'Pokémon GO' cheats, tips news update: Cheaters will be banned; player gets entire country banned by Niantic

Niantic is cracking down on players who resort to cheating to speed up their progress in "Pokémon GO."

According to Niantic, using multiple accounts, using bots, selling or trading accounts, using stat tracking sites, and using modified or third-party software that allows players to tweak their GPS signals such that they appear to be moving when they are not all constitute cheating. The mobile game developer warns that players caught cheating could be permanently banned from the game.

Recent reports by players indicate that Niantic has been strictly enforcing the rule, which is indicated in the terms and conditions of "Pokémon GO." The developer reportedly sent out formal letters on Thursday, Aug. 18, to violators, who then shared them online.

According to Niantic, players seeking reconsideration after having been falsely accused of cheating can make an appeal to have their permanent bans lifted.

Meanwhile, a curious "Pokémon GO" player may have caused the entire country of Belgium to be banned from the super popular location-based augmented reality mobile game.

According to ComicBook.com, on Friday, Aug. 19, a Redditor on the /r/pokemongodev subreddit decided to test Niantic's IP bans, which are applied to control the use of bots in the game. Unlike player bans, IP bans still allow players to log into "Pokémon GO," but Pokémon, Pokéstops, and gyms do not appear.

The Reddit user from /r/pokemongodev allegedly launched thousands of simultaneous scans of the game's servers using several burner SIMs. The scans were linked to a particular national IP address used by Belgian phone service provider Proximus, the largest mobile telecommunications company in Belgium.

While the Redditor found that he was successful in running the scans using the national IP address, Niantic eventually caught on and banned the IP address. This resulted in the developer essentially banning every "Pokémon GO" player on Proximus' cell coverage from accessing the game.

ComicBook.com notes that whoever flagged and banned the IP address was probably unaware that it was not a personal IP address.

According to the Redditor who allegedly caused the Proximus ban, he hadn't really gone through with the test. Instead, Niantic banned the Proximus IP address as a preemptive measure after getting wind of his plans.