What to do if someone hacks (Thanks to TheChickenMaster!)

OMG SOMEONE'S HACKING!!!!!

Here's what to do.

A while ago, the forum thread count was rapidly increasing in size because of this major issue. Both the hacks and the rapid thread increase are huge problems.

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There's one thing I can't stress enough:

Make sure that the person is hacking. Ask around on the Question Thread.

Here are the DON'TS for if you know someone is hacking:

DON'T make a thread about it.

DON'T say to them, "I know you're hacking!"

DON'T clutter up chat with related messages.

DON'T fight back. This will mostly likely encourage the hacker to attack you more.

DON'T build any outposts (If you are on World Map). You're wasting resources and time, as well as giving the hacker more power and range.

DON'T insult the hacker. You will make matters worse for yourself.

DON'T invite any of your friends to help you. You are just fueling the hacker's fun.

DON'T give in. Hacking back is the worst thing you can do, you’re just adding on more injury.

What you should do is calmly go to their profile and hit the "Report abuse" button (with evidence). This way, they can get banned (if the Kongregate Administrators agree with you) and they won't stalk, kill, and hack you to pieces in Backyard Monsters.

Also, take an easily verifiable screenshot of evidence that they're hacking, for instance that their base is maxed and their Kongregate account was made yesterday. Yes, this is possible, with shiny, but the amount of shiny it would take is huge...No one in their right mind would spend that much on shiny. Also, Kongregate could check Kred purchases and see that he bought zero, nada, none, zilch, and in general, no Kreds.

Here are the DOS for if you know someone is hacking.

DO lock your thread if you have already made one (for the more experienced forumers, this may seem obvious) to lock the thread, go to your first post and click the EDIT POST button under your name.

Then click delete post, underlined in red, in the top right.

DO Report the person immediately! If there is one thing people forget to do, it’s reporting the hacker.

Originally posted by Des_troyy:

This isn’t the thread to report hackers or call them out publicly. This thread is made for the sole purpose of simple solutions to avoid and get away from hackers/cheaters.

If you think someone is hacking, simple go to their profile and report them. That process works must faster than saying it here. (Provided screenshot below)

DO get an invite away from the hacker if you are on World Map while you wait for Kongregate to ban them.

DO Warn as many people in your area about the hacker, you would want the same.

DO Make sure you capture any proof of the hacking done to you. This will greatly speed up the process of banning. To take a screenshot, go here.

DO Be polite and calm with them. Sending them a message to stop attacking you will sometimes work.

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Please, everyone who reads this, if you have any other ideas, say them here and I will add them.

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This guide is partly a response to this thread.

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FINAL POINT! You may also use this thread to report a problem, but I would still recommend the report abuse button so that the hacker will not know who reported them.

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Thanks to Des_troyy for help! TheChickenMaster has quit and given his account to dragonologist23.

And, in theory, KIXEYE should take action against people who hack. Considering that you are now able to see the User ID of people who you attack or attack you, some kind of support should be available.

KIXEYE support: http://support.kixeye.com/mail/

May i just ask what user id actually does.

Originally posted by UltimateKid:

May i just ask what user id actually does.

Earth to…hmm, the moon? Saturn? Wherever Ultimate is: (Correct me if I’m wrong) User ID can be used by KIXEYE to access your base and account.

User ID determines how early you played this game, or at least how many that played it before you.

Originally posted by TheFacelessOne:

User ID determines how early you played this game, or at least how many that played it before you.

If it was only that, TFO, user ID would not be as visible in the update. It is more important. If it wasn’t, KIXEYE wouldn’t ask for IDs.

Okay thanks guys.

Please get the word out about this thread.

Don’t worry whoever makes the next hacking thread i will write them so many really describes hate letters they’ll never make one again ;).

Originally posted by Chained_soul:

Don’t worry whoever makes the next hacking thread i will write them so many really describes hate letters they’ll never make one again ;).

Please do not, just link to this thread and teach them how to lock their own.

Fine but someone should make a thread about how to delete threads because the stupidity of some people is just straight up sad.

Chained, if you honestly think that, I will add that, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

gj chicken, looks good

Originally posted by Chained_soul:

Fine but someone should make a thread about how to delete threads because the stupidity of some people is just straight up sad.

Originally posted by TheChickenMaster:

Chained, if you honestly think that, I will add that, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

I think you severely missed the point, Chicken.

Also, What a great thread.

I would prehaps add ‘evidence’

For example, screenies of chat, igm’s or forum posts.

Originally posted by Spyder:

Originally posted by Chained_soul:

Fine but someone should make a thread about how to delete threads because the stupidity of some people is just straight up sad.

Originally posted by TheChickenMaster:

Chained, if you honestly think that, I will add that, but I don’t think it’s necessary.

I think you severely missed the point, Chicken.

Also, What a great thread.

Well, I did add it, didn’t I?

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Spider, if you think this is “horribly and terribly useless”, then you didn’t see the forum explosion, or, as I like to call it, the “Hack thread mass outbreak.” I know you did see it, because you complained about it yourself.

Bump Plz read this thread first guys. I count up to 3 hacker threads a time on page one of forums.

If kong did anything when reports were sent in then people wouldn’t be creating this thread. At present the game is over run by hackers neither kong nor kixeye is doing anything/very little about it.

Considering the amount of people who have bought kreds for this game it is a pretty disgraceful standard of service the players are getting.

My view may change if kong proves me wrong but at present that is the picture the game paints, no amount of words on a forum can change that.

kong nor kixeye is doing anything/very little about it.

We deal with cheaters as we find them, and reporting does help. We’ve been banning them.

The problem is, we are not Kixeye, so our resources our limited. We try to find cheating with as much evidence as we can so that when we do ban someone, we can back up our claim. We do not accept screenshots or word-of-mouth as proof as those can pretty easily be fabricated and faked.

I do appreciate everyone’s help in making the game fun and hack-free, but please don’t think any lower of the site. This is primarily an in-game issue, and we, as a site that just hosts the game, are trying to accomodate.

You shouldn’t worry too much about doing PR on children that can’t even create a full sentence with proper grammar and punctuation.

This got stickied :D

Alternatively, you could do what I did and move away from the hacker rather than risk losing everything while the Kongregate staff figure out whether to ban the guy or not.

Thank you for stickying this, Zshadow. I am sure it will be very useful to new players who encounter hackers.

Also, if anyone has any ideas for things I should add, just say them.

Originally posted by TheChickenMaster:

Thank you for stickying this, Zshadow. I am sure it will be very useful to new players who encounter hackers.

Also, if anyone has any ideas for things I should add, just say them.

Not stuffing it in our faces on the LoaS thread? :/

Point taken, post deleted.