Instant bans
I am posting here to reach out to the community to see if I am alone in this.
I was banned yesterday after years and years of gameplay. I absolutely love Ingress and the community. I have invested hours of gameplay, paid for the premium account and never received a single strike or warning.
My scanner suddenly lost connection and on restarting is stuck on the login screen.
My intel map says account suspended.
A support member upon submitting a ban appeal simply said account terminated. Desision final.
They won't reply to me, what am I supposed to do??? What could possibly be so bad as to be instant banned and ghosted? Is this normal? What about the money invested in premium currency on there?
I can't even describe how gutted I am. How can people be treated so coldly?
Comments
Spoofing to take down an inaccessible portal will do that. All the opposition who notice will report, and Vanguards will be on the case to restore the broken links.
Spoofing will result in an instant ban, no warnings or strikes. Game relies on honesty and both teams playing fair, if you cheat expect to get banned, paying for core doesn't make you invincible
Niantic appreciates your contributions over the years, but that doesn't buy you TOS violation protection.
I can tell you it seems the community banned me for taking down what was said to be an inaccessible portal. I took down a portal at a lighthouse that was only accessible by boat and hard to get to. The community instantly said I spoofed. I replied to the community that I did not and I found a way to get it. The response was new players don’t flip portals like this. So I sent pictures of me going to the lighthouse in my boat. I figured that would settle that. Instead it just made people more upset and started attacking me on other things they thought were what they called red flags. I soon found out it was not going to make a difference what proof I had and they already were reporting as they said they would. Like a day later. Same thing, could not log in with my app and the Intel Map said I was suspended.
The community did not ban you. No player has the ability to ban another player.
Niantic makes these decisions based on their own investigation.
Then the only question is why would players who claim to have put over a decade of time into this game report me. They obviously think it is going to get some result. Otherwise they are just wasting their time. Do new accounts get banned more frequently than older ones? Do I need to more slowly progress before making aggressive moves?
I can't say anything about your personal situation and the people in your area, but generally, portals that are hard to get to (like lighthouses) are high value targets for both factions and, in turn, cheaters. Because people don't want to lose their main account they often create a new one, level it up a tiny bit and then spoof to the portal and destroy and capture it. The opposite faction will report the new account after which Niantic will ban them, but their main account will still be fine.
Again, don't know anything about your situation, but from what you have told us, your behavior sounds very much like that: new account starts playing, suddenly goes to a high value portal that is hard to access, destroys it. I am not surprised that people assume that you were a spoofer.
Try to appeal the ban via support and send in the pictures you mentioned as proof. If Niantic doesn't budge and you still want to play, do make a new account but stay clear of the higher value portals for the time being. If Niantic does unban you, try to reach out to Agents of your own faction and show them your pictures as well as the mail from Niantic saying you were unbanned. The opposite faction will likely still not believe you, but hopefully your own faction will try to get you under their own wing.
Well offer to take someone on your team to the lighthouse and allow them to destroy it. Just to prove you can access it. Maybe then local players will believe you.
Thanks. After you put it that way I can definitely see that as a tactic. That is pretty much exactly what I done except the spoofing part and it’s the only account I had. At best the community and or Niantic legitimately think I am cheating and maybe I can reach out on comms before going to high value targets. Let everyone know what I am about to do and offer video evidence to anyone who requests. At worst the truth doesn’t matter and it can simply be weaponized against a player like myself. If I need to be a good little player and stay away from high value targets, I really do not want to play. I would think the opposition would appreciate some challenge in my area. From what I have seen in my area it is just one faction playing without any opposition in the area.
I will be glad to take anyone to the lighthouse who wants to go. That is a good idea. I’ll put it out in the comms. I’ll take anyone from either faction.
This is why I still proclaim how important it is to scan portals (2FLA), because it is not difficult for Niantic to look at their data, and see that you were indeed there.
Overclock is also capable of MFLA, but I have not seen any moves from Niantic about using VPS gameplay features as a MFLA mechanism.
I am truly sorry you have lost your account.
Unless you can provide ample evidence to Niantic you weren't spoofing there, there is nothing the community can do.
Ok. I will start scanning portals. I am guessing I can open a new account.
If everything you did was legit and mass reporting caused the ban then that's not how they've looked at things in the past. They've always looked at actual evidence and not hearsay. I'd create a new account and take someone with you to the lighthouse again. If you get banned again then Niantic is simply protecting a portal for a team. I wouldn't put that past them.
Maybe I’ll bring someone from my faction and let them flip the portal. Of course they may be hesitant with the problems it has seemed to cause me.
They no longer check for evidence.
@Nysyr What's your source for that?
I can confirm I never got any chance to submit evidence. I made every attempt but there was no way . By the time I got an actual email that I could reply to. It was already stated the case was closed and the determination was final.
Unfortunately, I've been in cities where people are gone because they were falsely reported as spoo fing.
The ONLY thing that players can do to protect themselves from these false reports of spoo fing is to scan the wayspot.
It does not matter how much you dislike this fact, it is however the truth.
And all for just 15 to 20 seconds.
And have a device that is supported for scanning
As a new player I never thought about doing it. Maybe if I get another chance I will definitely scan. Thank you
Take it as oppertunity to leave the sinking ship.
If your local community is that unfriendly its not getting any better in the future.
I will call you out everytime you bring it up with scanning 😂
Niantic needs a minimum of multiple high quality scans. So no, it's not only 15 seconds. Please get your head out of your **** on this terrible thinking.
Very strange, what was your play pattern last days before it happend, did u go somewhere you normally didnt ? Some ToS offenses can lead to instant ban no strike 1 or 2 at first so it seems that happend here unless its a 30 day suspension...
@Grogyan Niantic Ingress Ops agents do not have access to the scan data. No matter how many times you say people should scan to prove presence, it's simply not available to the team that would be investigating reports. And since scans can be queued for later upload, I'm not even sure that that would be an accurate indication of your presence on location AT THE TIME in any case.
Does the original poster have anything to add or comment on, or is this thread now about Mjh and his lighthouse?
On topic and on the subject of lower level accounts trying to hit high value portals early game, would it be a safe bet to submit a new portal photo at the time of the visit to confirm presence? Or would it be advisable to intergrate with the local community so that your team can know of your intentions to visit and back you up with any spoofing claims? Tia
Portal photo submissions go to Wayfarer, and are reviewed and approved/rejected by the community. Ingress Ops would only have access to the photos after approval and sync to Ingress. Submitting a photo can be done from gallery, so would also not be verifiable as being taken on the day at the relevant time, and Ops would in any case not know what the location should even look like at the time to be able to verify it as accurate or not.
Stop trying to make scanning a requirement (of even durable portals).
Ingress devs do have access to the data.
As I have talked with them about it.
There is also a video online of one of the Ingress devs talking about MFLA
Nia ops also have access to the data
I will continue with recommending scanning for 2FLA
It is up to Nia Ops to do due diligence and review scan history of that player in the wayfarer database
Ingress devs are not Ingress Ops agents. They do not handle player tickets on cheating.
Once again, Ingress Ops SUPPORT agents do not have access to this data and also do not have access to Wayfarer data. The same way they do not have access to or handle Pogo tickets, Wayfarer tickets, Pikmin, Peridot or Monster Hunter Now tickets.
You're a whole entire level of stubborn.