Nevertheless there are still rumors in forum and many alliances that some people are cheating and getting gems for free somewhere or somehow. An official statement from SG that this is not possible would help to avoid bad blood.
As I understand it, it has been possible to buy third party services that provide gems.
When these are identified, SG can either lock the account or put the gems into negative equity so that the player has to purchase the equivalent in legitimate gems before being able to use them.
So a statement saying itâs completely impossible wouldnât necessarily be true.
I personally know several players in Niantic âs Ingress who have played for 4-5 years, flown all over the world for the game, spent thousands on hotel & travel, played thousands of hours, and had accounts banned, or reset to level 1, because they had friends spoofing their location - cheating - for years and thought âNiantic hasnât caught them yet, they never will. So I will cheat alsoâ. Eventually, Niantic caught them.
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