Reseting a portal that has been spoofed, why this needs to be improved

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Comments

  • MirthmakerMirthmaker ✭✭✭✭

    Anomaly reset is the parallel I can go by. If that is an invalid or an unfair comparison then what is a better comparison/measuring stick?

  • How do you propose Niantic should implement something like that, given that they only have your online identity to work with.


  • There isn't a better comparison/measuring stick. There isn't anything else to compare resets to. It's its own thing. You're trying to compare apples to fish. Anomaly rule enforcement has nothing to do with resets. To your mind they look the same, but it's not. A reset is restoring the status quo following the actions of a spoofer. On anomalies, it's implementing an anomaly-specific game mechanic.

  • MirthmakerMirthmaker ✭✭✭✭

    Something I am not getting, but doesn't Niantic have one or more of the following when you enter the first time:

    Name and public domain Demographics,

    IP address you are signing in from.


    Over time Niantic gets your basic play area (Metropolitan area level) so if player show out of usual time or play area it gets an internal watch to see what they player does next.

    How hard techwise is it to wreck spoofers by "cancelling" their attempt to switch their location old and new is picked up and bounced back because it defies logic?

    (I am not a techie so I would think these rejects shouldn't take long to rectify, and if need be suspend/ban if someone is looking and seeing ip address in ridiculous spots and previous drop off is "wrong" by time or distance. )

  • You sign up with your Google/Apple/Facebook account, is your online identity. It's very easy to create several online identities. IP addresses nowadays are dynamic. And your general location is determined by the information your device shares with the app. None of this is of any use to "permaban a player".

    Niantic already has measures to autodetect spoofing, but this isn't foolproof, else we wouldn't have this problem. They are already doing what they can to try and improve their detection algorithms, but it'll forever be a reactive measure. With each hole that they plug, the spoof-software developers are actively working on new exploits.

    Let's put it this way. If it were easy, Niantic would already be doing it.

  • WooormsWooorms ✭✭✭

    After reading I have to thank @Azhreia for sharing the Vanguards view angle on this topic. My understanding is that the process takes time because it can't be easily automated and this is not a priority at the moment right ? After seeing the impact of this kind of action on the gamefield and the community (I can't count players being discouraged to keep playing and simply giving up on the game because of cheating…) this sound like it should get a higher priority… Maybe @ofer2 can jump in and give us some highlight on why things are so difficult on a technical point of view ? Can we hope things to get better with the new infrastructure when (if ?) we get it ?

    The only other option I can see to ensure a fair gameplay would be to handle those cases faster, having the account banned in a couple of hours and the links restored just after, but given how tedious this sound I guess we can't reasonably ask for things to go faster…

  • MirthmakerMirthmaker ✭✭✭✭

    Fair enough.

    Lots of things this end user doesn't understand about what is/isn't possible.

  • Bigger issue I've had with spoofing lately is the account gets banned then the spoofer creates a new account and does the same thing until I can file another report on the new account and get the new account banned. Although it's been great that Niantic and the Vanguards have been helpful getting spoofed portals and links restored, the system is still broken if it's easy for them to just jump back in the game and continue cheating.

  • @InDogeWeTrust this is the same problem I've been having in my area. I have control of a seasonally accessible only portal and it keeps getting spoofed everytime it's restored. They keep buying, I'm guessing as they're all freshly level 6, new accounts every time one gets banned. I wish there was a way Niantic could tie back to a main account. The suspected controller has been known to use two phones. I wish they could tie it to the same internet connection.

  • Almost feels like at this point Niantic should come out with a scanner medal for number of spoofers you've successfully reported and banned. I'd probably be at Gold now with 9 banned in the last 2 months. The game used to be strategically fielding to win checkpoints and cycles and keeping the other team from building up their fields and farms. Now it's watching intel to see how the latest suspicious account tries to level itself up and hoping it gets banned before it can do enough damage to the work that took hours to build. The latter is going to burn me out faster than the former.

  • Azhreia has been doing a great job at getting the latest spoof down restored but also has been the biggest difference maker in getting the new accounts banned. I've had some banned within hours which has been wonderful.

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