Dear Wayfarer Team and Community, I am writing to appeal the permanent ban on my Wayfarer and Niantic accounts, as notified in the email from noreply@nianticlabs.com dated December 3, 2025. The violation cited is “Tham gia vòng tròn đánh giá” (participating in reviewing circles), but I firmly believe this is a mistake. I created a Wayfarer account but have never performed any reviews, likes, votes, approvals, rejections, or participated in any reviewing activity. My account history shows zero reviews submitted.
I have also never submitted any nominations to avoid any risk of violation.
I have reviewed my activity logs and found no evidence of involvement. If specific logs (e.g., timestamps, IP addresses, or related nominations) are available, I am happy to provide additional details for verification.
I have always adhered strictly to the Player Guidelines and Wayfarer Criteria, including “Play fair” principles. This ban has unfairly extended to my main game account (Pokémon GO), disrupting my legitimate gameplay. I kindly request: Re-review internal data to confirm this as a case of mistaken identity (possibly due to similar accounts or system error).
Immediately reinstate my Wayfarer and Niantic accounts.
Provide details on the “internal investigation” or prior emails (I have not received any prior warnings).
I am committed to contributing positively and fairly to the Niantic community. Thank you for your time in reviewing this urgent appeal. I look forward to a swift resolution.
Best regards
Thịnh
Mod edit: Removed personal information (Staff has access to this information)
I have shared the details in a DM. Please note that we have conclusive evidence in support of our decision. This suspension is final and non-negotiable.
Thank you for your response and for sharing the details via direct message.I acknowledge that I have used multiple accounts, which I understand violates Niantic’s Terms of Service and Player Guidelines (specifically, “Using multiple or shared accounts to circumvent gameplay”).
However, I respectfully request reconsideration of the permanent ban, as my actions were not severe enough to warrant a lifetime suspension—especially since my main Wayfarer account has never performed any reviews, likes, votes, approvals, rejections, or participated in “reviewing circles” whatsoever. I have zero review history.To better understand and learn from this:Could you please provide specific evidence of my Wayfarer-related violations (timestamps, IP logs, or linked activities)? This would allow me to fully address the issue.
I am willing to provide screenshots or verification, but my account is locked (“10 years”), preventing access to my profile/history.
I am committed to complying fully moving forward and appreciate any opportunity for a reduced penalty
You can reply to them in the DM, it does not specifically have to be on the open forum. I also think it best if this handled between a DM, and not with community messages between.
It is good that you have acknowledged (some of) the abuse that you have committed. Even though you don’t need to discuss this in public, it assists other wayfarers with understanding the situation.
There is a mismatch though between you describing one account as your Main Wayfarer account, yet saying it has done no reviews and no submissions. I would not describe this as a main account (leaving aside the obvious issue of having main and secondary accounts). You also haven’t commented on whether any of your other accounts did reviews or submissions.
If you used multiple accounts, then you’re basically you’re own review circle I suppose Your main account is no different to your others - it’s your own actions controlling all the accounts.
Please spread the word around your local community that multiple accounts do break the rules and that players should just have 1 account. It might save others from going through the same thing you did.
Dear Niantic Support Team
At 5pm on December 3, 2025, my account received a permanent ban notice with the reason “Reviewing Circle”
After researching from all sources, I found out that the notice I received was from Wayfarer.
I was permanently banned for misusing the service or violating some of Wayfarer’s rules.
I came to this community through Pokemon GO and have never used any services from Wayfarer before.
I was permanently banned for a reason I don’t know
I also learned about the three-strike policy that Niantic put in place.
Maybe in the process of using and experiencing the game Pokemon GO, I also made some mistakes and principles that Niantic gave.
But I haven’t gotten any warnings so I can realize I’m wrong and need to fix it.
This account has a lot of memories for me and it is the meaning of my life now. I am very shocked and sad.
I hope Niantic can review my account activities carefully and reduce my penalty, so that I can correct my mistakes and join this community again.Permanent ban is too harsh for me
Thanks for reading my post, hope to get a response from Team Niantic.
Can I suggest you review the wayfarer policy around infringement and the sanctions that are applied
You will read that if the offence is considered severe you can go straight to a higher punishment level.
You will have received a link to appealing the ban. Please do appeal, they are all reviewed and assessed by staff.
Often what will happen here is that a member of staff will contact via DM. The best advice is to be open and honest in those exchanges. It is the weekend so that may take time.
The community here will be happy to assist with any questions in meantime, but we are not staff.
Hello @elijustrying and thanks so much for the welcome
We are a small group of players from Viet Nam, we have a total of 26 accounts corresponding to 26 players. And we all decided to name ourselves the same with the first 5 letters 79NTx …
We all did not use Wayfarer’s service. But we were all permanently banned for the same reason: “reviewing circle”.
This is not an individual but a small community
For the past 3 days we have been continuously appeal and trying to get support from the Niantic team.
Within 4 hours from 4pm to 8pm Vietnam, a total of 26 accounts of members of our community received permanent ban notices.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO THE POKÉMON GO COMMUNITY – MASS BANS AFFECTING GROUP 79NTx
Hello everyone,
We would like to report a serious issue currently happening to our group (79NTx) and potentially to many other Pokémon GO communities as well.
Multiple accounts from our group were permanently banned at the same time
All accounts received the same reason:
“Involvement in creating or removing PokéStops / Wayfarer abuse.”
However, this situation is extremely unusual because:
No one in our group has created PokéStops, removed PokéStops, or submitted edits.
Many of us have never used Wayfarer at all.
None of us received any warning email, strike, or temporary suspension beforehand.
All accounts were permanently banned instantly at the same time.
This strongly suggests a system error or a false-positive ban wave from Niantic
Why we believe so:
• No actual violation
• No Wayfarer involvement
• No PokéStop submissions or edits
• No spoofing or third-party tools
• No warnings issued
• Ban wave triggered across multiple accounts at the exact same time
These symptoms are identical to previous false ban waves by Niantic in 2023 and 2024.
⸻
Recommendations for other players
• If this has happened to you, submit a Ban Appeal immediately.
• Communities should gather additional cases to show Niantic this is not an isolated incident.
• Please help spread this information so other players do not panic or blame the wrong cause.
⸻
Message from group 79NTx
We confirm that our members did not violate Player Guidelines.
We did not participate in Wayfarer, did not modify PokéStops, and did not use spoofing or unauthorized tools.
We kindly request Niantic to re-review this ban wave, as it affects a large number of legitimate players.
If anyone is experiencing the same issue, feel free to comment so we can support each other.
These all appear to be related so I have merged them together to help keep the forum focussed.
If you have all appealed, then I suggest that you wait over the weekend until a member of the wayfarer team can respond. As there is nothing the wider community can do.
Please do read the information about the enforcement policy which can escalate a sanction to the highest level without a previous warning or ban if the offence is deemed severe enough.
We fully respect the Wayfarer and Niantic rules. However, we would like to kindly request leniency for the following accounts:
79NTxBeVy
79NTxHienHoa
79NTxAnhWin
79NTxChuWin
79NTxAnhThang
These accounts have never received any prior warnings, suspensions, or strikes before the recent 10-year ban decision.
According to Niantic’s general 3-strike policy, actions normally escalate gradually (warning → temporary suspension → long suspension), unless the violation is extremely severe.
Because there were no previous notices or chances to correct behavior, we respectfully ask if the penalty could be reduced to a temporary suspension instead of a long-term ban.
We are willing to fully comply with all rules and ensure no future issues.
We kindly hope you can reconsider and give these accounts a second chance.
The rules are clear in the enforcement policy, that you have been pointed to. For severe breeches an account can go straight to permanent ban.
As you already have had a DM I think you should accept that the rules have been broken and that pleading for leniency does not apply.
Your main account is no different to your others - it’s your own actions controlling all the accounts.
IMPORTANT NOTICE TO THE POKÉMON GO COMMUNITY – MASS BANS AFFECTING GROUP 79NTx
This strongly suggests a system error or a false-positive ban wave from Niantic
Recommendations for other players
Message from group 79NTx