The Case of the Missing Field (A PNW Enlightened Mystery)
On Wednesday October 31st, 2019, the combined efforts of agents across Oregon and Idaho, culminated in a BFF (Big Fantastic Field) covering approximately 65,000 square kilometers. That's 16,061,849 acres for those of you keeping track.
SO WHERE IS THE FIELD?
Great question! This Saturday our hard work was destroyed by an agent named SantJoseph, who was too busy to grab a cup of coffee with me because he had to rush back to Panama. 🙄
It went a little something like this.
11/2 @ 5:26am PST captured "F4 Monument"
https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=42.16242,-121.748264&z=16&pll=42.16242,-121.748264
Continued to play in Klamath Falls, Oregon until 6:22am PST
9:33am PST captures "Iglesia Del Nazareno" in La Chorrera, Panama
https://intel.ingress.com/intel?ll=8.874393,-79.789836&z=17&pll=8.874393,-79.789836
No portals were touched between those times.
*This means he traveled 5621km (3493 mi) between destinations in three hours and thirteen minutes.*
The nearest international airport to Klamath Falls is one hour away, in Medford. The quickest flight between Medford and Panama City, not including security checks for an international flight, is 8 hours and 30 minutes flying with Delta Airlines. Then drive time to La Chorrera would be another 45 minutes. This trip would be difficult to accomplish in under 12 hours, and physically impossible in under 3.
Even with a private jet traveling at max speed of 575 mph, it would take six hours in the air to travel the 3493 miles point to point. Any aircraft moving faster would have to refuel several times during the trip.
*This portal was spoofed.*
Spoofers suck.
Niantic should do the right thing and ban the spoofer, then restore the field.
Please report in solidarity.
Comments
Obviously they took one of the F15s at the facility, flew at mach 2, got refueling enroute from a tanker, then ejected over Panama to get to their next portal location.
It didn't trigger the automatic spoofing recognition algorithms, therefore reality is overruled.
i don't understand how a algorithm could think that was legit? not much point to a gps based game if you don't really have to go anywhere.
I hope this gets restored and the player banned.
Niantic, please tell us you really do have some sort of cheat protection?
A year or so ago, it seemed like spoof detection was getting better. There was no way to get links or fields restored, but obvious spoofs with impossible travel times got banned swiftly after reporting and hard portals were often reverted. I encouraged people to report spoofs (many were jaded by previous inaction and didn't bother anymore) and Niantic would "sort if out". I thought Prime would be another step forward in this regard, but spoofing is as bad as ever and reporting is significantly less effective. It's terribly frustrating and the game will continue to bleed players as a result.
You have that right. There are blatant spoof actions in my zone that need to be slammed shut.
When an agent travels over 5500 km between destinations in just over three hours and is not caught by the automated spoofing mechanisms, I am very very confused about what mechanisms Niantic has to catch any spoofers?
And when it's reported and Niantic still does nothing to deal with a feat that is physically impossible, it's really hard to trust it when Niantic says they listen to player feedback and take spoofing very seriously.
If Niantic can't deal with something as blatant as this, what can they deal with?
Now he's in San Francisco lol. Agent pinged in Panama all day yesterday and somehow woke up stateside again.
So I'm confused. Instead of traveling to remote and fun locations. Building their Network of portal real world location database . We are we supposed to play at home now? Travel from the comfort of our couch? This agents travel time alone is physically impossible. Unless Niantic wants us to believe that an agent is capable of teleporting between locations and breaking the laws of physics. they may want to take a look at their algorithm and admit that it sucks at the moment. For this to be closed since your fancy algorithm can't tell when people are cheating now. It's kind of a Wow wake up call. Should we go and have fun out in the real world? Because that is my favorite part of this game.
Wait, are you telling me I can't teleport between locations? Damnit. There goes my holiday plans.
Still no ban? 🤔
Maybe he worked some sort of deal out while he was having lunch at Niantic HQ this morning.
I wish they would at least escalate spoof reports when both sides were reporting. I spoke with Panamanian Smurfs that had already been reporting the account because several of the portals they used down there are not reachable on the travel times they are doing them in either, even in country. I have tried reaching out to the Smurfs in the area to ask that badgers not be thrown across the lanes until portals are taken out legit, either from the base or the other anchors, but with most of that area seeing more travelers than locals I don't know how long it will be maintained.
It is just so sophisticated it looks at the fact it is an air Force Base and bases travel time on fastest available aircraft stationed there. In real time.
Here the answer from Niantic.
Agent,
Thank you for reporting this issue.
We’re writing to confirm that we have carefully reviewed your report and have taken action where appropriate. Note that not all outcomes may result in a ban. Based on our policy, we may warn a person, place restrictions on their account, or take other appropriate actions.
For privacy reasons, we cannot discuss actions taken against other agents; therefore, you will not receive any additional updates on this report. If you need to report a new incident, please submit a new report from the Help Center: http://ingress.com/support.
Thanks again for your help in keeping Ingress fun and fair.
And here the action from Niantic.
.
This is the most blatant spoofing I've ever been impacted by and Niantic still does nothing. It's not often you get proof like this, with absolutely impossible travel times.. Yet it doesn't matter. Disheartening, Niantic.
Annnnnnd he's banned! 😊
I guess the lessons learned here is this:
Spoofers, keep your travel times reasonable and you have nothing to worry about.
Reporters, its going to take a social media campaign and everyone you know reporting to get Niantic to act
Niantic has zero automated cheat protection, and layers and layers of people who cant do much other than forward it on.
Thankfully this time it landed on the right persons desk. The ban was appreciated. Thank you.
This whole mess of ignoring spoofers because their algorithm says they are legit... is disheartening. It basically proves that spoofers who know how to use google maps to time spoofs can get away with no repercussions. They do not have a way to detect cheaters. It took a campaign of lots of reporting and posting on different social media platforms before this was payed attention to. You leave a whole lot of unanswered questions about your capability to detect spoofing or other cheats. Not just in Ingress, but in any of your game platforms. They are all based on the same underlying platform. So would mean that all of your games are not able to detect cheating unless they are beyond stupid and people start a campaign to bring it to your attention. As reporting it does nothing but get your ticket closes as case solved with no action. Any, just random thoughts on how full of holes your cheating detection scheme is going.
And here I got soft banned on two occasions (yeah I was dumb enough to not pay attention a second time) two and half years ago whole traveling in Italy. First time was because Ingress decided that, as I walked into the coliseum in Rome I had teleported to Kyoto or Osaka Japan (I forget which one it was, only knew as some local chat loaded up) where I tried to hack a portal. Couldn't do anything. Got soft banned for the rest of the day.
Second time was at a train station, Ingress thought I was at the airport in Stockholm, Sweden. Again, soft ban.
Yet spoof accounts don't seem to have this problem.
i wonder if their cheats crash less than prime. 🤔😂
As a former Vanguard, I can tell you reporting does help and there's definitely a process in place for escalations of blatant spoofing. If you aren't familiar with the most current list of Vanguards and how to reach them, perhaps some helpful individual following along on this thread will be so kind as to share a linky thing to a post somewhere.
With all of that being said - spoofing is (imho) the single largest reason for loss of player base. The fanatics that drive, hike, covertly plan, devise more insane ops than the last one, construct year long key migration plans are the same fanatical individuals who are always actively recruiting new colleagues for the latest shenanigans within their faction. These fanatical planners/recruiters only tolerate getting their hands burned (and time/cash wasted) so many times before they eventually sign up, albeit reluctantly, for the FN* Exit Strategy of Ingress.
Trying to redirect longtime fanatics away from the FN* Exit became increasingly difficult over the years, for me personally. I miss my crazy ops, I miss contemplating Intel map for the next "What if we could link this with this......", I miss meeting my Factionmates in far flung places like Why, Arizona.... but what I miss the most is the feeling that "Niantic will get it right with regards to spoofers/spoof detection"
~jencyberchic
***** Niantic
But there's nothing ther.... OH
I see what you did there.
I have no idea why my last comment quoted two people or why I can't delete it. This forum is awful.