Update on Intel Map Suspensions & Account Bans

NianticOfficial

Agents, 

We appreciate your patience while we investigated issues related to Intel Map suspensions. We are sharing an update to address concerns and to provide more information about the suspensions and bans that some Agents received.

Intel Map Suspensions 

We have made changes and have confirmed that upgrading to iOS 14 should not negatively impact your account. To follow up on the updates provided here and here, there were 2 issues:

1. Ingress 2.55.1 is not displaying the Strike 1 Warning Screen. Updating to Ingress 2.56.2 will display the Warning Screen so Agents can acknowledge and dismiss it and regain access to Intel Map. We strongly recommend updating to the latest version of Ingress if you have not done so already. 
2. Some Agents incorrectly received a Strike 1, and due to the technical issue above, these Agents were able to access Ingress with 2.55.1 but not access Intel Map. Please note the incorrect Strike 1 did not affect every Agent who upgraded to iOS 14, and also affected Agents across different OS versions and devices. Our team has reversed the incorrect Strike 1 on these accounts, and they should now be able to access Intel Map. If you continue to experience any issues, please update to Ingress 2.56.2, clear your browser cache and cookies, then log back in to Intel Map. 

Account Bans

In order to promote fair gameplay and preserve the integrity of the game, we identified and banned accounts for various cheating behaviors, including: 

1. Farming items for unauthorized item sellers using third party tools or by falsifying their location.
2. Delivering or distributing these items
3. Purchasing or storing these items 
4. Sending unsolicited COMM messages for unauthorized items

Reminder: you should only purchase or share items via authorized means. We will continue to investigate item sellers, buyers, and accounts associated with unauthorized item selling. 

Please note that the cheating behavior described here may not receive a three-strike warning and instead may be permanently banned.

Additionally, we have removed these high-value items obtained through unauthorized means. Any items purchased through third-party websites or services will be removed from players’ inventories — even if these items were dropped and passed to other players.

Finally, if you believe your account was banned in error and haven’t already appealed, please submit an appeal through the Ingress Help Center here.