While waiting for others to show up at a Sprint legendary raid last night, we noticed there were 13 trainers in the lobby. When someone went in to take a look, we didn’t recognize any of the names and realized they were spoofers. There were only a few seconds left so we didn’t have time to take screenshots of the spoofers. While discussing this with another trainer later in the evening, he said at the last EX raid we were at, while waiting for me, 17 spoofers jumped into the EX raid. I was wondering why only six local trainers received EX raid passes. The last two EX raids, only seven local trainers received passes for each. By targeting these sponsored gyms, the spoofers are taking away many EX raid passes for legitimate local trainers.
My question is, if we do get screenshots, how do we report these spoofers. And will Niantic even do anything about them?
I was also told there are Twitter accounts that report EX raid locations at sponsored gyms and I managed to find one in about a minute. I know Niantic can’t shut these Twitter accounts down but I wish they could!
This is a catch 22, the spoofers doing raids there also helps trigger the EX raid. One has to ask if the raids would have happened without them targeting the spot.
I don’t condone spoofing but it seems possible that this is an instance where they are helping more than hurting.
The truth is very funny when saying that you can not stand the spoofers when you justify them for their spoofer situation
Besides, what you say does not make any sense, if the spoofers had not made incursions in the place another would have done it.
That’s true, as I hadn’t thought about it that way. Although in my general area, there are only four gyms that produce EX raids, two sponsored and two in a park. The local trainers target those four gyms so it’s possibly that even without spoofers we’d be able to trigger the EX raids. At the first few EX raids, we had more than 30 local trainers at each. It’s only been the last few weeks where the local trainers’ EX raid passes have dwindled down.
Were the first EX Raids during the test phase or after the full release? The invite numbers were much higher during testing.
As you say, the local group may have been active enough to trigger EX raids and if that is the case then it is a travesty that spoofers are cheating and earning spots.
If local activity isn’t enough to trigger the raid and the spoofers are pushing the raid activity for the location to a point where EX Raids are triggered then it actually benefits the local group. At least some folks would get passes they would have not otherwise received.
The Park very close to home has become very well known for it’s Rotating Ex Raids at all 4 of Gyms now.
This has bought many people from other parts of the City into the area for a chance of getting an Ex Raid Pass which in turn increases the number of Raids to all but garantee further Ex Passes will be issued.
This has also attracted the Spoofers to the area. Over the last couple of weeks a number of these players have been caught in the act and 100% confirmed.
A large group of us know a majority of the Trainer names and who they belong to physically. When there is a name in the Lobby that’s not recognised by some one, the group is asked to acknowledge they are present. Failures of acknowledgement results in the Trainer Name being screen shot and everyone jumping out and switching to Private Battle to lock the person(s) out.
All Ex Raids are conducted under Private Battle from the start in case some have gotten Passes from solo Raids.
This vigilance has seen a number of them caught and outed resulting in permanent Bans from the local Discord and access to the Map.
Yeah we noticed a spoofer or 2 in our EX-raid trigger last saturday. We were gonna go first as an Instinct group, then suddenly theres a valor player, but none of the players actually there were this player.
When we do Mewtwo, were just gonna go in closed groups to prevent spoofers from joining. It does suck they take away passes from legit players tough.
In our area we have well enough trainers that actually remove themselves from the couch and physically raid enough to trigger the ex raids, but when the ex passes come out spoofers still get passes and hold the gyms for their specific teams. We simply gather the physical players in their respective teams as groups and private the ex raid. There are some that don’t mind the “air support” so they form their own private groups and battle mewtwo. So far we have kept it civilized with the only ones getting upset are the ones that don’t manage to catch him.
I guess i’m lucky. In live in a city with a very active raiding group, no spoofers besides the very very occasional 1, no over the top rivalry between teams and people are actually glad for each other when getting Ex passes.
I’m glad my city isn’t super big. We only have 31 gyms and 3 S2-cell with (badly devided) viable gyms. We are not big enough for spoofers. They target the neighboring cities that are way bigger. At least that is what i think.
Lure events are more proof of this. In my city players put lures on during a 3- or 6 hour event, in the bigger cities all you see is bot accounts.
this weekend we triggered 2 mewtwo’s. 1 gym already has 47 confirmed players attending so i doubt we see any spoofers
We have a group of 8 of us that raid at a Sprint store, for the last 10 legendary raids we were the only people in the parking lot. We jump in and start counting… over 40 spoofers also in there. So far, 2 of us have received an Ex pass… it seems curious and makes me wonder how many of us would have gotten invites if the spoofers weren’t there. It makes me not want to play as much, kind of a huge bummer.
You can’t get an Ex Pass if you don’t do the Raids. Make sure you always do Private battle so not to help any of them out.
Yes it is frustrating those that choose to play that way are most likely affecting the distribution of EX Passes but that’s no reason to put up the white flag. Really it’s more of a reason to try and expand your legit playing group.
Somewhere around 50-70 People at the Ex Raid today broke into 5 Groups and all did Private Battle to lock at least one confirmed Spoofer out who kept dropping into a neutral Gym before the Mew2 hatched.
It all depends on how you play: obviously a Rural player is going to want as many players regardless of how they play In the EX raid with them, while an urban player with a raid group probably won’t want any.
That urban player can also not clog up the few sponsored gyms in the town where he knows he has no chance, but instead go for more local park gyms where 1) not that many legits play and 2) not that many spoofers play
