his server at emergency condition. I hope Ingress officer to rethink this event to accept good guy for our game. Thanks.
My id is @xxldao, I would like to endorse him.
I don't know why was the reason but VPN usage will always have a bad ending. Do not use VPN at all, since spoofers actively use it and you may be framed
Simply using a VPN doesn't result in a ban. Else all China agents would already be banned and not able to play at all.
I've seen cases with VPN who ended in ban, it's true that I may not know the entire story, but it's not something that should be used if it triggers ban.
The last time I logged into the Ingress was around 09:10 on December 15, 2022. I returned to my city and occupied "Yantai South Station". I have a picture of the ticket. I never logged into Ingress again after that. Until 12.19 when I logged into IntelMap, I found that I was banned.
I only occupied this one portal 烟台南站(Yantai South Station) lately because I'm very busy with work.
Please NIA admin investigate my account further.
https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=37.431121,121.38709
I agree. That is why I only asked Niantic to discuss with the banned player. Getting people to vouch for a member of their community only shows how important they are in the hearts of the community, and not that they did nothing wrong, nor that we *know better* than Niantic. So far, Niantic's silence has destroyed our faith in it.
And I have read what Brian and Thia said on this issue. My earlier comment was, what I believe, a compromise.
Edit: Perhaps I misunderstood the strength of the word "vouch", as English is not my first language.
Sorry - but I have seen enough "I am innocent" posts that I agree with Vanguard here.
You just do not know what could be on their phone, whether they bought gear, got spoofed gear, location locked or any number of possible things.
Niantic do not ban for no reason apart from the rare upgrade/hardware issue.
We are trying to get two cheats banned at the moment and it's nigh impossible.
There have actually been quite a number of people banned lately, across both games.
Some have been due to VPNs
Some due to specific devices which have wonky OS battery management
Did you scan the portal?
It may be illegal in China, but it is the only certified way to prove that you were there
Another agent with a Redmi device was banned recently as well: https://community.ingress.com/en/discussion/comment/182236/#Comment_182236
First of all, thank you for your discussion. I didn't take photos or scan, I only have my high-speed train ticket.
Unfortunately, a ticket on a train, isn't enough evidence for Niantic.
Which is why, it is really important to scan wayspots in areas where are not normally. I know players hate doing them. But it is currently the only method to prove you were there.
Niantic will not investigate in any tickets about cheating publicly, no matter the outcry. You can only use the support ticketing system, and hope.
I hate to break it to you, but scans are not used to validate agents. Ops doesn't have access to scan data either.
These are assumptions. You have no way of knowing what triggered those bans.
VPNs are frequently used by a lot of agents. Using a VPN isn't going to get you banned.
taking gear that someone boted will get u banned, but just using vpn isnt reason for ban.
Nobody can be sure someone didn't cheat, no matter how much you hang out with them personally.
I mean even spouses cheat on each other, I love that people stick up for each other, but you can in no way be sure someone doesn't cheat.
I personally know agents that GPS lock their location, if they get banned I could be upset, but I'd know what would be the cause. I also know so many people do it - and while it might seem innocent to be 'locked' in a location for a few minutes, it gives an unfair advantage to the people that are not able to and not willing to because it's cheating.
Niantic have time and again stated that they review data (far more data that isn't available to players) and are confident they broke the TOS, and the people that are banned will most likely know exactly what they did. 'Vouching' for someone is a silly idea. I do wonder what happened to the three strike policy though, was the infraction reason to not give out strikes but straight up perma ban someone?
I totally agree that Niantic has access to evidences that even the closest friend of the banned player would never know. But I simply don't trust that Niantic never make any mistakes.
I know an agent who was banned, and successfully retrieved her account by asking Niantic to provide her game data under EU's data protection regulation. And ppl in this thread suspect that a false ban can be triggered by using VPN or playing on certain device, Besides, you mentioned that the three-strike policy was abondoned in this case (if what XifanU said was true). All of these may not be hard evidences, but at least an indication that many players believe that Niantic's ban policy is not well-performed.
No. Spoofers are banned because they spoof, not because they use VPN.
I've seen cases with not adding the butter when having the bread who ended in ban, it's true that I may not know the entire story, but it's not something that should be forgotten if it triggers ban??
No. I've seen far more cases with VPN who ended in smooth gaming experience without any problem throughout many years.
How do you know agents have been banned due to VPNs? How do you know that agents have been banned due to "due to specific devices which have wonky OS battery management"
Or is this just random speculation?
Pretty sure you don't work at Niantic. Pretty sure you don't "know" how the bans occurred. Only people that "know" is Niantic and potentially the OP.
Some people, have used a VPN, which got them banned, this was a long time ago, but it still pops up. Quite rare now
Because I read. And because it has happened in the past.
Speculation here is guessing what MAY have triggered the anti cheat.
FACT is there are hundreds of reports of false bans on twitter lately.
Scans, do.
Because even though it is a separate system from Ingress, when you do a scan, you are logged, in Ingress and VPS.
If Niantic are not doing this, then they have a bug that needs sorting.
And this is ESSENTIAL data to prove you were at the wayspot.
Scans are not used by Ops to verify anything. Not every phone is capable of scanning either, and Ops are not in any position to verify that scan data matches the real-world location, even if they had access to that data.
That is not a fact. You don't know that those are false bans.
Every mobile can scan.
What you're referring to is, meshing, which is correct, not all devices can do meshing