Ban appeal for 30 day ban - not looked into by support

General Discussion
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Hi team, I’ve seen some information on reddit and also on forums about trying to get some assistance with a 30 days account suspension.

I’ve not posted any new submissions to Wayfarer since September 2024, as I recall receiving a 7 day warning/strike on my account for submitting new stops.

I was encouraged by my local community to help contribute to new spots again, and decided to submit 2 stops on the 8th September 2025. Over Friday 12th and Saturday 13th September 2025, one of these stops was rejected, and upon appeal, it was reported as “abuse” by some reviewers. The other one of these stops, identical in nature but in a different location, was rejected, and upon appeal, it was accepted and added to the game.

I had a look at the rejected one, and realised the geo location pin was slightly too far off the spot (about 2 houses length down), so resubmitted it with the corrected location as a new spot - it’s currently in queue/under review.

I have then received a 30 day suspension on my account, and when I asked support to clarify they only told me “We have reviewed your appeal and have concluded that your account has violated our Terms of Service (https://nianticlabs.com/terms/) and the Player Guidelines (https://nianticlabs.com/guidelines/), specifically for unauthorized access to our services using modified and/or other unapproved methods of gameplay.” I tried requesting specifics as I have not violated ToS with unapproved methods of gameplay or modified services access to my knowledge, but a final response via email stated “Your appeal is closed. We’ve previously conducted a full review of your account and we informed you of our decision, which is final. Any further inquiries into this case will be ignored.”

It seems like too much of a coincidence that the only 2 times I’ve received warnings, were both times I was trying to engage actively with the community and submitting new stops for review. I’m aware that the rules are quite stringent for stops, and am of course okay if a stop is rejected, but I certainly was not trying to abuse the system.

If mods need to close/move this post to a different section I understand, but I’d appreciate some assistance in navigating a review on this suspension.

I’ve attached photos of the stops and submissions.

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Hello and welcome @chislhendrx

Can you clarify if you received 3 emails about the suspension?
If the suspension is due to breaking wayfarer rules you get a total of 3 emails one of which gives an example of the cause.

If you haven’t had that ( and some of what you say seems to point to this) it is due to activity on Pokémon Go.

The wayfarer team can comment on these posts and can also send a DM with details.

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I have shared all relevant details through a DM. Please review it. Thanks,

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Please recheck your nomination location before you submit.. you dont get banned that easily, usually its because you take photo from 3rd party or missplacement of wayspot submission. Wayfarer have no way of knowing if you missplace the submission on purpose or by accident.

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Thanks Aaron for explaining what has happened, it does seem the incorrect location (apx 30m away from the correct location) in my September submission was flagged for “abuse”, resulting in the 30 day suspension. I do wish that it was instead just flagged as an edit to fix the location, as that would have avoided the penalty.

I had also submitted an incorrect stop (I believe it was on private property, but had only just started playing) back in October 2024 that was flagged for “abuse”, resulting in a 7 day suspension.

The team considered these as repeated violations.

All in all, I understand the rules are strict and stringent, and was immediately suspended on both occasions.

Moving forward, I will refrain from submitting stops, as even when learning the rules correctly - I’m a human and can make a mistake with a location - I do not want to risk my account permanently.

Once again thanks Aaron for at least providing an explanation to me, that the support team did not in my initial email ticket.

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If the system was more lenient for these careless mistakes, people wouldn’t be as careful with their nominations as they should be. You get 2 chances during the nomination process to confirm all the information provided is accurate, specially after already getting a warning.

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Comeback again after 30days. Personally i also got 30days suspension. Whats worse that i got it right before black and kyurem event. But i come back and play again like normal. It pain me for a while but its in the past now.

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Thanks TjoeMi, it does hurt because it’s one of the only things that really helps get me out and about in public and to exercise. Missing Shadow Groudon, Mega Metagross, probably countless other little things is just a smaller side impact.

appreciate the commentary though and empathise with your pain too

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