Think you can get the jump on other Pokémon Go players by cheating? You better think long and hard about whether beating the game with technological trickery is worth losing access to it for the rest of your life (or however long Pokémon Go is around).

The company has started issuing lifetime bans, and has updated its support pages to specifically call out users “falsifying [their] location, using emulators, modified or unofficial software and/or accessing Pokémon Go clients or backends in an unauthorized manner including through the use of third-party software,” The Guardian points out. Users who are banned can appeal the decision.

Niantic is also taking legal action against the developers of various bots and tools that allow Pokémon Go users to play 24/7, that circumvent the game’s location-tracking system to make it look like the person is walking around in the real world catching Pokémon, when they’re just sitting in one spot.

Such behavior has resulted in powerful players with monsters that totally take over Pokémon gyms, making it really tough for players who don’t cheat to battle them effectively.

“Our goal is to provide a fair, fun and legitimate game experience for everyone,” Niantic said. “We will continue to work with all of you to improve the quality of the gameplay, including ongoing optimization and fine-tuning of our anti-cheat system.”

Niantic cracks down on Pokémon Go cheats with lifetime bans [The Guardian]

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