Concerns re: Spoofing [A Dedicated Thread]

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  • That's the type I'm asking about. Most of the time the multi-accounting beyond backpacks tends to be account sharing, with one person using their family members accounts etc, but they don't seem to be heavily used in a way Niantic could identify easily. The "10 accounts one person, all L8+" seems to be rarer, unless they're actually spoofing.

  • MrNateJoMrNateJo ✭✭✭

    I would like to draw attention to the action of account @Niasection14 they have been moving around the UK with near lightening speed.

    I don't know how this can't be detected by whatever is in place to detect these things as it really obvious to the locals. 🙂

    /s 😂

  • You all are aware the game is not just niantic right?


    Download Lightship For developers.


    Reverse engineer.


    Find problem.

  • Actually, it's quite likely that the element you'd need is the service Niantic is paid for. It's not a completely open platform.

  • fxcfxc ✭✭✭

    I opened a ticket 10 days ago ... no answer

  • If this thread is about spoofing, you might want to check the map, specifically in Russia (where I thought playing is restricted at the moment)... There's quite fresh player account fielding 11million MU fields from Finland to Moscow to Ukraine to Kazakhstan 😉

  • TheKingEngineTheKingEngine ✭✭✭✭✭

    Then why didn't you do some "reverse engineering" and fix the problem by yourself when you wrote that post



  • VaskinCallVaskinCall ✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2022


    No, it looks boring and childish :)))

    Better draw a huge organ over the Niantic office :)

  • I just started playing. I LITERALLY never would fathom humans puting forth the extream effort to spoof. As I'm playing more. I'm learning there is alot of toxic crazy stuff.


    Lightship is what I assumed is the framework.


    Clearly wildly underestimated the amount of people who spoof and cheat. Thabk you for the warm welcome.

  • TheKingEngineTheKingEngine ✭✭✭✭✭

    Never saw in other games anyone asking other players to "do some reverse engineering and fix the problems by yourselves" instead of the company's doing their jobs. To do what you said, players have to hack into the production system that is Niantic's server first, which leads to jail.

  • SlayMateSlayMate ✭✭
    edited July 2022

    Last time I checked niantic rather keep spoofs and cheats when they are paid subscribers. Support is bad in general and this also adds no value, as names and claims will get redacted.


    Another waste of effort, to not solve any issues, is what I read here.

  • quirischaquirischa ✭✭✭✭

    It is with great pleasure that I state some days ago spoofer was banned from the first report.

    Let's see how it will be this time.

  • AzhreiaAzhreia ✭✭✭✭✭

    Whether or not a player pays subscription does not influence the decision to ban or not to ban. We have seen plenty of subscribed accounts being banned. It is not taken into account when investigating a report.

  • edited July 2022

    100% this. The activity in the SLC area is adversely affecting players on both sides, and the COMMs are clogged with he-said / she-said accusations, denials, and downright anger. We have had some luck with getting the Trolls reported for inappropriate Agent Names, but the spoofing seems to be untouchable.

    A few months ago we had a group of spoofers that was banned fairly rapidly, but this set is bulletproof for some unknown reason. I was hoping the "new" continuous detection that was announced for PoGo was going to help here. No luck yet...

  • Note that "Calling them out on COMM" is well defined as harassment, and the old "Two wrongs does not make a right" thing applies. The trick is to call them out in non-Niantic spheres. The only thing Niantic looks at COMM for is harassment, so they're not reading your text unless notified, and all it does is give the spoofers something to report.

    Another old adage: If you don't have anything nice to say... stay off COMM or they'll bait you into getting banned.

  • SSSputnikSSSputnik ✭✭✭✭✭

    Escalate to vanguards spoof hits, stay off COMM. Hopefully the new CAL system will kick in and help.

  • Well, it's nice to see I'm not alone at the party! I have never imagined that people coul be so creative for cheating in games, especially multiplayer games (let's be honest, is there any multiplayer game which is not completely devastated by cheaters?). However, I am probably superficial and ignorant, but sometimes I find NIA pretty naïve: I mean, I filed dozens of reports against spoofers and happily had most of them banned, but my God, it is a full time job! The reports must contain specific information, a Vanguard must be involved (nope, don't tell me that someone reads our ingame reports, I don't believe it: the only reports taken in consideration are those from the Vanguards, reporting ingame is completely pointless... Or has anyone here ever had a spoofer banned thanks to one of those?). Then, you must wait for the ban to happen (IF it happens) and then collect all the links to the portals you need to be restored... Meanwhile, your same faction and the opposite faction have already xlinked everywhere and a new fake account is ready to go. I mean... Is it really necessary, to file everything manually? I saw spoofers playing, most of the time they travel super fast: how come that they are not automatically banned? And why, after they've been banned, why a Vanguard has to file all the portals for resets MANUALLY? It's just a waste of time to me and I believe it could be automated. If a portal has been spoofed, of course I want it to be restored, why do I need to even send a request?

    Then, I don't understand if wintrading and multi-accounting is considered cheating or not. I guess it's hard to detect when a player is using their family members selfphones as mule accounts, but let's be honest.... Most of the time it's not them playing, it's the player who switches to different accounts on the same device or uses different devices: I guess this could be easily detected too, considering that we agree to share our data as well. Wintrading I guess has become the norm now, considered the number of xfac messages on the comm saying "please don't destroy this portal", "would you mind to help me for pokéstop", "let's arrange to level up/do x event" etc... And on a larger scale, I have encountered more and more agents from my very same faction who blatantly play against, especially during main events. Imagine you've just come back home, after building up a field and you receive a notification saying that an agent from your same faction has killed the field: you contact them and what they say is that "I am not crazy like you, I just want to get the medal but without going out and play, I want to play from my hp and your field has been up long enough". I mean, using the same colour advantage to play against, shouldn't be considered cheating as well?

    Finally, what I am so sick of, are those cheating-ish situations, where magically the GPS signal drifts away soooo conveniently... I struggle to find safe portals for my fields, but there are players that according to their time travel are able to pass through fences and walls. I swear, I found myself in front of closed public parks at night, with the portal right in the middle: you may phisically reach it by jumping over the fence of course, but it takes time. These players, they manage to reach the portals in no time. Since are specific players who are able to do so, I am quite convinced that there are ways to slightly temper the GPS signal... And no, I am not talking of "oh my phone, if you turn off the gps and back on it drifts so much"... I mean steady placing yourself on the portal and attacking it for a while. How come that this is not detectable?

    Soooo.... To me these are the most frustrating sides of cheating in Ingress at the moment. And to be honest, I don't see so much effort to contain it, especially when spoofing is blatant.

  • Man I got OT so much

  • fxcfxc ✭✭✭

    In my region there are now more fake players than legit ones. Getting them banned has become even more difficult. The niantic support does nothing and the anticheat systems are ridiculous. I wonder how courageously Niantic sells core subscriptions with the game in this state, I hear players complain every day and more and more people decide to quit.

  • GullenecroGullenecro ✭✭
    edited August 2022

    Some stuff easy to do.

    Calculate everytime the time between action on 2 different portal. If the speed is more than 130km/h, block the account. if people has used a plane for internationnal journey or big national fly, they will prove it.



    This will **** a lot of the spoofing because they will need to wait a lot more in between action. Really easy to do.

  • AzhreiaAzhreia ✭✭✭✭✭

    This will cause too many problems for legit agents traveling via train and plane. You can't just presume everyone guilty until proven innocent.

  • Oh and I forgot to mention the ancillary same faction accounts that pop up out of nowhere and x link around when fields are down... I mean, it's another game, they play a different Ingress which requires zero effort...

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