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Summary

Between December 2023 and January 2024, some GTA Online players in China experienced a strange ban wave, characterized by the following:

1. Players were banned without receiving any email notification. Click here to view my inbox
2. All affected players received permanent bans without a prior 30-day suspension.
3. Most players experienced both account and HWID (hardware) bans simultaneously.
4. The character of these players on Social Club has not been reset to this day. Click here to view my character
5. The ban reason is "Egregious Spammer Accounts," rather than the more common "Cheating Behavior."

These points contradict Rockstar's user management policies, and Rockstar has not made any statement or explanation regarding this ban. So far, hundreds of players have been affected, and most of these players are confident that they did not violate any user policies or engage in any spam behavior during their time in GTA Online. These players commonly refer to this ban as a "fake-ban," a term we will also use throughout this document.

Here is the link to the list of players who have been fake-banned.

Details

The fake-ban appears to be limited to players in China, with one noticeable commonality among the affected players: most of them had played in public sessions shortly before being Fake-banned, while players who only played in invite-only sessions during that time were unaffected.

Initially, players believed they had fallen victim to login interceptions caused by cheaters who were using third-party software. Many of them submitted appeals to Rockstar, but they all received nearly identical responses, which did not actually answer the their questions.

Upon further investigation, players found that third-party software did not have the ability to intercept logins. After that, a player affected by the fake-ban contacted Rockstar's customer support, and through their conversation, it was revealed that the Fake-banned players were categorized by Rockstar as "Egregious Spammer Accounts," confirming that the fake-ban was indeed imposed by Rockstar.

The response from customer service confirmed that players were not banned for using third-party software or exploiting game glitches. However, this categorization is clearly inaccurate. As is widely known, spammers in sessions are almost exclusively bots controlled by scripts, mostly running on public computers owned by studios rather than private computers of regular players. Additionally, spammers do not engage in normal gameplay, and there are many differences in game data between spammers and regular players. The character information of the players affected by the fake-ban is still available on Social Club (which is inconsistent with Rockstar's policy on banned players), and the recorded data can easily prove that the account owners are not spammers.

The fake-ban has affects players at various stages of the game. Especially for those who have invested a long time and experience in the game, using their account as a spammer is obviously unreasonable. Player @Abradanzht provided a video to prove that he played the game normally, and most of the Fake-banned players were the same as him. Which means that the emergence of fake-ban is totally unreasonable.

Players' Dilemma

The fake-ban on players is clearly a mistake, as most players affected by the fake-ban have not violated user policies, and the method of banning does not align with Rockstar's ban policies for violating accounts. Moreover, the claim of "Egregious Spammer Accounts" does not correspond to the actual behavior of these players.

However, for various reasons, players in mainland China have difficulty sharing their experiences on foreign social media platforms like YouTube and X, resulting in very little content about the fake-ban. Additionally, they are unable to directly contact Rockstar staff to describe their situation, which may have led Rockstar to be unaware of the fake-ban incident occurring in China.

The players affected by the fake-ban hope that Rockstar will notice the unjust treatment they have endured and resolve this incident.

Some Speculations

During the investigation of the fake-ban, players discovered some noteworthy points.

1. Most of the players affected by the fake-ban had previously joined public sessions that included spammers.
2. The fake-ban includes both account bans and hardware bans. Most affected players have been banned on both their accounts and hardware, while a few have only received hardware bans. Additionally, hardware bans seem to be quite rare in Rockstar's previous actions against violating users.
3. Rockstar's current method of dealing with spammers seems to have shifted to intercepting the spam messages they send in sessions, rather than banning spammers' accounts under the reason of "Egregious Spammer Accounts."
4. In December 2023, there was a global ban wave in Red Dead Online, and some players in China were also affected. These players received email notifications from Rockstar, clearly stating that the ban was for 30 days and their characters would be reset. This incident was later confirmed to be a mistaken ban, possibly due to a test of Rockstar's ban system.

Based on the reasons provided by Rockstar's customer service, along with some of the actual situations mentioned above, some players speculate that the temporary ban system targeting spammers deployed in the Chinese region may have mistakenly classified normal players as spammers and banned them.

Ending

This article aims to inform more GTA Online players about the fake-ban incident affecting Chinese players, in the hope of drawing Rockstar's attention to the matter. Thank you for reading and for your concern about the fake-ban incident.

Thanks to GTA Online player @Abradanzht for continuously pushing forward the fake-ban incident and raising awareness on the internet.

Special thanks to @Tez2 for providing us with valuable information and constructive suggestions.

Update 24.11.1

A Fake-banned player @Hitman35701, has provided an interesting detail. In March 2024, Rockstar launched a Vehicle Offer, which required players to "Not have been suspended or banned by Rockstar Games at any time" to be eligible. Here is the link to Rockstar's Vehicle Offer FAQ.

Ironically, many Fake-banned players were able to redeem the Vehicle Offer successfully, with screenshots to back this up.

Player @Hitman35701 also shared a screenshot showing their online mode character displayed in GTA's Director Mode.

These facts further prove that the characters of Fake-banned players still exist in Rockstar's database. It also suggests that, from Rockstar's perspective, these players may not have been banned in the typical sense.

Update 24.11.24

After investigation, the first discussion about the fake-ban on Chinese social media platforms appeared on December 13, 2023, which was the day after the release of The Chop Shop DLC update.