If you want to be a part of your local community, you can easily find yourself 'blacklisted' among them for cheating. Most online forums are filled up with people complaining about all of these practices and more. Instead, just rely on the in-game appraisal!

Fortunately, Pokémon Go has simplified the appraisal system, so you no longer benefit from using an IV checker. Changing your Google password and revoking account access to these apps can help avoid and reverse the ban. Auto-IV checkers: Pokémon Go isn't just shadow-banning bots that abuse the API, they're banning accounts that have granted access to third-party apps like IV checkers that abuse the API as well.Pokémon Go has implemented a cool down timer to help combat this problem by preventing players from taking back a cleared spot for several minutes after the attack has ceased. Shaving/cycling: Those who can't or simply don't want to take over new Gyms will sometimes switch to a second account for another team, knock a teammate's Pokémon off a Gym owned by their own team, and then replace it with their own Pokémon from that team.When they take down a Gym, they quickly fill it up with the accounts of their friends, families, and teammates - sometimes even if those people have long since stopped playing. Multi-accounting: Some people who don't bot or spoof still cheat by using multiple accounts.That includes shadow-bans, which are preventing bot accounts (including those used for maps) from seeing anything other than common Pokémon, and slashing out illegitimately obtained Pokémon, so they're useless in battle anyway. Again, Niantic is always trying to make this harder and less useful than it was in the past. It's financed by online maps with ads and donation buttons, and by people who buy accounts online. With an army of fake characters and a bunch of scripts, botters travel the PokéScape, collecting as many high level Pokémon as possible. Botting: Botting is like spoofing but automated.In addition to potentially banning your account, Niantic also slashes out illegitimately obtained Pokémon, so they're useless in battle anyway. Niantic has a long history of banning players caught spoofing, in Pokémon Go and in Ingress before it. This can get you access to Raids and Gym, as well as lie to the game about how much you're walking. For a game based on your real world location, spoofing tells Pokémon Go that you're somewhere you're really not. Spoofing: Some people fake their GPS location.

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