Last summer, we reported that an alarming number of iPhone users were receiving bans in Pokémon GO despite following the app's rules. At the time, it was thought that "thousands" of accounts had been impacted, causing developer Niantic to acknowledge and investigate claims that its systems were operating incorrectly.
Now, it appears that a similar issue is happening once again. In recent weeks, more and more cases of players receiving a 'First Strike' ban have started to appear on social media platforms such as Reddit, where players – specifically on iPhone – are reporting that they're being handed out these bans despite doing no wrong. In some cases, they report receiving the First Strike ban over and over again, making them believe that there's some sort of bug plaguing Niantic's cheat detection system.
"I was given a [first] strike ban last week," one Reddit user explains. "I attempted to appeal it to no success. For some reason I feel like the people at Niantic support had no interest in helping me, or they were just a bunch of bots... This morning was supposed to be the end of my ban and I was pretty excited to start catching Pokémon again. My ban was lifted for about an hour or so, UNTIL I got to work and opened the app and saw that I had ANOTHER First Strike Ban."
Replies to these online threads suggest that plenty of players are experiencing similar issues, with many accusing Niantic's customer support of being "worthless" or "useless" when they've asked for their case to be reviewed. One player who did manage to escape from these ongoing bans was @whyldegamer, a prominent Pokémon GO player who was contacted by Niantic directly following pressure from their community.
The First Strike ban is intended to be given out to players who use modified or third-party software to 'cheat' in-game, and while this is important for keeping players on a level playing field and for punishing those who violate the app's terms, something certainly needs to be done if innocent players are being unfairly banned from the game. Here's hoping Niantic responds to player concerns soon.
Thanks to Zabdiel for reaching out to us!
Comments 14
I don't envy the logistics of having to run such a large operation with this many players, but Niantic have proven to be incompetent at running a game service in multiple ways time and time again.
It's why I stopped playing quite a while ago.
This is not a huge problem. The biggest problem are the spoofers. Thats been a problem for 4 years now and they keep going.
@Sandro89
I strongly disagree, it's a huge problem if innocent players are being falsely penalized or outright banned from playing the game, as a result of trying to fix the spoofing problem.
this missed up situation happened to me and a few others i know... But the only thing Niantic wanted me to do was to go to a ban appeal and see if this will help... two weeks later and still going through the same crap... sounds bad, but i'm glad to hear it wasn't just us 4 though
@Sandro89 why spoofing is bad for you? The worst that is going to happen to you is earn some free lures on pokestop on your region.
Banning innocent players on other hand, is indeed a huge problem. As much as shiny locking (or at least make harder to get shiny) not paying players, witch they do.
Got banned yesterday so missed community day ☹️
@abdias Spoofing is a major issue with gym control in my local area. You can take a gym and be the only person physically within radius and you’ll lose it immediately to the local spoofers. I can’t earn coins this way(nobody playing legit can really) and so I buy coins over time in order to “catch up” so to speak with those taking an unfair advantage.
That actually directly affects myself and others ability to play on equal ground with other players. And that’s not involving the people that spam our local Pokémon GO pages on the internet with regionals for sale.
Overall it’s actually annoying when you’re playing it as a fitness/walking game as it was intended to be played/
@NateM94 you want a evenly playfield but you use your credit card... nice!
Pay to win is super fair.
I'm not surprised Niantic Customer Support are absolutely worthless. Not everyone can make enough noise to get their attention. They shouldn't have to, they should be treated with the same level of attention despite social media follower numbers. Niantic are terrible developers, their customer service is a piece of crap and frankly should all be fired. Zero respect for anybody who works there. I've had several ongoing issues with no resolution and I'm done being nice, and I'm done spending any real-world money on Pokemon GO ever again.
@abdias I like how you skipped my point that I can’t earn coins the only possible way to earn coins because of spoofers. I don’t want to pay to catch up with them because the legit way is being taken advantage of. That was the whole point, yet somehow it zoomed right above your head. Clearly I thought better of you when I commented a legitimate reason. Good luck with that.
I have this also, now 3 weeks after each other.. (
@Northwind
Major complaints I've had with Niantic's running of the game have been:
They're stretching the game increasingly thinly whilst give you little back. It's going too far, and the covid lockdown situation went to show how little value the game has when you aren't going outside to play. Going outside was the reason to play the game, that was fun in of itself and a good way to engage with a community of players.
@RupeeClock everything you said plus the shiny rates being waaaay better for paying players.
I never spent a cent on this game until the mew event earlier this year. Out of 62 shiny that I have, only 8 I got before I spent real money, and I play since release (there was no shiny pkm early on but my point still applies)
I sometimes play on my iPad and I recently got this come up. I'll contact Niantic and see if they can undo it. Had to spend a week with no spawns unless I used an Incense, and it was during the Easter collection challenge.
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