Pokemon Go players reportedly being wrongfully banned for “cheating”

A wave of Pokemon Go players are reporting their accounts have been hit with a suspension after Niantic accused them of “cheating” – despite supposedly never doing so. Some Trainers have been blocked from playing for upwards of seven days.

After Pokemon Go’s update went live on April 9th 2021, reports began to pour in about issues plaguing the mobile title: from Team Go Rocket Balloon encounters freezing to maps completely disappearing altogether.

However, some players claim that problems with the game have been going on for weeks, with accounts being abruptly banned for seven days or more after logging in. According to the users, they are being accused of “cheating” even though they never have.

Niantic / The Pokemon Company

Some Pokemon Go players claim they are being unfairly banned.

Are Pokemon Go accounts being banned?

The latest April update for Pokemon Go destabilized the game for many users, with Team Go Rocket glitches becoming so bad that Niantic had to temporarily remove the villainous group’s encounters from the game altogether.

Reports began to also pop up online from some players claiming their accounts had been banned. Upon logging on, they received a notice that read: “Warning, we have detected activity on your account that indicated you are using modified client software.” It then stated it’s a first strike on the account, which results in a seven-day ban.

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One Go Trainer took to social media to share a screenshot of their suspension warning, and tweeted, “Niantic please help me! I’ve emailed support 20 times and gotten NO WHERE please I’m begging you to fix this. This is one of the few things I love to do.”

Other reports of the same message have been posted on various forums, including sites like Reddit. Over on the r/TheSilphRoad subreddit, Trainer ‘Zcruz723’ made a thread titled, “iOS 7 Day False Bans? Can we fix this?”

iOS 7 Day False Bans? Can we fix this? by inTheSilphRoad

Interestingly, the user pointed out that this isn’t the first time players have supposedly been banned accidentally. According to several players, this issue had actually been going on for weeks before the April 9th update. 

While it’s true that fans can receive a suspension for a variety of factors such as spoofing, some claim that they are still receiving the warning even if they have never done anything that violates the rules.

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At the time of writing, it’s not clear if the issue is specifically related to software updates. However, it couldn’t have come at a worse time for some, with the Snivy Community Day event going live and Rivals’ Week coming up.