Somewhere out there, a trainer is holding a Pokémon that has no business existing on their account. Not a shiny with rough IVs. A one-off creature, tucked inside a Pokéball that wasn’t in the game yet when that species launched.
Players are reportedly picking up bans for acquiring rare creatures through questlines obtained “in an unauthorized manner” — a very dry way to describe the black market fans have whispered about for more than a year, which now appears to be real.
Reddit had the receipts first
Last year, users on TheSilphRoad, the biggest Pokémon Go subreddit, began pooling notes on a small circle of players offering creatures that looked impossible to own legitimately. Duplicates of one-off Pokémon. Species released years earlier, somehow sitting in Pokéballs that hadn’t existed at the time.
All of it listed for sale. Hundreds of dollars apiece.
Selling creatures already violates Pokémon Go’s terms of service, so that isn’t the intriguing part. The intriguing part is where the sellers got their stock.
What “injecting” actually means
These players weren’t out catching rarities. They were being handed the original questlines that grant them. The technique is known as “injecting”, and it allows an account to receive questlines it has no legitimate access to.
Fans have largely settled on the same two explanations, and neither is reassuring. Either someone found a way to hack the game’s servers, or someone with genuine developer access is handing out keys.
Screenshots circulated by Pokémon sellers claim they are in contact with a member of the Pokémon Go development team. Those screenshots can’t be verified, and the claim would be convenient cover for a seller doing their own hacking — precisely the sort of boast that makes an operation sound untouchable.
Pokémon Go developer Scopely Explore, previously Niantic Games, was approached for comment last year and never responded. Another request has now been sent.
The penalty is 30 days
This fresh round of bans for obtaining questlines “in an unauthorized manner” reads like confirmation that injecting has been going on all along. What isn’t clear is why enforcement is landing now, or whether the loophole behind it has been closed.
For anyone who made money from it, the punishment is lighter than you might assume. A 30-day suspension, along with a warning that repeating the offence could bring “additional sanctions.”
The notice sent to players reportedly reads: “Hello Trainer. We have confirmed that you have received Special Research in an unauthorized manner, violating Pokémon Go Terms of Service and Player Guidelines. We take fairness seriously at Scopely Explore, and hence, your account has been temporarily suspended for 30 days. Further violations may result in additional sanctions against your account, including a permanent termination.”
Thirty days. For running a storefront of Pokémon that were never meant to be catchable, sold to strangers for hundreds of dollars, built on quests either passed along from the inside or taken from the servers.
The suspensions expire in a month. The Pokémon, presumably, stay exactly where they are.