Pokemon Go players fear “security breach” following hacking reports
NianticAn uptick in reports from Pokemon Go players of their accounts being hacked and compromised has prompted concern among the community.
Across Reddit and X/Twitter, multiple instances of fans detailing the loss of their accounts surfaced. In particular, the popular subreddit TheSilphRoad, was inundated with threads from affected users.
Providing evidence of their attempts to contact Niantic through various means to regain access to their account, one player detailed the “emotional suffering” they’ve experienced from the loss.
“I’m super sad and frustrated. Eight years down the tubes,” the author continued, adding “I have tried to contact [Niantic] through support and all they have said was ‘Sorry, but we can’t help you.'”
“Four days ago, I got a message that said ‘account doesn’t exist’. I tried contacting Niantic support but got nothing but replies from bots,” another affected user claimed.
“Pretty much confirmed hacked at this point,” yet another thread stated. “I’m super disheartened and don’t think I’d start a new account again over,” they said, explaining how they unsuccessfully attempted to resolve the situation through official support channels.
“This is scary. I feel like this is the 10th post I’ve seen in the last week. I wonder if there was a security breach,” came a reply to one of the affected individuals.
Others had the same concerns. “This seems to be happening a lot to people in the past couple of days. Makes me wonder if there was some kind of security breach.”
It’s not clear if the frequency of reports is a coincidence or something sinister. The prevailing community opinion is that Pokemon Trainer Club – which can be linked to Pokemon Go – is the root cause, though no clear evidence supporting this has surfaced.
Dexerto has contacted Niantic for comment.
Pokemon Go’s next major update, Max Out, goes live on September 3, introducing Dynamaxing and a host of previously unavailable ‘mons native to the Galar region.