Pokémon GO developer is taking cheating in the mobile game seriously and is starting to perma ban accounts that use game exploits like GPS spoofing.

Pokémon GO asks players to venture out into the real world and capture gyms, visit Pokestops, and find wild Pokemon. The augmented reality game's unique experience caused a worldwide phenomenon and although the game is the most fun when exploring the real world with friends, some Pokemon GO players prefer to collect them all from the comfort of their own home. Niantic isn't a big fan of this approach.

The game's core mechanics are all built around GPS tracking and location services, but some players have found ways to get around this requirement thanks to GPS spoofing. Basically, the exploit allows players to trick their phone, and the game, into thinking they are moving to specific coordinates in the real world. This means that players can load up on items, capture gyms, and find Pokemon without doing any actual exploring. This strategy is in violation of Niantic's Terms of Service for the game and the company is starting to hand out perma bans to players who use GPS spoofing.

Niantic made it clear that it was against exploits during the first few weeks of the game and even shut down the third-party tracking tools that were created to replace the game's missing feature. Now that the servers are stabilized and a new tracking tool is being tested with some users, the Pokémon GO police are turning their attention to GPS spoofers.

Here's what Niantic has to say about the bans...

"This includes, but is not limited to: falsifying your 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 punishment may sound harsh, but GPS spoofing really does give cheaters a crazy advantage over other players in terms of Pokedex racing and, even more so, gym capturing. There have already ben reports of players logging into the game on the first day that it is available in their region and finding every gym captured by users with Pokemon that were suspected to be capture with GPS spoofing.

The game's rules and vulnerabilities will continue to change as Pokémon GO grows and is patched, so we expect to hear a lot of other stories like this as gamers find new ways to get around the system and test the limits. For now, we highly recommend playing by the rules if you don't want to lose your hard-earned collection.

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Pokémon GO is now available in select regions on Android and iOS devices.