The Call of Duty anti-cheat team, RICOCHET, has announced its latest progress in combating the cheating industry. The team has disrupted the operations of 375 cheat-related entities and directly prompted 31 major cheat providers to shut down.
RICOCHET stated that the team is actively tracking hundreds of cheat providers and has issued nearly 100 cease-and-desist letters through legal channels. However, as soon as some providers shut down, new operators quickly emerge, necessitating continuous enforcement actions.
According to the cheat industry structure disclosed by the team, cheat developers occupy the upper tier, with some having evolved into organizations backed by substantial funding and generating annual revenues in the millions of dollars. These developers typically do not sell their products directly but instead distribute cheats through intermediaries, with the same cheat program often appearing under multiple different names.
To identify cheaters, RICOCHET has continuously expanded its detection methods over the years, currently employing techniques such as software scanning, behavioral analysis, and machine learning models. The team believes it is facing not isolated cheaters, but industrialized organizations equipped with sophisticated tools and operating across regions.
Cheat transactions also pose information security risks to buyers. Some sellers collect account verification details, IP addresses, hardware fingerprints, email addresses, and payment information. Additionally, certain cheat programs contain malware, potentially leading to personal data leaks for purchasers.
RICOCHET estimates, based on its investigations, that the cheating industry is worth over $8.5 billion. Individual cheaters may spend up to $1,000 per year on purchasing new accounts, renewing subscriptions, and rebuying cheat programs after previous ones are blocked or migrate to other platforms.