Anything I can do about gym spoofing?
There has been a spoofer in my area that has been going around attacking gyms without actually being there. From my home I can see 4 gyms which all trade teams consistently and are fairly close together.
I'm on Team Instinct and no matter how high level we get the gym, someone always comes around, clears out the gym and leaves it empty as a sign of disrespect. And whoever is doing it only does this to the Instinct gyms. Even low level Valor and Mystic gyms are never touched by this person.
I know they're spoofing because on multiple occasions I have gone to the gyms as they're being attacked to find no one there. Trouble is, because they always leave the gym empty I can't get the person's trainer ID and report them.
Has anyone else had a problem similar to this or have any suggestions? It has become incredibly discouraging to even participate in the gym meta in my town since this has been going on for several months now.
Answers
I would search this site as there are many instances of your type of question about spoofing. The only thing I can think of is while he is "attacking" the gym, if you know someone on any of the other 2 teams they can enter the battle with him while he is taking it down and get his username. Without his username I don't know how you could report the issue. -Best
Are you sure they are spoofing?
They can be in a car, in a building or out of your view.
I purposely followed a Vallor member around and took down every gym they were in just to send a message (They took over all the gyms in the town for about a month). And the next day we were at the same gym at the same time and as soon as they put something in, I took it down and put something in. And all I heard was them cursing about my trainer name being a spoofer to which I walked over and showed them my trainer profile on my phone and said don't take all the gyms and you won't have this problem.
Edit: Just to add I didn't literary stalk them, like follow them around in person. I meant I followed them as in when I saw their trainer name in a gym I would go to that gym and take it down. It just so happened that on that one day we were at the same gym at the same time. Geez you people on here are worse than watching Fox news reporters taking everything and spinning it for your own benefit.
Prob should've reported you as stalking...it's one thing to do gyms you normally do on your normal route, but admitting you are following someone around just to knock them out is probably what stalking is defined as...
Sadly, that behavior is prob worst than spoofing due to real life dangers of it...
I sometimes leave gyms white for players I dislike, so they can't trace me back to my gyms and so that I save a revive. But if you see a gym going down, and suddenly another one with no car movement or enough buildings in between then yeah they are likely a spoofer.
I am not sure if MeatSloth's suggestion works. But if it does then that is perfect.
I don't believe there is any real method in game to get their username outside of downloading specifc apps outside the app store that people created for finding who fought gyms.
I honestly just leave instinct gyms alone since there are so few. So I sorry for your dilemma :<
I like MeatSloth's idea too so I'll check it out. If it was one person actually going around and taking out the gyms on foot or in car it wouldn't be so much of an issue I think cuz at least they're playing legitimately. Knowing that someone hops all over town from their couch though is a different story :/
