Niantic is Working on Functionality to Stop GPS Spoofing in Pokemon Go

Pokemon Go has been a huge success for Niantic and the success has brought with it a massive problem for the company. There are a huge number of people playing the game and there are a huge number of cheaters that are ruining the game as well. The big problem for Niantic is people who are using GPS spoofing technology to play the game without ever leaving home.

The idea behind Pokemon Go was to get gamers out of the house and into the real world where they could collect Pokemon and battle for control of gyms. When cheaters use spoofing tech not only does that allow them to collect Pokemon without walking, but it allows them to fight for control of a gym without actually having to go to the gym and put in the effort.

Niantic Support says it is working on a fix for the spoofing issue. Niantic support tweeted, “Thanks for all your reports. Were working to add functionality to stop spoofing, and your reports are helping us with our investigations.”

One of the challenges for Niantic right now is that it lacks the ability to group reports of a similar nature. The company says that Google is helping out on their end with that issue in an effort to curb spoofing. Presumably this help from Google is talking about Android 7.1 according to BGR, which is able to flag apps that are faking location.

That fix is far from a magic bullet though, all a gamer needs to do to bypass that fix is not use Andorid 7.1. Niantic is also reportedly working on events for the summer that it aims to bring back gamers it has lost. One rumored event is a Legendary event that would see more legendary Pokemon pop up to capture.