Fast Track Spoofer Program: Does it work?

CandyVanFunCandyVanFun ✭✭
edited December 2020 in General

Portal is completely closed for the season (It's a campground - opens in Spring). Spoofed down by new account.

How do we know if a report we've made via the 'Fast Track Spoofer' program works?

Here is what has happened:

1) Submitted a player report following the reporting procedures.

2) Submitted 'fast track' form, included ticket ID.

3) Received the "can't discuss actions taken" message back from support; ticket closed.

4) Agent is still unbanned. Portal not restored. Coming up on week after incident.


Question: Does this sound like the ticket submitted and the 'fast track' form had impact? This should be a clear cut case of spoofing -- especially with the additional details included in the ticket (but not posted here).

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Comments

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    Is the campground inaccessible? Or just closed? I’m only asking because what if the suspected spoofer is a park or campground employee?

    Im playing devils advocate, though, I have basically no faith in getting help from Niantic when it comes to unfair gameplay. Good luck is all I can really offer.

  • They covered a 45-50 minute drive and a 10 minute hike in 20 minutes.

  • The spoofing happened on a day that the county park offices and staff had the day off and it's seasonally closed.

  • forget about spoof, buy some medals -niantic

    proven many times they don't care

  • You posted this in the Niantic support chat too? Not just the link and the time. The input is a little odd that it only takes one portal for the initial message when the primary method of catching spoofers is the time between two portals.

  • MonkeyPeltMonkeyPelt ✭✭✭✭

    I would also post to the Trusted Reporter bot. Cover all of your bases.

  • Fast tracking means they quicker autoclose the ticket and send out the automated email saying everything is resolved! Wile it isn't.


    Stop wasting time with soofs, proof is hard to come by and the support has been broken for about 8 years

  • The issue is that the new system doesn't give any feedback on the fast track tickets. The old system at least gave an acknowledge that the TRs have received the report and whether they decided to escalate. Right now we have been dealing obvious spoofers that are willing to spoof multiple accounts at the same time right in front of you, and nothing has been heard from support so far either.

  • I think bots and spoofers make these reports all the time. The real ones disappear into the spam.

  • While the system "works" and most of the spoofer accounts get banned, but it normally takes hours and the damage a single spoofer can do in several hours is a lot. You can report all you want and then spend the next 3 or 4 hours watching a spoofer **** strategic portals all over the place and you end up feeling like it's all a bit of a waste of time.

    Resets (if they happen at all) takes many days and everyone gets stuck in a holding pattern.

    So while the system isn't fast enough to meet the spoofers head on, it's all we currently have.

  • WooormsWooorms ✭✭✭

    "Fast Track Spoofer Program: Does it work?"

    Quick answer: no.

    Long answer: look for all the posts on this forum complaining about no action taken against obvious spoofing…

  • GoblinGranateGoblinGranate ✭✭✭✭✭

    "If something works for only for a part, it's not just not working, it causing extra problems".

    Basic CRM management.

  • One thing to keep in mind here.... fast-track doesn't guarantee a ban. Equating "does it work" with "did the account get banned" is flawed. An investigation is still launched, and based on the findings, actions are taken or not.

    Based on the number of reset requests we've received with the new system, I'd say it's working. Is it 100% accurate? Probably not. No system is 100% accurate and fail-safe.

  • No it does not work. I had a mass spoof this past weekend and early this morning. All portals were extremely low signal in mountain or forest regions. The travel times were impossible and in one instance they hit a portal where there was a web cam. I sent screen shots of the web cam still of the time the portal was spoofed and linked off of that showed absolutely no one there but Niantic has taken absolutely zero action. I'm trying with a vanguard as well but she has not had much luck. I don't know why they can't actually look at what is on the reports instead of having bots auto close and ignore the tickets...

  • GoblinGranateGoblinGranate ✭✭✭✭✭

    Well, I do understand why they refuse to look into any reports, but what I do not understand is why their detection system appears to be deactivated. At this point, they had plenty of time to extract common parameters from users who abuse the system.

    Communities already do a reasonable amount of work in order to improve the game, what else is Niantic expecting from them?

  • MonkeyPeltMonkeyPelt ✭✭✭✭

    Though the overall system *really* needs to be tweaked, I can kind of understand Niantic not fully investigating every report. There are a handful of agents in my region (on both factions) that quickly report any suspicious activity as spoofing, even when legit agents have "proof no spoof" photos or at a minimum legit agents have been met/seen in person. I'm not saying this is the case with any instances mentioned in this thread but with so many agents "crying wolf" and submitting reports without investigating themselves, or even asking around in local communities, Niantic doesn't have the bandwith to investigate every report. I'm not saying this is right on Niantic's side, but the current system is broken and the Fast Track program is pretty unlikely to work.

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    We reported some pretty obvious spoofing in the recent past and were told that agent had been reported too many times and they weren't willing to look into it... Why do I keep playing this game again?

  • I'm sure there's plenty of malicious reporting too, though that usually bends to the 'harassment' attempts not spoofing.

    "He said something to me on COMM, that's harassment"

  • ZeroHecksGivenZeroHecksGiven ✭✭✭✭✭

    Oh, I’m sure. I know I was reported once for spoofing. Meanwhile I was just hiding in the bushes redeploying mods for laughs. I messaged the agent later and said, nice shorts man. People are definitely quick to resort to that though :/

  • WooormsWooorms ✭✭✭

    I have an example of one local agent having spoof with two accounts; the two were reported, one has been banned not the other. People would probably report less often and wait for strong evidences if the system hadn't this kind of flaw…

  • So it's essentially a random number draw to determine if they actually look at the spoof report or not? Clearly that's what I've been dealing with.

  • WooormsWooorms ✭✭✭

    I wish I could answer that but I can't know. I clearly wish NIA was more transparent about their anti-cheating measures though, because it sure is frustrating.

  • Well after several days worth of spoofs the account was finally banned this afternoon. I'm not sure how soon everything will be restored.

  • Here's what I'd like to see.

    If a player reports another account as a spoof and it is deemed legitimate, that player should be banned unrestrained.

    We had a legit player, with proof, banned for a little over 2 weeks because the opposing team mass reported them as spoofing. Strategic portals were stolen from this player as a result of the ban. By the time they could prove legitimacy the strategic links were unrestorable.

  • mortuusmortuus ✭✭✭✭✭

    why would a legit player get banned just because a few reports? thats not how it works....

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