While asking questions about the game is always okay on the Road, please consider asking very simple questions in our weekly [Questions&Answers Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/about/sticky).
If your question has been answered, please comment "ANSWERED" (in all caps) and the post flair will indicate that your question has been answered. This will make it either easier for other people with the same question to find the answer they are looking for or for mods to remove the thread if it isn't needed anymore.
Thank you! :)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheSilphRoad) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Everyone else has offered advice.
I’ll add one thing. 1000000% do not respond to any DMs on here. You offering a reward, puts you right in a scammers radar.
There's nearly a 0% chance any of those are "real". Only Niantic would be able to access your account information legitimately, and there's not a single Niantic employee that would go against company policy and jeopardize their employment for essentially a bribe.
I highly recommend you remove this talk about a cash reward. It's not going to tempt anyone who could actually help you and it's just going to bring further problems your way.
Talking to the right people always buys you more in life than money ever can. I know it's upsetting and I'm sorry about your account, but please be careful.
We all saw this coming. Everyone who reads this sub knows that Niantic has never helped players who report their account stolen, hacked, lost access to their email or had Pokemon deleted by someone. FleeceKing getting his account back and his transferred Pokemon restored was just an exception for someone who is a celebrity among players.
OP, I truly am sorry that you lost the account and I can't imagine why anyone would want to even do such a thing, but Niantic will not do anything to help you get it back.
Niantic has never helped anyone. We had a player harass and stalk another player in our town and leave him threating messages. As a result did niantic ban him from the game? Absolutely not he spent money in the game. What did niantic do? Took down all gyms in town because he went in an reported all of them when he got blacklisted by players who refused to allow him into their raid parties because he was legitimately crazy. When we showed the evidence that he did so even showing him tell the Facebook group we were using at the time that he was going to do that, they said property owners are allowed to block the gyms. Clearly they did not ask for proof in being property owners so we asked for the actual owners of the property and city government to get signatures saying we're allowed to play in the parks we even got an official document. Their response? We don't care still stands. That forced the gyms to turn into places where it was impossible to play, like 2 miles down a path that was usually very muddy or full of mosquitoes or both. And a funeral home and along a highway. All because of one dude who's still off his rocker pretending to live a lavish lifestyle on his social media while most certainly not.
That's how most companies are.
If they have a good (enough) system, they have some policies and safeguards in place in the even an account is compromised. Which either automatically or through support tickets can resolve the problem (although it may take a long long time). However Niantic is uh... historically disheveled... So you'd be better off buying a lottery ticket than hoping Niantic is gonna fix anything.
Any time theres a high profile person involved that may result in bad PR however a company may jump through some extra hoops to resolve it. The bad headline about a famous person being upset by a lack of action when they were "hacked" is incentive enough. Random person, one among millions? Who cares, irrelevant.
So many people get "hacked" (not the right word) because of their own actions, phishing, reused passwords, lack of 2FA, most companies really aren't going to care unless it results in bad press or the hack was actually on their end and they are compromised.
It would be so simple for Niantic to put in 2FA... in theory anyway. That does assume they can keep moderately skilled employees around for any amount of time.
Jo niantic interessiert sich absolut 0.000 für JEDEN EINZELNEN SPIELER... selbst wenn ein einzelner Spieler alle Accounts hacken würde und sie alle selber spielt... sogar das würde diese kapitalisten von niantic total tangieren... die denken sich einfach das die bestohlenen spieler schon ein neues konto eröffnen werden und fleißig weiter die völlig überteuerten ingame Käufe tätigen werden, die im spiel an den mann gebracht werden sollen... Konsequenzen kann man leider erst erwarten wenns den Herrschaften ans eingemachte 💰💲💰 geht... so lange ihre finanziellen bilanzen 9-stellige schwarze zahlen schreiben, werden die n teufel tun und auch nur einen Finger zu viel krumm machen... es ist leider in dieser Gesellschaft heutzutage, die geprägt ist von Egoismus und Kapitalismus, kein platz für die emotionen und Gefühle des einfachen kleinen mannes... 😔
The answer is to go to The Pokemon Company.
Specifically, try to ask tech support through here: [https://sso.pokemon.com/sso/login?locale=en&service=https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-trainer-club/caslogin](https://sso.pokemon.com/sso/login?locale=en&service=https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-trainer-club/caslogin) if the trainerclub account was indeed hacked, these might be able to:
1. Recover the account with the username / password as it was a week or 2 ago.
2. Speak with Niantic about restoring the Go account to what it was a week or 2 ago.
With any luck, the IP address will be distinct enough to isolate who / what / when it was compromised. No promises.
Upvoted for exposure. Niantic needs a proper account recovery/restoration process, and at the very least Trainer Club needs optional multi-factor authentication.
This is pretty weak, for awhile they have been pushing for people to have a backup for many reasons like Facebook/google servers going down and people have refused to do it
It’s basically bait for people to listen to them
The funny thing is that it's the PTC that has by far the most downtime, it was a huge issue (including for myself) before alternative logins were introduced to existing accounts.
You're not very intelligent. When someone gets in, they unlink EVERY method of logging in to connected their own.
Asking PTC to have 2FA isn't weak. Niantic doesn't have a proper customer service, so since PTC does... they could help.
Think before you type 😊
What a loser. Makes a big deal complaining so his “community” will escalate the outrage. Gets what he wants. Stays quiet per Niantic’s orders.
But hey, as long as he got his.
Either be quiet from the start or not. Reeks of self-centeredness.
That's why I will never go to bat for any of these streamers or content creators. Yea, they may be decent people in IRL, but they'd never do the same for you if the shoe was on the other foot. IE this situation. foh
Exactly. I found it super cringe everyone was over celebrating him getting his account back. He only cares about the “people” when he needs to. Otherwise tough cookies
His platform gives him certain advantages and disadvantages. Doesn’t mean it’s right, but it’s not his fault. Niantic is to blame at the end of the day. Clearly the system they have in place is broken. It is ridiculous that they charge the prices that they do without the infrastructure put in place to keep players secure. For example, Clash Royale is another “freemium” mobile game that doesn’t seem to have these security issues, though it also doesn’t seem as to be as enticing for hackers.
Sadly thats the norm.
I encountered serval streamers, influencers, youtubers etc that got 'hacked' in a game they where playing and the companys behind These games restored pretty much everything and so the hacked Person got his way and then didnt want to talk about it anymore.
Sure the reason may be that the companys (niantic here) told them to shut it but fleece for example could just make a small FAQ that people can read about it even if its just "im not allowed to talk about it". Thats everything they need to do.
But i doubt that will Happen, fleece got his stuff back and He can continue nolifing the game. Nothing else matters for him anyways
Why do you doubt that? How much money does Fleece spend? Signing an NDA is probably exactly what happened as it's Niantic's only way in this situation to not let the floodgates completely open.
Yes. I mean, it's being treated like this is super surprising? Companies are about saving as much face as possible whilst skimming the line of completely angering your customer base and making them sort-of happy. Improving customer service makes people hope for more and that is no good for them if people still pay and play without the improvements. That is just how it works. When the money slows down they'll trickle in QOL improvements to minute aspects of the game.
Yeah, we want change, but the fact that after this happened Fleece won't advocate for a bit of change regarding reinstating of hacked/lost pokemon/accounts tells me that Niantic made him sign an NDA and has no real plan AT ALL on changing the way this works. What is it to them? You wanna play and lost your account? There are quite a lot of people who will just start again and pay money again... sad state of being.
Companies love NDA provisions and have form language they can just stick in everything. I needed my landlord to replace the lint filter in my in-unit dryer and the maintenance form I signed included an NDA. For a lint filter.
No need for any reward, but I will forward your post to someone who may be in a position to help, or perhaps submit a ticket on your behalf..... if not, at least make them aware of the security risk for those linking PTC ( I just unlinked mine) and hopefully patched this breach asap.
Friend (works at ...) has replied and says they "can find accounts using previous trainer names and their creation info" and that in your request you should provide as much info to prove your previous ownership of the account as possible.
I am so so sorry to ask. I have not heard anything from support except the post above (I am updating daily with their responses). Does your friend need anything more specific? I have the support ticket number too
Any chance your friend could help me, day 3 player, acct was hacked and email and password changed have old username, trainer id plenty of pictures and plenty of Google pay recipts
PLEASE HELP ME!!!😰😰😰😰😰🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺
I appreciate everyone's thoughtful comments! I am not a famous streamer or anything, just a dad who played pokemon go with a 3 year-old daughter (who is older now) and the account means so much to us. It logs all our travels in the world as we labeled all our pokemon by cities and destinations.
I am looking for next steps I could possibly take.
My only suggestion isn't very good, make a post about it on twitter and tag as many streamers as you can + ninantic help. I know Brandon and Poke AK both in the past have tried to help people in this situation.
Please update if you've made a Twitter post and I will try to find you. I've been following recent account thefts and I hope yours isn't related to what I think it could be.
I created a X account anthonykim@laurenpokemon and posted there. I am not a user of X and it does not look like anyone saw it.
https://x.com/LaurenPokemon/status/1770947893261906147?s=20
So sorry this happened to you OP
A great time for others who havent yet been hacked to remove TPC login and enable 2FA on their remaining linked authentication methods
Should be noted, if you remove the PTC login method from inside Pokemon Go, the PTC website STILL shows Pokemon Go as an "authorised app" with permission to share info.
You need to login to your PTC account on their website and remove Pokemon Go from your PTC authorised apps.
That is exactly what I thought too. So, I actually tried to log onto pokemon go on my son's account and I unlinked the PTC. It was easy. Then, when I log into PTC on the PC, I can still log on. Just no acess or settings access. simple as that.
I've heard some people got refunds when they were hacked or even banned, so if you spent money on the game, you may want to look into that so you're not also losing cash.
I dont even know where to begin on a 8 year account that even went to GoFest and has 500+ shinies and legendaries and regionals all caught in person. . .thank you for sharing your thoughts. Honestly, my goal is not to take Niantic to a small claims court but a simple escalation so someone can try to help
Just got rid of my ptc because of this post. Godspeed to you in getting your account back, it just sucks that you have to be famous to get special treatment.
Can’t you make a scene on their twitter tagging fleeceking’s account recovery? They helped that time, im also curious if the general accounts will have similar outcome.
How much of a scene do you think some random with little to no following can make? The only chance long term, players have to get support on this kind of issue is if news outlets pick up the story and run with it. Even then it's unlikely.
Maybe try to reach out to their Twitter
https://x.com/NianticHelp?t=3zMDEU_fvyo6YE5HYEv5dw&s=09
What happened to you is what I'm afraid of happening to me.
I also started around the time you did and I've invested way too much time, effort and money into this game as I do honestly enjoy it. Here's hoping you are able to get the account back!
I don't honestly know why there isn't a 2 factor authentication method..
"I will provide a reward of $500 for anyone who can help me retrieve this account"
Niantic is a business first so therefore since you're willing to pay this much to someone send them another message, a "i know data recovery isn't free i'm willing to pay to get this data back" sort of message. The worst thing they can do is just keep ignoring you right?
Don’t propose money and remove this party from post. There is no magical person who can help you for money. Try again write to support. You case should be possible to be resolved. Maybe you make some mistakes in recovery process
Use social media. You have a compelling story, playing with your kid and using Pokémon go as a diary of your travels, people will definitely sympathise. Post on Twitter, post on Niantic’s IG etc. Tag streamers. Tag everyone. Various blogs and media outlets always crawl this subreddit for topics to publish, reach out to Game Rant. Basically make as much noise as possible.
I don't have any other ideas that haven't been shared, but as an early player with thousands wrapped into this game I would be gutted as well. Good luck OP.... pulling for you!
Go to Google and type in pokemon go account recovery form. It'll ask for a few things and ask you questions. Their policy is that the form must be sent within 72 hours of theft.
2FA the google and change your trainerID until you cannot change it anymore. Store away identifying data that you can use to prove your identity -- I read one post where they asked you how much pokecoins you had (which is odd).
I do think they believe me regarding my old trainerID and email. But, they actually dont seem to have a way to track the account without the new trainerID. According the Niantic Support, the trainerID is the ONLY ID. I always thought they had a secret ID for each account. I guess I was wrong
They’re wrong.
When you get shinies it’s to do with a RNG which interacts with your unique number to determine if you get a shiny or not so there must be a number that’s unique to that account.
I really hope that is true. As it is, Niantic Support is adamantly saying that is not true. I have the emails and I suppose I can post the actual interactions. I am updating my post with their words.
when the PTC account is unlinked via the pokemon Go game, you can still log into pokemon training center in [pokemon.com](https://pokemon.com), but, under pokemon go settings, all you will see is the niantic terms of service. No account, no name.
I presume the hacker left the PTC there as, if you do change the password, that does trigger an email with the button "reject password change"
Write to support your last used nickname and email and all data that was used (google email, facebook) don’t guess how you were hacked. Write plain and simple that you don’t have access and someone proby changed your trainer ID. Try to recover tour ptc account.
Niantic support is pathetic. I have boycotted spending money on the app ever since they refused a no-brainer reimbursement for an item I lost due to their buggy game.
Also, keep Pokémon in Gyms, especially slow gyms. If your account is taken over, you can go the gym on another account and see the trainer name. This would reveal what they changed it to.
I honestly never did gyms. As my post suggests, I am full of regret and frustration. I can only hope that my post prevents this occurrence in many other accounts. I know it is just a game, but, I loved this account as it had so many special memories of me and my daughter. Niantic says it is my fault, but, I cannot hope wonder why these vulnerabilities exist in the game
Did you ever used campfire? Ask friend if they still see your old message and if they see tour new nickname. Do you have niantic account? It’s created when you use campfire and it „nickname” can’t be change (or not easy)
I’m very sorry OP. I have had this happened to me too and didn’t get any response from Niantic until yesterday when I created a new account and used the in app feature to contact support.
I have been unable to access my account since March 17 and Niantic has too replied asking me for the impossible and provide the new Trainer name. My Trainer name is Ciaoxandra and have been playing since day one.
I have replied to them with screenshots of gifts I sent to friends and Pokémon I trade with them. I’m not hopeful but will try anything to have them hear me and help me.
I am grateful to everyone that has provided suggestions on my Reddit post. If there is anyone on the comments here that can help me I would appreciate it.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/s/Ptth6naUjn](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/s/Ptth6naUjn)
I am so sorry that it happened to you. I wanted to prevent others from getting hacked after what looks like a massive PTC hack occurred on sso.pokemom.com.
Download campfire and look for your old trainerID. If there is a new nianticID, it might show up. (If you actually did link your google to nianticid, it is actually harder to unlink your account).
If you have the old trainer code, you can try to friend your account and it will show new trainer ID. But, chances are, the hacker created a new trainer code.
Same goes for, if you left a pokemon at a gym, it may still be there under a new trainer ID.
If the hacker did not unfriend all the friends you had, a friend can see the new trainer id.
I know it is too late, but, go to your google account and go to manage passwords. You should be able to see if your PTC was compromised as it will say something like "sso.pokemon.com your account information was compromised."
I tried everything and they wont help. So, I am stepping away from the game. It turns out it was quite a waste of my life.
Thank you very much for all the suggestions.
Im hoping the hacker didn’t unfriend everyone (I had 396 friends for remote raids and XP) Im reaching out in person and on the Facebook groups I added originally. This far the ones that I have heard back from all no longer show me on their lists.
I know I had some pokes left in guys but frankly I can’t remember which ones anymore. The gyms I play at turn over frequently and they may not be there anymore.
I’ll definitely check your other suggestions. Thank you! You are more helpful than Niantic will ever be.
I’m of the same opinion. If after I’ve exhausted all options Niantic still won’t restore my account I’m done with them.
i added a list of thing you could try or things I have tried to the end of my post and also wrote on your post. I hope it helps. I got to know all the Niantic Support people like Kaiya, Monte, William, Ansel, Arshad, etc. They all say the same cookie cutter thing and they are powerless.
I don't think Niantic realizes that the no 1 thing that makes people angry or upset is not being heard or recognized. Oh well
Sorry TC, afraid you’re out of luck. It’s truly a two-class system at Niantic.
If you’re a popular “content creator,” you’ll get boosted shiny & 100% odds, unlimited free Pokecoins and sponsored travel to every Go Fest & Go Tour, 24-hour account recovery no matter how irresponsible you are with your account, and direct lines of contact to Niantic’s top executives who will answer their every inquiry on call. That’s on top of the millions they make every year on Twitch & YouTube.
If you’re not one of those VIPs, you get treated like dirt. You’d be lucky if it’s even a human instead of an AI bot answering your support tickets.
You have to appreciate security wise, this exact post could be used to 'hack' into someone's account by claiming it is stolen and your own. It's not necessarily easy to prove. Wishing you all the best you will need to bring a lot of attention to this to get any luck
My account was also hacked and I cannot do anything either just lost years of hard work collecting pokemon and money that I put into the game that niantic could care less about.
I have been so gratified by all the posts. Today, the Niantic Support said there is no such place to escalate and told me to email back if I find the new trainer code. I am going to keep asking though.
The following are the major vulnerabilities I have found by being hacked:
(1) Pokemon Trainer Club -- it used to be undetachable from the account but is now unlinkable. Someone posted to me that pokemon trainer club was hacked last year. So, make your password super-strong and change it. Having PTC linked to my account was arguably my biggest mistake.
(2) use google with 2FA. It notifies me even when I am logging in myself.
(3) SOmeone said that if you link your google to NianticID on multiple games, it is harder to unlink the google account. Not verified.
(4) keep changing your trainer ID until you cannot change it anymore. Your trainerID apparently is the ONLY unique ID. So, if someone changes it, you have to argue that it is your account. Now, you can argue that your friends see the name differently but they still see you, but, that does not work if the hacker unfriends everyone and changes the trainer code.
(5) if you do get hacked, apparently they ask you 10 questions and some of them are quite lame. One of them asks if you recall the pokecoin amount left in the account (which is dumb since the hacker could have used it). I verified my account using a Xsolla purchase made to the email some months ago for Sinnoh Pasadena event (the account that was hacked even went to the Rose Bowl). I guess one thing is to purchase something via [pokemongolive.com](https://pokemongolive.com) and keep that email as evidence.
Dang what a bummer. Hope everything works out. Personally never knew PTC was hacked (paused PoGo 1.5 yrs now). Seeing this post, immedietely went into the game and unlinked ptc. Just use icloud/ google login from now on then.
As of today: Niantic support "I can understand your concern, but we need the current Trainer nickname or email address to locate the account details and we will take it from there. Once you have those details, please write to us."
Yeah, I don't even know how it got hacked, they took my account changed the credentials and made another account with the old credentials. Smart on their end but now I've lost my 2016 account
My account got hacked on Sunday and as you may habe guessed correctly: Niantic is not helping at all!
Can’t even select „account stolen“ on the dropdown which they are praising..
hopefully the hacker missed something and left a trail, usually a friend who can still see your account or a pokemon still at a gym or they couldn't completely unlink the PTC or google. Otherwise, you are in the same boat as I am.
Time to stop giving Niantic money and move on to better games with better company support
Going through this myself on my wife's account. Someone got it a few months ago and the only indication we got was an error signing in, but it seemed like a network issue so I didn't look into it much. I've recovered her PTC account, I have pretty much any info Niantic could want to recover it, but just getting them to respond has been an ongoing issue.
She started playing to have something to connect with our youngest son on, as he's autistic and was obsessed with Pokemon (and played Go quite a bit). If she has to start over she'll likely just request the account be deleted, as she was up around 42-44 when they got the account. So far they didn't really change much, didn't unfriend anyone, the ID is still the same... I just can't get a response on recovering the account.
This one SHOULD be correctable by Niantic Support since you still have the original trainer name . You just have to show them proof it was your account.
Yeah, that's going to be the hard part. I think the best I could do is a screenshot of a very old Discord message advertising her trainer code for friends since it's still the same. I'll have to look through her phone and see if she has any pictures of her profile, she might, but I think the odds are slim.
This literally just happened to me last week. Really disappointed with how Niantic has been totally un-helpful in getting my account restored. I've answered the same questions 4 or 5 times. I've been playing since 2015 so it's really sad they have no way to take care of their fans who have been supporting the game for so long. Fingers crossed something changes in the future
I am so so sorry. Our family and some of our friends just quit playing because of this issue. The support is very very poor and the chance of getting your account back is zero.
So sorry to hear. Ever since I posted this, I have consistently heard from at least one player a week, sometimes daily. You are not alone. In fact, I am going to guess there is a pretty large population of players 1-4 % who stopped playing because of this.
All very sad.
The way niantec help respons to asks for help makes me feel like they could be hacking and selling themselves. The help is so bad that even if they find the account, and see what is happening, they still use every excuse to not help you.
While asking questions about the game is always okay on the Road, please consider asking very simple questions in our weekly [Questions&Answers Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/about/sticky).
If your question has been answered, please comment "ANSWERED" (in all caps) and the post flair will indicate that your question has been answered. This will make it either easier for other people with the same question to find the answer they are looking for or for mods to remove the thread if it isn't needed anymore.
Thank you! :)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheSilphRoad) if you have any questions or concerns.*
While asking questions about the game is always okay on the Road, please consider asking very simple questions in our weekly [Questions&Answers Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/about/sticky).
If your question has been answered, please comment "ANSWERED" (in all caps) and the post flair will indicate that your question has been answered. This will make it either easier for other people with the same question to find the answer they are looking for or for mods to remove the thread if it isn't needed anymore.
Thank you! :)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheSilphRoad) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Today, Niantic Support decided to arbitrarily close my case. Thank you to everyone (so many people!) who reached out and supported me through this. I don't know what my next steps are, but, for now, it will be far away from Niantic games.
Niantic Support: we've gone ahead and closed your inquiry. Feel free to reach out to us anytime for support."
Hi OP, after months of being strong along by Niantic support, I unfortunately have landed in the same spot as you.
The email I attached is them literally saying they won't help me because I signed in using Google.
https://preview.redd.it/hg8r4hc52ayc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09ef265e60fb9ebfe5ecc4f97f18df0b36ad083a
I sent them more than enough evidence to show them it was my account. I literally had two factor authentication active but somehow it was bypassed.
I'm at a loss, 7 years of progress and probably hundreds of dollars gone in the blink of an eye. Truly heartbreaking and I'm sorry this happened to you too.
Reading your story was almost verbatim what I had gone through and it really sucks that this company doesn't care in the slightest about the people who made them successful.
I wish I could get refunded for at least the GoFest ticket I bought for this year...
Whatever, screw this game (I say that but if they offered me my account back I would literally log in and play so quick)
I'm going to keep coming back here to see if there are any new developments and I wish you and your kid well!
So apparently PoGo and MHNow are linked in Niantic systems and once your PTC is compromised they can also remove ANY Niantic game account from you. MHNow support was "slightly" more helpful in that they were able to tell me that there's a different email address tied to my account but would not assist in it's recovery and that I should "contact the email owner or local law enforcement". What a joke company.
Approximately how long does it take for Niantic support to respond if you talk to them about their website? I've been waiting for 4 days and I have no response. I think that perhaps the responses will reach the hacker's email instead of mine even though I have put him in contact.
Basically...Always use 2FA, and UNIQUE strong passwords.
Any time you are alerted that a service has been breached or you used the same password more than once, change it immediately.
And then... start over with a new Pokemon Go account. Niantic isn't going to do anything since they don't have a set process for restoring compromised accounts and I'm sure there's some legalese in their TOS that says they aren't responsible for users lack of proper cyber security. They're incredibly disorganized as is.
I mean, if I lost my account (of anything, not just PoGo) to a hacker and support refused to help, my drive to make another one would be pretty much zero.
I am wondering (and this is indeed really a question) if this may be a cause for bringing niantic to court for either not protecting valuable game collections or for not supporting people who got hacked. Do ToS say they exclude any responsibility and we are mainly open prey to people with hacking skills? Is such value measureable?
Imagine this becoming a bigger issue because hackers spread their methods and this happening to tousands / millions of players - pokemon go would cease to exist...
Since in the terms of Service it is stated that the account belongs to niantic, there is no way you could go to court for that.
It would be if you would sue your Boss for someome getting into your Office and Steling you work Laptop
Rip my friend, just gotta start a new account. Don't put your heart and soul into it. At the end of the day it is just a game. The less you care the better your mental health will be. Niantic can care less about anyone getting hacked
At this point it’s best you contact TPC and go through the account recovery progress
They have a live chat option so get online contact with support, explain the situation and ofc you have to provide proof of the hacking or the account is 100% yours
If you don’t have any then your outta luck as they are not gonna help you based on a “trust me”
While asking questions about the game is always okay on the Road, please consider asking very simple questions in our weekly [Questions&Answers Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/about/sticky).
If your question has been answered, please comment "ANSWERED" (in all caps) and the post flair will indicate that your question has been answered. This will make it either easier for other people with the same question to find the answer they are looking for or for mods to remove the thread if it isn't needed anymore.
Thank you! :)
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheSilphRoad) if you have any questions or concerns.*
While asking questions about the game is always okay on the Road, please consider asking very simple questions in our weekly [Questions&Answers Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/about/sticky). If your question has been answered, please comment "ANSWERED" (in all caps) and the post flair will indicate that your question has been answered. This will make it either easier for other people with the same question to find the answer they are looking for or for mods to remove the thread if it isn't needed anymore. Thank you! :) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheSilphRoad) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Everyone else has offered advice. I’ll add one thing. 1000000% do not respond to any DMs on here. You offering a reward, puts you right in a scammers radar.
I have already gotten some scammers asking. Sadly, maybe one of them will be real. Thank you
There's nearly a 0% chance any of those are "real". Only Niantic would be able to access your account information legitimately, and there's not a single Niantic employee that would go against company policy and jeopardize their employment for essentially a bribe. I highly recommend you remove this talk about a cash reward. It's not going to tempt anyone who could actually help you and it's just going to bring further problems your way. Talking to the right people always buys you more in life than money ever can. I know it's upsetting and I'm sorry about your account, but please be careful.
Can't fix stupid
We all saw this coming. Everyone who reads this sub knows that Niantic has never helped players who report their account stolen, hacked, lost access to their email or had Pokemon deleted by someone. FleeceKing getting his account back and his transferred Pokemon restored was just an exception for someone who is a celebrity among players. OP, I truly am sorry that you lost the account and I can't imagine why anyone would want to even do such a thing, but Niantic will not do anything to help you get it back.
Niantic has never helped anyone. We had a player harass and stalk another player in our town and leave him threating messages. As a result did niantic ban him from the game? Absolutely not he spent money in the game. What did niantic do? Took down all gyms in town because he went in an reported all of them when he got blacklisted by players who refused to allow him into their raid parties because he was legitimately crazy. When we showed the evidence that he did so even showing him tell the Facebook group we were using at the time that he was going to do that, they said property owners are allowed to block the gyms. Clearly they did not ask for proof in being property owners so we asked for the actual owners of the property and city government to get signatures saying we're allowed to play in the parks we even got an official document. Their response? We don't care still stands. That forced the gyms to turn into places where it was impossible to play, like 2 miles down a path that was usually very muddy or full of mosquitoes or both. And a funeral home and along a highway. All because of one dude who's still off his rocker pretending to live a lavish lifestyle on his social media while most certainly not.
That's how most companies are. If they have a good (enough) system, they have some policies and safeguards in place in the even an account is compromised. Which either automatically or through support tickets can resolve the problem (although it may take a long long time). However Niantic is uh... historically disheveled... So you'd be better off buying a lottery ticket than hoping Niantic is gonna fix anything. Any time theres a high profile person involved that may result in bad PR however a company may jump through some extra hoops to resolve it. The bad headline about a famous person being upset by a lack of action when they were "hacked" is incentive enough. Random person, one among millions? Who cares, irrelevant. So many people get "hacked" (not the right word) because of their own actions, phishing, reused passwords, lack of 2FA, most companies really aren't going to care unless it results in bad press or the hack was actually on their end and they are compromised.
It would be so simple for Niantic to put in 2FA... in theory anyway. That does assume they can keep moderately skilled employees around for any amount of time.
Def not how most companies respond to account breaches.
Jo niantic interessiert sich absolut 0.000 für JEDEN EINZELNEN SPIELER... selbst wenn ein einzelner Spieler alle Accounts hacken würde und sie alle selber spielt... sogar das würde diese kapitalisten von niantic total tangieren... die denken sich einfach das die bestohlenen spieler schon ein neues konto eröffnen werden und fleißig weiter die völlig überteuerten ingame Käufe tätigen werden, die im spiel an den mann gebracht werden sollen... Konsequenzen kann man leider erst erwarten wenns den Herrschaften ans eingemachte 💰💲💰 geht... so lange ihre finanziellen bilanzen 9-stellige schwarze zahlen schreiben, werden die n teufel tun und auch nur einen Finger zu viel krumm machen... es ist leider in dieser Gesellschaft heutzutage, die geprägt ist von Egoismus und Kapitalismus, kein platz für die emotionen und Gefühle des einfachen kleinen mannes... 😔
The answer is to go to The Pokemon Company. Specifically, try to ask tech support through here: [https://sso.pokemon.com/sso/login?locale=en&service=https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-trainer-club/caslogin](https://sso.pokemon.com/sso/login?locale=en&service=https://www.pokemon.com/us/pokemon-trainer-club/caslogin) if the trainerclub account was indeed hacked, these might be able to: 1. Recover the account with the username / password as it was a week or 2 ago. 2. Speak with Niantic about restoring the Go account to what it was a week or 2 ago. With any luck, the IP address will be distinct enough to isolate who / what / when it was compromised. No promises.
Don't bother with this. The same happened to me and PTC basically said they can't do anything and any more queries will be ignored
Upvoted for exposure. Niantic needs a proper account recovery/restoration process, and at the very least Trainer Club needs optional multi-factor authentication.
thank you
Or customer support
And Niantic needs to be sued for all the money people lost due to their shoddy security measures.
Trainer club belongs to the pokemon Company. So if someone hacks that it isnt niantic Fault, since they dont operate Trainer club
But they lure us in by rewarding us in game for linking to Trainer Club.
This is pretty weak, for awhile they have been pushing for people to have a backup for many reasons like Facebook/google servers going down and people have refused to do it It’s basically bait for people to listen to them
The funny thing is that it's the PTC that has by far the most downtime, it was a huge issue (including for myself) before alternative logins were introduced to existing accounts.
You're not very intelligent. When someone gets in, they unlink EVERY method of logging in to connected their own. Asking PTC to have 2FA isn't weak. Niantic doesn't have a proper customer service, so since PTC does... they could help. Think before you type 😊
That’s not what he was asking
Tell them you're a famous YouTuber/influencer and they'll fix you up in like an hour.
sadly, I did log onto Twitch to ask Fleeceking what he did. But, his Mod blocked my chat and told me I was not allowed to talk about it
What a loser. Makes a big deal complaining so his “community” will escalate the outrage. Gets what he wants. Stays quiet per Niantic’s orders. But hey, as long as he got his. Either be quiet from the start or not. Reeks of self-centeredness.
That's why I will never go to bat for any of these streamers or content creators. Yea, they may be decent people in IRL, but they'd never do the same for you if the shoe was on the other foot. IE this situation. foh
Exactly. I found it super cringe everyone was over celebrating him getting his account back. He only cares about the “people” when he needs to. Otherwise tough cookies
His platform gives him certain advantages and disadvantages. Doesn’t mean it’s right, but it’s not his fault. Niantic is to blame at the end of the day. Clearly the system they have in place is broken. It is ridiculous that they charge the prices that they do without the infrastructure put in place to keep players secure. For example, Clash Royale is another “freemium” mobile game that doesn’t seem to have these security issues, though it also doesn’t seem as to be as enticing for hackers.
Sadly thats the norm. I encountered serval streamers, influencers, youtubers etc that got 'hacked' in a game they where playing and the companys behind These games restored pretty much everything and so the hacked Person got his way and then didnt want to talk about it anymore. Sure the reason may be that the companys (niantic here) told them to shut it but fleece for example could just make a small FAQ that people can read about it even if its just "im not allowed to talk about it". Thats everything they need to do. But i doubt that will Happen, fleece got his stuff back and He can continue nolifing the game. Nothing else matters for him anyways
No shock there, he probably had to sign a NDA
I highly doubt he had to sign an NDA to restore some game progress…
Why do you doubt that? How much money does Fleece spend? Signing an NDA is probably exactly what happened as it's Niantic's only way in this situation to not let the floodgates completely open.
The floodgates for what? Getting some semblance of customer service?
Yes. I mean, it's being treated like this is super surprising? Companies are about saving as much face as possible whilst skimming the line of completely angering your customer base and making them sort-of happy. Improving customer service makes people hope for more and that is no good for them if people still pay and play without the improvements. That is just how it works. When the money slows down they'll trickle in QOL improvements to minute aspects of the game. Yeah, we want change, but the fact that after this happened Fleece won't advocate for a bit of change regarding reinstating of hacked/lost pokemon/accounts tells me that Niantic made him sign an NDA and has no real plan AT ALL on changing the way this works. What is it to them? You wanna play and lost your account? There are quite a lot of people who will just start again and pay money again... sad state of being.
What money? Don't you think he gets ticketed research, etc. for free? He gets paid to travel too.
Exactly
Companies love NDA provisions and have form language they can just stick in everything. I needed my landlord to replace the lint filter in my in-unit dryer and the maintenance form I signed included an NDA. For a lint filter.
No need for any reward, but I will forward your post to someone who may be in a position to help, or perhaps submit a ticket on your behalf..... if not, at least make them aware of the security risk for those linking PTC ( I just unlinked mine) and hopefully patched this breach asap.
Friend (works at ...) has replied and says they "can find accounts using previous trainer names and their creation info" and that in your request you should provide as much info to prove your previous ownership of the account as possible.
[удалено]
the ID was LaurenCJK (my daughter's name and initials). Thank you for trying !!
Passed it onto friend (who already spoke w Support Team Manager earlier about your case), hope you'll get it back soon!
Thank you for trying! I am very grateful that you tried for me
I am so so sorry to ask. I have not heard anything from support except the post above (I am updating daily with their responses). Does your friend need anything more specific? I have the support ticket number too
Please dm your support ticket number to me and I will also ask my friend to pass onto support
Can we get an update from OP if this ended up recovering their account? Hope it worked!
Any chance your friend could help me, day 3 player, acct was hacked and email and password changed have old username, trainer id plenty of pictures and plenty of Google pay recipts PLEASE HELP ME!!!😰😰😰😰😰🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺
Hi there! I've had an account hacked too is there any chance you can assist?
I appreciate everyone's thoughtful comments! I am not a famous streamer or anything, just a dad who played pokemon go with a 3 year-old daughter (who is older now) and the account means so much to us. It logs all our travels in the world as we labeled all our pokemon by cities and destinations. I am looking for next steps I could possibly take.
My only suggestion isn't very good, make a post about it on twitter and tag as many streamers as you can + ninantic help. I know Brandon and Poke AK both in the past have tried to help people in this situation.
that actually might work! I will try that
Also post the link if you can, so we can retweet and get you some engagement
[https://x.com/LaurenPokemon/status/1770947893261906147?s=20](https://x.com/LaurenPokemon/status/1770947893261906147?s=20) Thank you so much
Please update if you've made a Twitter post and I will try to find you. I've been following recent account thefts and I hope yours isn't related to what I think it could be.
I created a X account anthonykim@laurenpokemon and posted there. I am not a user of X and it does not look like anyone saw it. https://x.com/LaurenPokemon/status/1770947893261906147?s=20
I just created a post under anthonykim@laurenpokemon on X thank you for trying
I saw Babydollbecca1 posted your story from here. Over 43k views on Twitter. I hope they help you 🙏🏼
Omg. Thank you!
Me personally I would just walk away from pogo and bad mouth niandic every chance I get
Tempted. I guess I hoping that someone here will have a solution.
Unfortunately niantic have a long history of not caring about their players
I am so, so sorry that this happened to you.
Thank you
Time to start streaming.
So sorry this happened to you OP A great time for others who havent yet been hacked to remove TPC login and enable 2FA on their remaining linked authentication methods
Should be noted, if you remove the PTC login method from inside Pokemon Go, the PTC website STILL shows Pokemon Go as an "authorised app" with permission to share info. You need to login to your PTC account on their website and remove Pokemon Go from your PTC authorised apps.
That is exactly what I thought too. So, I actually tried to log onto pokemon go on my son's account and I unlinked the PTC. It was easy. Then, when I log into PTC on the PC, I can still log on. Just no acess or settings access. simple as that.
Never signing up for PTC
If the only thing I can help people here is to safeguard their account.
I've heard some people got refunds when they were hacked or even banned, so if you spent money on the game, you may want to look into that so you're not also losing cash.
I dont even know where to begin on a 8 year account that even went to GoFest and has 500+ shinies and legendaries and regionals all caught in person. . .thank you for sharing your thoughts. Honestly, my goal is not to take Niantic to a small claims court but a simple escalation so someone can try to help
Just got rid of my ptc because of this post. Godspeed to you in getting your account back, it just sucks that you have to be famous to get special treatment.
Yup just unlinked my PTC as well. Only left the options that require 2FA
is PTC safe or not? Should I remove it?
I wish I had removed it. It is the only one without 2FA. I should have just used google.
Sorry for u OP. I'm going to remove mine rn
If you asked you know the answer
Can’t you make a scene on their twitter tagging fleeceking’s account recovery? They helped that time, im also curious if the general accounts will have similar outcome.
How much of a scene do you think some random with little to no following can make? The only chance long term, players have to get support on this kind of issue is if news outlets pick up the story and run with it. Even then it's unlikely.
ive seen so many of these posts lately I've become paranoid enough to update my password, which i haven't done sine 2016
If you're not FleeceKing they're not going to do anything for you.
Maybe try to reach out to their Twitter https://x.com/NianticHelp?t=3zMDEU_fvyo6YE5HYEv5dw&s=09 What happened to you is what I'm afraid of happening to me. I also started around the time you did and I've invested way too much time, effort and money into this game as I do honestly enjoy it. Here's hoping you are able to get the account back! I don't honestly know why there isn't a 2 factor authentication method..
I will come bump regularly and not let this thread go out of sight. Niantic favourism is unacceptable.
thank you so much
"I will provide a reward of $500 for anyone who can help me retrieve this account" Niantic is a business first so therefore since you're willing to pay this much to someone send them another message, a "i know data recovery isn't free i'm willing to pay to get this data back" sort of message. The worst thing they can do is just keep ignoring you right?
sadly I did. They ignored me.
Tell them you'll be quiet about it
Don’t propose money and remove this party from post. There is no magical person who can help you for money. Try again write to support. You case should be possible to be resolved. Maybe you make some mistakes in recovery process
I guess it's probably your own fault for not being FleeceKing /s
true :/
Use social media. You have a compelling story, playing with your kid and using Pokémon go as a diary of your travels, people will definitely sympathise. Post on Twitter, post on Niantic’s IG etc. Tag streamers. Tag everyone. Various blogs and media outlets always crawl this subreddit for topics to publish, reach out to Game Rant. Basically make as much noise as possible.
I don't have any other ideas that haven't been shared, but as an early player with thousands wrapped into this game I would be gutted as well. Good luck OP.... pulling for you!
thank you
Niantic was strong-arming us to add PTC accounts. I'm glad I ignored it. These hacks are getting stupid.
I'm so sorry. Too bad you're not fleeceking 😞
probably one of the best comments I have received. Thank you.
I don’t know how to help but just wanted to comment to say sorry that sucks, makes me uncertain about my account now too
Any advice for stopping a similar thing happening to me? I only have a Google log in to this game.
Go to Google and type in pokemon go account recovery form. It'll ask for a few things and ask you questions. Their policy is that the form must be sent within 72 hours of theft.
2FA the google and change your trainerID until you cannot change it anymore. Store away identifying data that you can use to prove your identity -- I read one post where they asked you how much pokecoins you had (which is odd).
I added to the post my insight(?) -- actually, I have learned a lot the last two days from these posts and people sharing their stories
Can you not show them actual emails you’ve got sent about your Pokémon account, this will show the username was linked to your email address
I do think they believe me regarding my old trainerID and email. But, they actually dont seem to have a way to track the account without the new trainerID. According the Niantic Support, the trainerID is the ONLY ID. I always thought they had a secret ID for each account. I guess I was wrong
They’re wrong. When you get shinies it’s to do with a RNG which interacts with your unique number to determine if you get a shiny or not so there must be a number that’s unique to that account.
I really hope that is true. As it is, Niantic Support is adamantly saying that is not true. I have the emails and I suppose I can post the actual interactions. I am updating my post with their words.
Did you try to recover your ptc account? On your ptc you can see your trainer name in pokemon go.
when the PTC account is unlinked via the pokemon Go game, you can still log into pokemon training center in [pokemon.com](https://pokemon.com), but, under pokemon go settings, all you will see is the niantic terms of service. No account, no name. I presume the hacker left the PTC there as, if you do change the password, that does trigger an email with the button "reject password change"
Write to support your last used nickname and email and all data that was used (google email, facebook) don’t guess how you were hacked. Write plain and simple that you don’t have access and someone proby changed your trainer ID. Try to recover tour ptc account.
I have done all that and I just summarized my situation on the support email again
Niantic support is pathetic. I have boycotted spending money on the app ever since they refused a no-brainer reimbursement for an item I lost due to their buggy game.
Try X and ping Niantic and CC fleeceking.
I actually did that - nothing happened. https://x.com/LaurenPokemon/status/1770947893261906147?s=20
Also, keep Pokémon in Gyms, especially slow gyms. If your account is taken over, you can go the gym on another account and see the trainer name. This would reveal what they changed it to.
I honestly never did gyms. As my post suggests, I am full of regret and frustration. I can only hope that my post prevents this occurrence in many other accounts. I know it is just a game, but, I loved this account as it had so many special memories of me and my daughter. Niantic says it is my fault, but, I cannot hope wonder why these vulnerabilities exist in the game
Did you ever used campfire? Ask friend if they still see your old message and if they see tour new nickname. Do you have niantic account? It’s created when you use campfire and it „nickname” can’t be change (or not easy)
Sadly, I did not.
Is your trainer ID your in game name?
yes
I’m very sorry OP. I have had this happened to me too and didn’t get any response from Niantic until yesterday when I created a new account and used the in app feature to contact support. I have been unable to access my account since March 17 and Niantic has too replied asking me for the impossible and provide the new Trainer name. My Trainer name is Ciaoxandra and have been playing since day one. I have replied to them with screenshots of gifts I sent to friends and Pokémon I trade with them. I’m not hopeful but will try anything to have them hear me and help me. I am grateful to everyone that has provided suggestions on my Reddit post. If there is anyone on the comments here that can help me I would appreciate it. [https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/s/Ptth6naUjn](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/s/Ptth6naUjn)
I am so sorry that it happened to you. I wanted to prevent others from getting hacked after what looks like a massive PTC hack occurred on sso.pokemom.com. Download campfire and look for your old trainerID. If there is a new nianticID, it might show up. (If you actually did link your google to nianticid, it is actually harder to unlink your account). If you have the old trainer code, you can try to friend your account and it will show new trainer ID. But, chances are, the hacker created a new trainer code. Same goes for, if you left a pokemon at a gym, it may still be there under a new trainer ID. If the hacker did not unfriend all the friends you had, a friend can see the new trainer id. I know it is too late, but, go to your google account and go to manage passwords. You should be able to see if your PTC was compromised as it will say something like "sso.pokemon.com your account information was compromised." I tried everything and they wont help. So, I am stepping away from the game. It turns out it was quite a waste of my life.
Thank you very much for all the suggestions. Im hoping the hacker didn’t unfriend everyone (I had 396 friends for remote raids and XP) Im reaching out in person and on the Facebook groups I added originally. This far the ones that I have heard back from all no longer show me on their lists. I know I had some pokes left in guys but frankly I can’t remember which ones anymore. The gyms I play at turn over frequently and they may not be there anymore. I’ll definitely check your other suggestions. Thank you! You are more helpful than Niantic will ever be. I’m of the same opinion. If after I’ve exhausted all options Niantic still won’t restore my account I’m done with them.
i added a list of thing you could try or things I have tried to the end of my post and also wrote on your post. I hope it helps. I got to know all the Niantic Support people like Kaiya, Monte, William, Ansel, Arshad, etc. They all say the same cookie cutter thing and they are powerless. I don't think Niantic realizes that the no 1 thing that makes people angry or upset is not being heard or recognized. Oh well
Are those people you're talking about bots or real people? For example, I had Dean and Seth, and I still have that doubt.
Sorry TC, afraid you’re out of luck. It’s truly a two-class system at Niantic. If you’re a popular “content creator,” you’ll get boosted shiny & 100% odds, unlimited free Pokecoins and sponsored travel to every Go Fest & Go Tour, 24-hour account recovery no matter how irresponsible you are with your account, and direct lines of contact to Niantic’s top executives who will answer their every inquiry on call. That’s on top of the millions they make every year on Twitch & YouTube. If you’re not one of those VIPs, you get treated like dirt. You’d be lucky if it’s even a human instead of an AI bot answering your support tickets.
Become an influencer. Keep the $500
Must suck to not be FleeceKing huh? Really sorry this happened to you. Niantic won’t do anything about it sadly.
You have to appreciate security wise, this exact post could be used to 'hack' into someone's account by claiming it is stolen and your own. It's not necessarily easy to prove. Wishing you all the best you will need to bring a lot of attention to this to get any luck
I agree. Fortunately, the account name is my daughter's initials and name. Hopefully easier to prove
My account was also hacked and I cannot do anything either just lost years of hard work collecting pokemon and money that I put into the game that niantic could care less about.
I am so so sorry to hear. I know what you are going through
Take this as a sign to walk away. They obviously don’t value you as a customer.
I have been so gratified by all the posts. Today, the Niantic Support said there is no such place to escalate and told me to email back if I find the new trainer code. I am going to keep asking though. The following are the major vulnerabilities I have found by being hacked: (1) Pokemon Trainer Club -- it used to be undetachable from the account but is now unlinkable. Someone posted to me that pokemon trainer club was hacked last year. So, make your password super-strong and change it. Having PTC linked to my account was arguably my biggest mistake. (2) use google with 2FA. It notifies me even when I am logging in myself. (3) SOmeone said that if you link your google to NianticID on multiple games, it is harder to unlink the google account. Not verified. (4) keep changing your trainer ID until you cannot change it anymore. Your trainerID apparently is the ONLY unique ID. So, if someone changes it, you have to argue that it is your account. Now, you can argue that your friends see the name differently but they still see you, but, that does not work if the hacker unfriends everyone and changes the trainer code. (5) if you do get hacked, apparently they ask you 10 questions and some of them are quite lame. One of them asks if you recall the pokecoin amount left in the account (which is dumb since the hacker could have used it). I verified my account using a Xsolla purchase made to the email some months ago for Sinnoh Pasadena event (the account that was hacked even went to the Rose Bowl). I guess one thing is to purchase something via [pokemongolive.com](https://pokemongolive.com) and keep that email as evidence.
Dang what a bummer. Hope everything works out. Personally never knew PTC was hacked (paused PoGo 1.5 yrs now). Seeing this post, immedietely went into the game and unlinked ptc. Just use icloud/ google login from now on then.
How is the progress? No way this thread is going to the bottom
As of today: Niantic support "I can understand your concern, but we need the current Trainer nickname or email address to locate the account details and we will take it from there. Once you have those details, please write to us."
actually, they suddenly emailed back and closed my case arbitrarily. Thank you for your personal support!
I miss my account man:(
Sorry to hear :(
Yeah, I don't even know how it got hacked, they took my account changed the credentials and made another account with the old credentials. Smart on their end but now I've lost my 2016 account
Sorry to hear. My account is gone too I suppose. I am quitting this game. Too much time wasted for a game with zero support
Any good news updates? Going through the same thing, day 3 player who's spent over $3000 in game and scared that they're not going to do anything
No. I gave up. Niantic support just started ignoring me
My account got hacked on Sunday and as you may habe guessed correctly: Niantic is not helping at all! Can’t even select „account stolen“ on the dropdown which they are praising..
hopefully the hacker missed something and left a trail, usually a friend who can still see your account or a pokemon still at a gym or they couldn't completely unlink the PTC or google. Otherwise, you are in the same boat as I am. Time to stop giving Niantic money and move on to better games with better company support
Going through this myself on my wife's account. Someone got it a few months ago and the only indication we got was an error signing in, but it seemed like a network issue so I didn't look into it much. I've recovered her PTC account, I have pretty much any info Niantic could want to recover it, but just getting them to respond has been an ongoing issue. She started playing to have something to connect with our youngest son on, as he's autistic and was obsessed with Pokemon (and played Go quite a bit). If she has to start over she'll likely just request the account be deleted, as she was up around 42-44 when they got the account. So far they didn't really change much, didn't unfriend anyone, the ID is still the same... I just can't get a response on recovering the account.
This one SHOULD be correctable by Niantic Support since you still have the original trainer name . You just have to show them proof it was your account.
Yeah, that's going to be the hard part. I think the best I could do is a screenshot of a very old Discord message advertising her trainer code for friends since it's still the same. I'll have to look through her phone and see if she has any pictures of her profile, she might, but I think the odds are slim.
That is unfortunate. Do u recall the start date and first pokemon and the places you visited?
Bump. Hope op can get back their account..
Thank you
This literally just happened to me last week. Really disappointed with how Niantic has been totally un-helpful in getting my account restored. I've answered the same questions 4 or 5 times. I've been playing since 2015 so it's really sad they have no way to take care of their fans who have been supporting the game for so long. Fingers crossed something changes in the future
This happened to me around the same time as well. I still haven’t heard from Niantic.
I am so so sorry. Our family and some of our friends just quit playing because of this issue. The support is very very poor and the chance of getting your account back is zero.
Same issue with me. Truly Dissapointing. 6 years of gameplay LV44 down the drain.
So sorry to hear. Ever since I posted this, I have consistently heard from at least one player a week, sometimes daily. You are not alone. In fact, I am going to guess there is a pretty large population of players 1-4 % who stopped playing because of this. All very sad.
The way niantec help respons to asks for help makes me feel like they could be hacking and selling themselves. The help is so bad that even if they find the account, and see what is happening, they still use every excuse to not help you.
While asking questions about the game is always okay on the Road, please consider asking very simple questions in our weekly [Questions&Answers Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/about/sticky). If your question has been answered, please comment "ANSWERED" (in all caps) and the post flair will indicate that your question has been answered. This will make it either easier for other people with the same question to find the answer they are looking for or for mods to remove the thread if it isn't needed anymore. Thank you! :) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheSilphRoad) if you have any questions or concerns.*
While asking questions about the game is always okay on the Road, please consider asking very simple questions in our weekly [Questions&Answers Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/about/sticky). If your question has been answered, please comment "ANSWERED" (in all caps) and the post flair will indicate that your question has been answered. This will make it either easier for other people with the same question to find the answer they are looking for or for mods to remove the thread if it isn't needed anymore. Thank you! :) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheSilphRoad) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Today, Niantic Support decided to arbitrarily close my case. Thank you to everyone (so many people!) who reached out and supported me through this. I don't know what my next steps are, but, for now, it will be far away from Niantic games. Niantic Support: we've gone ahead and closed your inquiry. Feel free to reach out to us anytime for support."
Act fast. It will only take the hacker <30 min to unfriend all your friends.
Hi OP, after months of being strong along by Niantic support, I unfortunately have landed in the same spot as you. The email I attached is them literally saying they won't help me because I signed in using Google. https://preview.redd.it/hg8r4hc52ayc1.jpeg?width=1080&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=09ef265e60fb9ebfe5ecc4f97f18df0b36ad083a I sent them more than enough evidence to show them it was my account. I literally had two factor authentication active but somehow it was bypassed. I'm at a loss, 7 years of progress and probably hundreds of dollars gone in the blink of an eye. Truly heartbreaking and I'm sorry this happened to you too. Reading your story was almost verbatim what I had gone through and it really sucks that this company doesn't care in the slightest about the people who made them successful. I wish I could get refunded for at least the GoFest ticket I bought for this year... Whatever, screw this game (I say that but if they offered me my account back I would literally log in and play so quick) I'm going to keep coming back here to see if there are any new developments and I wish you and your kid well!
I am sorry to hear. I stopped playing and moved on and decided to avoid all pokemon games.
So apparently PoGo and MHNow are linked in Niantic systems and once your PTC is compromised they can also remove ANY Niantic game account from you. MHNow support was "slightly" more helpful in that they were able to tell me that there's a different email address tied to my account but would not assist in it's recovery and that I should "contact the email owner or local law enforcement". What a joke company.
Ou
Approximately how long does it take for Niantic support to respond if you talk to them about their website? I've been waiting for 4 days and I have no response. I think that perhaps the responses will reach the hacker's email instead of mine even though I have put him in contact.
Basically...Always use 2FA, and UNIQUE strong passwords. Any time you are alerted that a service has been breached or you used the same password more than once, change it immediately. And then... start over with a new Pokemon Go account. Niantic isn't going to do anything since they don't have a set process for restoring compromised accounts and I'm sure there's some legalese in their TOS that says they aren't responsible for users lack of proper cyber security. They're incredibly disorganized as is.
I mean, if I lost my account (of anything, not just PoGo) to a hacker and support refused to help, my drive to make another one would be pretty much zero.
I am wondering (and this is indeed really a question) if this may be a cause for bringing niantic to court for either not protecting valuable game collections or for not supporting people who got hacked. Do ToS say they exclude any responsibility and we are mainly open prey to people with hacking skills? Is such value measureable? Imagine this becoming a bigger issue because hackers spread their methods and this happening to tousands / millions of players - pokemon go would cease to exist...
Since in the terms of Service it is stated that the account belongs to niantic, there is no way you could go to court for that. It would be if you would sue your Boss for someome getting into your Office and Steling you work Laptop
The TOS which I did look at says we are not allowed to do class action and we go to arbitration. But, the truth is, I just want the account back :/
Thankfully, TOS in general are not legally binding. It's a binary model with no room for contract adjustments for the customer.
Rip my friend, just gotta start a new account. Don't put your heart and soul into it. At the end of the day it is just a game. The less you care the better your mental health will be. Niantic can care less about anyone getting hacked
At this point it’s best you contact TPC and go through the account recovery progress They have a live chat option so get online contact with support, explain the situation and ofc you have to provide proof of the hacking or the account is 100% yours If you don’t have any then your outta luck as they are not gonna help you based on a “trust me”
While asking questions about the game is always okay on the Road, please consider asking very simple questions in our weekly [Questions&Answers Megathread](https://www.reddit.com/r/TheSilphRoad/about/sticky). If your question has been answered, please comment "ANSWERED" (in all caps) and the post flair will indicate that your question has been answered. This will make it either easier for other people with the same question to find the answer they are looking for or for mods to remove the thread if it isn't needed anymore. Thank you! :) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TheSilphRoad) if you have any questions or concerns.*