Title says it all basically. Adding mobile authenticators would be very beneficial for the game. Currently a banned player will just create a new account and get right back to cheating. With mobile authenticators they would have to provide a new working phone number each time they get banned. I think that would already be enough to stop 80% of the cheaters, since that's way too much hassle to go through each time you get banned.Also other games like CS:GO are good examples of this system reducing the amount cheaters by a lot.

The system in CSGO reduced the hackers, but there are still tons of them. Authenticators doesnt help at all. Hacker will always find a way around it.Its kinda funny to see Apex Legends hacker count vs other free games. xDNever saw such an amount of hackers in a game since COD MW3. xDI played Fortnite for a long time and came across a hacker ONCE, in Apex you only need to start a game and you are almost garanted to get a hacker. LMAO

Like my name, it's a pile of *... Your bans happen once a week.Two chinese players on a random team of mine... Total cheating. zzyy1994 was his name. I watched him head shot every single player. His aim locked on everyones head. All he could do was laugh at me and speak in chinese.Your game is broken on the PC front because you have no mobile authentication.

@Kuro466 You are sadly miss informed. I have friends banned from Blizzard games and they can no longer use the same mobile number as an authenticator for the account. Btw depends how each company uses the authenticator. Blizzard just notifies you when someone logs in with your account and when that happens it sends you a secure code to log into the game (that is how it works now in 2019) but it did not work the same way back in 2012 when they heavily promoted it.R6S has an authenticator that does not allow you to even login to the account unless you type the code they send you in text message to your mobile. That authenticator literally will block the whole mobile if you cheat (the DEVICE NOT JUST THE NUMBER). That is why when you apply for it they explain it very clearly that in case of theft you have to use 4 specific codes and send them in the exact order you received them to an email address (along with other form of identification) in order to "release" your mobile device from their logs so that you can be able to re-use the same service and play the game. They keep the IMEI of the phone on their servers, not just the number.CS:GO Prime did reduce the cheaters, because cheaters do not use mobile number to authenticate the account, because if they get banned they also ban their mobile number and device along with their email etc.It is different for every company and depends how they use it, but it can be used 100% for reducing cheaters as it has been by Valve and R6S coming this year (2019). It is actually great at getting rid of noob script kiddies which are probably the majority of the cheaters anyways. That combined with hardware id bans, region lock and lawsuits against the cheaters will decrease the cheating dramatically.Anything that reduces the cheating is better than doing nothing.

To increase the security of your EA account we have Login Verification which will send a code to you via email, text, or by logging in with an authentication code. More information on that can be found below. We're not aware of any intentions to require players to have a phone to play Apex Legends. Login Verification https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/origin-login-verification-information/ This was from the recent Respawn Check-In on 3.8.2019 https://answers.ea.com/t5/News-Game-Updates/Respawn-Check-In-3-8-2019/m-p/7653687#M17 CHEATERS As of today we’ve banned over 355K players on PC through Easy-Anti-Cheat. The service works but the fight against cheaters is an ongoing war that we’ll need to continue to adapt to and be very vigilant about fighting. We take cheating very seriously and care deeply about the health of Apex Legends for all players. We are working on improvements to combat cheaters and we’re going to have to be pretty secretive about our plans. Cheaters are crafty and we don’t want them to see us coming. With that said, we can share some high levels things we’re doing: We are reaching out and working directly with experts, both within and outside of EA, in this area that we can learn from. Scaling up our anti-cheat team so we have more dedicated resources. We are adding a report feature on PC to report cheaters in game that goes directly to Easy-Anti-Cheat.

That has nothing to do with what the OP is talking about blueberry. The idea is that you don't queue people together unless they've verified their phone number.

Mobile authenticators to stop cheating

15 Replies

EA_Blueberry
Community Manager
7 years ago
To increase the security of your EA account we have Login Verification which will send a code to you via email, text, or by logging in with an authentication code. More information on that can be found below. We're not aware of any intentions to require players to have a phone to play Apex Legends.

Login Verification

https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/origin-login-verification-information/

This was from the recent Respawn Check-In on 3.8.2019

https://answers.ea.com/t5/News-Game-Updates/Respawn-Check-In-3-8-2019/m-p/7653687#M17

CHEATERS

As of today we’ve banned over 355K players on PC through Easy-Anti-Cheat. The service works but the fight against cheaters is an ongoing war that we’ll need to continue to adapt to and be very vigilant about fighting. We take cheating very seriously and care deeply about the health of Apex Legends for all players.

We are working on improvements to combat cheaters and we’re going to have to be pretty secretive about our plans. Cheaters are crafty and we don’t want them to see us coming. With that said, we can share some high levels things we’re doing:

We are reaching out and working directly with experts, both within and outside of EA, in this area that we can learn from.

Scaling up our anti-cheat team so we have more dedicated resources.

We are adding a report feature on PC to report cheaters in game that goes directly to Easy-Anti-Cheat.
TheFecesLord
7 years ago
Like my name, it's a pile of *... Your bans happen once a week.
Two chinese players on a random team of mine... Total cheating. zzyy1994 was his name. I watched him head shot every single player. His aim locked on everyones head. All he could do was laugh at me and speak in chinese.
Your game is broken on the PC front because you have no mobile authentication.
rusemanxoxo
7 years ago
That has nothing to do with what the OP is talking about blueberry. The idea is that you don't queue people together unless they've verified their phone number.
Chimeru1
7 years ago
The system in CSGO reduced the hackers, but there are still tons of them. Authenticators doesnt help at all. Hacker will always find a way around it.
Its kinda funny to see Apex Legends hacker count vs other free games. xD
Never saw such an amount of hackers in a game since COD MW3. xD
I played Fortnite for a long time and came across a hacker ONCE, in Apex you only need to start a game and you are almost garanted to get a hacker. LMAO
TheFecesLord
7 years ago
Authenticators SURELY do help. You've got to authenticate your account through a phone or key fob. I prefer the blizzard approach early on - key fobs. Plus they aid in account hacking prevention.
If the cheater is caught cheating, that authenticated account is gone. They'll have to purchase another keyfob, or use another cellular device to authenticate. They'll run out of phones eventually! 🙂
Kuro466
7 years ago
This thread is severely mis-informed.
2nd factor authentication is about securing your account against theft, not preventing cheating.
For example, Blizzard hand never and will never *require* 2nd factor to play a game. The mobile authenticator also does *not* give them the ability to ban a specific cellular device. You can reinitialize it with a new code on the same mobile device anytime you like.
CS:GO does have a feature called "Prime Status", where users participate in a Prime Matching Queue. However, many users believe Valve ruined the concept by allowing free users to earn Prime Status by reaching level 21 (and attaching a phone number). Users would have preferred if only users who purchased CS:GO would get prime status, because it would be a better detriment to cheaters to have a financial penalty for an account ban.
Ariautoace
7 years ago
Blueberry, what you said is separate from the OP.

EA has their s*it together pertaining to what you said. Respawn is all over the place. It's good they admitted to not know what to do; but hey we all have so much patience when it comes to the hacking plague.
Karsot
7 years ago
@Kuro466 You are sadly miss informed. I have friends banned from Blizzard games and they can no longer use the same mobile number as an authenticator for the account. Btw depends how each company uses the authenticator. Blizzard just notifies you when someone logs in with your account and when that happens it sends you a secure code to log into the game (that is how it works now in 2019) but it did not work the same way back in 2012 when they heavily promoted it.
R6S has an authenticator that does not allow you to even login to the account unless you type the code they send you in text message to your mobile. That authenticator literally will block the whole mobile if you cheat (the DEVICE NOT JUST THE NUMBER). That is why when you apply for it they explain it very clearly that in case of theft you have to use 4 specific codes and send them in the exact order you received them to an email address (along with other form of identification) in order to "release" your mobile device from their logs so that you can be able to re-use the same service and play the game. They keep the IMEI of the phone on their servers, not just the number.
CS:GO Prime did reduce the cheaters, because cheaters do not use mobile number to authenticate the account, because if they get banned they also ban their mobile number and device along with their email etc.
It is different for every company and depends how they use it, but it can be used 100% for reducing cheaters as it has been by Valve and R6S coming this year (2019). It is actually great at getting rid of noob script kiddies which are probably the majority of the cheaters anyways. That combined with hardware id bans, region lock and lawsuits against the cheaters will decrease the cheating dramatically.
Anything that reduces the cheating is better than doing nothing.
RichAC
7 years ago
@EA_Blueberry wrote:
To increase the security of your EA account we have Login Verification which will send a code to you via email, text, or by logging in with an authentication code. More information on that can be found below. We're not aware of any intentions to require players to have a phone to play Apex Legends.

Login Verification
https://help.ea.com/en-us/help/account/origin-login-verification-information/
This was from the recent Respawn Check-In on 3.8.2019
https://answers.ea.com/t5/News-Game-Updates/Respawn-Check-In-3-8-2019/m-p/7653687#M17
CHEATERS
As of today we’ve banned over 355K players on PC through Easy-Anti-Cheat. The service works but the fight against cheaters is an ongoing war that we’ll need to continue to adapt to and be very vigilant about fighting. We take cheating very seriously and care deeply about the health of Apex Legends for all players.
We are working on improvements to combat cheaters and we’re going to have to be pretty secretive about our plans. Cheaters are crafty and we don’t want them to see us coming. With that said, we can share some high levels things we’re doing:
We are reaching out and working directly with experts, both within and outside of EA, in this area that we can learn from.
Scaling up our anti-cheat team so we have more dedicated resources.
We are adding a report feature on PC to report cheaters in game that goes directly to Easy-Anti-Cheat.
It wouldn't be crazy idea. even homeless people get government phones now. Every kid I know has a phone from their parents...
Cipax
7 years ago
My R6 authenticator runs from my desktop so I don't even need a mobile phone.