I live in northern Scotland on a small island called Fair Isle. It’s very remote and takes about 15 minutes by car to drive across the island (as the crow flies.)
There is someone (who I believe is using multiple accounts) to spoof this tiny island. I think they’re spoofing because I will literally be the only person for miles around a gym, yet the kick me out within minutes of taking it. How could they do that if they’re not close by? The other location you can only access if you have wifi which is only available in a cafe. I will literally be the only customer in the cafe, with the 70 year old keeper definitely not playing pokemon go, and again, kicked out in minutes. No matter what time of day or night, I’m kicked out.
I think they’re using multiple accounts because all the accounts rejoin the gym withing seconds of each other and many are similarly themed. I would happily list all the usernames but I am not sure if that is allowed here.
Here’s the kicker. My profile is made to look like one of my favorite performers who is African American. This player made an account with a player that looked EXACTLY like mine (Same clothes, hair, skin color) and made the user name “Imablacknegga12345” which I immediately reported. I got a notice that Pokemon required them to change their name, so they changed it to “blacknegga12345.” I reported THAT name also, got the same reply from pokemongo that they forced them to change it, and now it’s just something generic. But that’s the kind of person this is. A racist spoofer. Nice.
1 Like
The same has happened here in my town, but with real present players, not with spoofers.
So, for me, the problem is the behaviour, not being spoofer.
Manipulation of GPS-Data is quite easy, so, yes, you have spoofers there,
1 Like
I’m inclined to agree with baggs. The predatory gym-blocking is what should be ridiculed, not specifically the location faking. I’ve met courteous gps-tweakers who do nothing irregular other than pretend to be playing somewhere else if they live somewhere with no spawns or stops, or if their local players are toxic. And I’ve met obnoxious local players who are much like what @darktales describes. It’s the latter, not the former, that are a problem, the way I see it.
1 Like
You’ve called it correct, they are spoofing and are being obnoxious about it.
You could report them but more than likely Niantic won’t do anything based on one persons report. All it might do is give you piece of mind you’ve tried.
If you want to be obnoxious back you could battle the Gym(s) after x amount of time and hope they stuff themselves up GPS jumping and Niantic’s bots pick up the unrealistic time jumping.
You only other hope is they are after the Gold Gym badge so after 21 days they will be gone and not seen again.
3 Likes
The thing you will have to come to terms with is this company’s inability to maintain their game.
There will literally be weeks I won’t play just because of how painful the experience is playing against bots or people abusing bugs and cheating.
In the last 2 days I’ve probably reported close to a dozen accounts for just botting.
Maybe more.
It takes a lot of the fun out of the game when you put time and effort into accomplishing something and someone else just comes along and totally nullifies it by cheating.