Niantic Explains Their Three-Strike Policy For Pokemon GO Cheaters

Niantic, the developers behind Pokemon GO, have announced a Three-Strike Policy that’s implemented to discourage trainers from cheating.

The policy is executed in three stages. In the first stage, offenders receive a warning message within Pokemon GO. For 7 days, offenders won’t encounter rare Pokemon in the wild and will be excluded from receiving EX Raid Passes.

In the second stage, offenders will be suspended for 30 days, and in the final stage, their account will be permanently banned.

There are of course exceptions to the Three-Strike Policy. Some misbehaviors may result in immediate account termination. Niantic also allows offenders to appeal their account bans, but keep in mind very few terminations are overturned due to the high accuracy of Pokemon GO’s anti-cheat detection system.

Here’s the full rundown:

Strike 1: Warning

Disciplinary actions

If this strike is issued, you will see a warning message within the Pokémon GO app informing you that we have detected cheating on your account.

In addition to this warning, your gameplay experience may be degraded in the following ways for the duration of the warning:

• You may not be able to encounter rare Pokémon in the wild. These Pokémon may not appear on the map or on the Nearby Pokémon tracker.
• You may be excluded from receiving new EX Raid Passes.

Duration: 
This strike will last for approximately 7 days. After this period, your gameplay experience will fully be restored.

Strike 2: Suspension

Disciplinary actions

If your account is issued a second strike, you will temporarily lose access to your Pokémon GO account. When attempting to log into the game, you’ll be presented with a message stating that your account is suspended. You will not be able to bypass this message.

Duration: 
This strike will last for approximately 30 days. After that period, your account access will be restored.

Strike 3: Termination

Disciplinary actions

If you receive the first and second strikes and continue to cheat, your account will be permanently banned.

Duration: 
Permanent