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Rockstar Games Drops the Hammer on GTA Online Cheaters with Permanent Bans

Rockstar Games just dropped the hammer on GTA Online players found using an account duplication exploit, banning them permanently.


Rockstar Games is clamping down on cheaters and hackers again, reminding players that there's no place for them in GTA Online.
Rockstar Games is clamping down on cheaters and hackers again, reminding players that there's no place for them in GTA Online.

Grand Theft Auto Online and its expansive open world are no stranger to players who are looking to exploit the game however they can, much to the disappointment of Rockstar Games and the vast majority of players who play by the rules.

This has forced Rockstar to occassionally crack down on cheaters and modders in an effort to maintain fair play. Most recently, Rockstar targeted players taking advantage of an account duplication exploit, resulting in permanent bans.

The said exploit allowed players to create exact copies of other players’ accounts. As a result, many players gained access to high ranks and substantial in-game wealth with little effort. The issue was so prevalent that accounts with a Rank of 7984 became a common sight, signaling the widespread use of this exploit.

In response, Rockstar Games has issued permanent bans to those found guilty of exploiting this flaw on PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.

What’s surprising about this latest ban wave is that cheating is rare in console games due to their closed ecosystem. This is in stark contrast to the PC version of GTA Online, which is much more susceptible to these kinds of exploits. Regardless of the platform, though, GTA Online has a clear suspension and ban policy: decisions are final and cannot be appealed.

Most recently, an incident occurred where hackers could delete players’ profiles or crash games, forcing Rockstar to address the vulnerabilities through patches and updates.

Despite the current ban wave targeting exploiters, many remain skeptic about the effectiveness of such measures in the long term. Cheaters and modders have been a persistent part of the GTA Online ecosystem, and while the recent actions have made a significant impact, it’s unlikely to eradicate the issue entirely.

Rockstar’s updates to its suspension and ban policy aim to deter cheating by making the consequences clear: if you cheat, you’ll get banned and so we urge all GTA Online players to stick to the game’s rules. Engaging in modding or exploiting game mechanics can lead to a permanent account ban, loss of all in-game assets, and the necessity to purchase the game again under a different account to regain access to GTA Online.

Comments: 15 replies

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Avatar of Matt
Matt

Administrator

43 messages 32 likes

Goes to show that no platform is safe

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Avatar of Genius
Genius

Active member

110 messages 63 likes

Can't say I am mad about this if they are duplicating other people's accounts.

However, peppermint bans are a slippery slope. I know someone that got banned years ago for simply making use of a bug in the game that they later went on to fix but he never got his account back. This caused him to not even bother buying RDR2 and basically swore off anything Rockstar.

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Avatar of MeteorMuffin23
MeteorMuffin23

Member

50 messages 17 likes

Hacking on consoles has always been a major issue for gaming and Rockstar notoriously took it more seriously than other developers. People saying they are getting banned for no reason are coping real hard if they were part of this nonsense.

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m
midnightmango7

Member

57 messages 23 likes

Man. Like I get modding. Modding that is done to games offline should be acceptable within reason but hacking should never be. The fact that they are still managing to hack this game on console shows that these sorts of players are relentless and will continue to be a problem.

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Avatar of NeonNarwhal29
NeonNarwhal29

Member

60 messages 32 likes

I still remember when they banned a bunch of people shortly after online went live because people found an exploit with the auto body shop to make easy money selling cars. You were able to stack up money so fast. Not everyone got banned from it but many did and some were permanent bans. Others got 6 months or 1 year bans.

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Avatar of 8bitavenger
8bitavenger

Active member

135 messages 82 likes

I wish they would have taken bans more seriously on PC cause it quickly got ruined because of all the hackers and people running mods online. Console is harder to hack and exploit but clearly it doesn't stop anyone from trying.

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Avatar of Crusader
Crusader

Active member

128 messages 75 likes

Hackers ruin everything. I am honestly just sick of people doing this. If you can't get good at a game and earn rank or rewards without the need for cheating, maybe you need to just stick with offline gaming.

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Avatar of xXGameSlayerXx
xXGameSlayerXx

Active member

118 messages 65 likes

This is the way. Ban them and make them hurt. You can't give people like this second chances, especially not now. It is far too late for that. Just get rid of the lot of them. If only they did take cheating more seriously on PC... I hope they do for the next one.

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Avatar of Hassan
Hassan

Active member

176 messages 181 likes

I didn't even know that account duplication is a thing...

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Avatar of Hassan
Hassan

Active member

176 messages 181 likes

I still remember being spammed by random chat messages and phone text msgs. Although that has been fixed, I still get hackers spamming me with dodgy links in my Social Club DMs!

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Avatar of theRealGamerGuy
theRealGamerGuy

Member

99 messages 69 likes

People that need to hack a game to have fun are just sad.

I think a better solution than just banning them would be to "ghost" ban them. Let them play the game but put them in lobbies with other hackers and cheaters and make it so the game will crash at random on them and make NPCs 100 times harder. Make them hate the game.

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Avatar of MeteorMuffin23
MeteorMuffin23

Member

50 messages 17 likes

The early days of bans with this game seemed to have no rhyme or reason. Like people getting banned for the same things were banned different lengths. I think they were handing them out manually which is why it didn't make sense.

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Avatar of 8bitavenger
8bitavenger

Active member

135 messages 82 likes

I can't remember when it was but a friend of mine mentioned while playing on PC that they were getting spammed actual porn sites and scam crypto sites. This was happening for like 3 days and then it stopped so I think Rockstar does act quick for stuff like this but I don't think they care about dm's in social clubs. I reported a few in the past and nothing was done.

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Avatar of Hassan
Hassan

Active member

176 messages 181 likes

Yeah, it is unfortunate and very annoying to deal with.

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Avatar of CosmicCookie89
CosmicCookie89

Member

45 messages 18 likes

What I don't understand is how or why they would not have dedicated teams for stuff like this working for them full time. Maybe they do? I don't know but I know if they hired actual hackers they can be two steps ahead and be able to spot weaknesses and vulnerabilities before stuff like this even happens.

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Ray Ampoloquio
Ray Ampoloquio // Articles: 265
Hooked since first hearing "Hmm...nice bike" as a kid over a decade ago, Ray provides entertaining GTA coverage blending nostalgia for the golden age with hype about the future. // Full Bio