Hello. I was permanently banned yesterday from Wayfarer (along with my PoGo account for some reason). The stated reason was for “Review circle participation”. Irritatingly, I received zero prior warnings. This permanent ban came out of nowhere and seems exceedingly harsh.
I had to google what that even is. Apparently it means Niantic suspects that I was colluding with other reviewers to get fake Wayspots approved. This is 100% false, and I would greatly appreciate if someone could look into this… Please!
My Niantic accounts have always been in good standing before now. I’ve never received any kind of infraction, I’ve never submitting a fake Wayspot, and I’ve certainly never colluded with others to do so.
If you check my recent Wayfarer activity, I don’t think I’ve even done any reviews since Dec 2025 / Jan 2026… I only became aware of this ban due to getting locked out of my PoGo account.
I tried to contact Niantic Support, but they were completely unhelpful (I think it was a bot).
Ideally, I’d prefer the ban to be completely lifted, since I’m innocent. If this is somehow not possible, please consider converting it from a permanent to a temporary ban (even a long one). A permanent ban for a first offense is just ridiculous. Losing my 10-year-old PoGo account because of this is depressing.
Staff will usually be able to share more information now that you’ve found your way to the forum. Probably after the weekend
I saw you posted on Reddit about this (warning people to avoid wayfarer), and I just wanted to say that engaging with wayfarer within the rules does not come with a risk of a ban. However, there are some very occasional cases where something goes wrong, and incorrect suspensions can be overturned with an appeal, so you came to the right place.
Queries such as yours are dealt with in the General Discussion area so I shall move it there as this is not a bug.
Often a member of the Wayfarer Team will start a forum DM with you.
If you wish to have help and support from this community do post further details.
As has been said if the evidence and actions are severe enough then you can go straight to a 10 year suspension.
The logic behind the punishments is that any malicious manipulation of the outcome in wayfarer is done to set up the gameboard in favour of those doing the manipulation. It gives those individuals an unfair in game advantage.
Hence your suspension is from Niantic games and products.
You will need to provide evidence to challenge the suspension.
I am willing to provide any information or evidence that a Niantic/Wayfarer staff member asks of me.
Do you know what kind of evidence I should prepare?
(I would like to reiterate that I’m innocent and haven’t even done any Niantic reviews in 5+ months. I was always a good & responsible player, so this ban really came out of nowhere. It’s wild to me that I’m apparently accused of severe misconduct that warrants the greatest punishment right off the bat…)
One of the emails you will have received should have details. You can start with that, feel free to post it here.
If a DM gets set up my advice is always to be honest in your responses as the staff have access to your record.
For a reviewing circle it will be around voting in a particular way with others. The application of a suspension can go back some time. It is probably best to wait and have that DM conversation. It is likely to be after the weekend.
Thank you for your advice.
These are the only two emails I’ve received about the ban. The first is the initial ban email, and the second is a response to a ban appeal I submitted to the PoGo Niantic Support.
I would like to note that in the first email, it says “For more details, look for previous emails sent by noreply@nianticlabs.com.” However, I have thoroughly checked my email and do not see any other emails from that address.
Yes, I also checked my other (real name) email that I believe was associated with my PoGo account at one point years ago. Nothing there either.
I don’t believe there were any previous emails or warnings, but if the staff would like to check/resend, that’s ok with me.
Thank you for the examples. I can confidently state that I have never received any email warnings or temporary suspensions before - like the ones in your example images.
I would like to mention that we have seen a review circle participation punishment overturned here when a reasonable explanation for the behavior Niantic had detected was given. Not having seen the prior emails will not be an excuse, but Niantic will be able to let you know what they had previously flagged.
Niantic will not disclose the private conversation they have with you to the rest of us. You may choose to share what is said here or not.
For anyone curious about how this situation turns out, I will share anything/everything Niantic staff discloses to me in private (except for any personal information like my home address, I suppose). I’ll post it in this thread. Should be interesting!
Thank you for your patience while we looked into this. We have re-evaluated your appeal and successfully lifted the ban on your Wayfarer and Pokémon GO accounts. It was an error due to overlapping details in similar sequential emails.
It was an error due to overlapping details in similar sequential emails.
means? There are a few ways to read that. It could mean that you had an email account name similar to a now-banned account, you had nomination emails that are similar/the same as some abuse-level Wayspot nominations, or you had nomination emails that were “too similar” to each other (or even something else). The whole process is rather concerning, but the last interpretation is probably the most worrying interpretation for regular submitters.
I would like to express my appreciation to @MysticWayfarer for having the confidence to challenge the decision and ability filter out unhelpful comments. Congrats!
Which comments did you think were unhelpful? I thought the community was very helpful in pointing out where the information on the abuse ladder is, and the emails that should have been received, and how to approach appealing the ban.
I am also happy that the OP followed through on this appeal, and in such a polite manner! I would have been livid. This is a great template to follow if it happens again, but I hope that it never does to anyone else.
