How to report cheater ?

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Carad
Posts: 2
Joined: 11 May 2020, 20:53

How to report cheater ?

Post by Carad »

Hello !
I recently played a game againt what i think is a cheater, but I didn't find any way to report him.
The several options allowed to report someone does not mention cheat, so I can only red thumb the guy, which doesnt seem enough to me.
Isn't there any way ?

For more context, i lost a game against an insalnely lucky player, which is ok. After that i rewatched it to see if he was giga lucky at a peculiar draw, but i noticed something strange at another moment and which does not depend on luck :
the player had 15 coins and the earning phase would give him 13 more coins (according to the game interface). But he earned 14 coins, so one more, and this was the exact amount (15 + 14 = 29 coins) he needed to play a quick and nice play afterwards.

What can I do ?

Edit :
After rewatching the game, the income difference was due to a wrong display in the game interface (displaying 13 income when the real one was indeed 14). I guess I just faced an incredibly good and a bit lucky opponent.
My bad, yet it seems BGA is quite confident about the cheat free zone :)
Last edited by Carad on 12 February 2026, 20:00, edited 1 time in total.
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Exotic Dreams
Posts: 188
Joined: 31 May 2020, 22:12

Re: How to report cheater ?

Post by Exotic Dreams »

Look into the player's history and document any suspected evidence of cheating. After doing this, you can click on a the player's profile. Look at the top left options. Should be a box about friendship status if any, then report this player and then message. Select "report this player". Then you'll have to select further depending on what kind of cheating is suspected.
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cheval_raye
Posts: 101
Joined: 19 March 2020, 17:48

Re: How to report cheater ?

Post by cheval_raye »

Given OP's history, I suspect the game in question is Ark Nova, and I want to ask if OP's opponent didn't have some appeal income of some kind that could get them an extra money income. If so, it's possible that the opponent simply got the extra appel first, then the money they needed for their next move
Carad
Posts: 2
Joined: 11 May 2020, 20:53

Re: How to report cheater ?

Post by Carad »

Thank you for your answers.
@Exotic Dreams, unfortunately the closest report option is exploiting known bug, which is not exactly what I was looking for.
@cheval_raye, you are right about Ark Nova. I rewatched the game closely and it appears that the problem was a bug in the interface that didnt display the right amount of income. I guess I jsut faced a incredibly good and lucky opponent (The "giga lucky draw" I mentionned was indeed a bird university pick at end game with no real reason that lead to an eagle draw).
My bad for the fuss.
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tbhp
Posts: 726
Joined: 16 April 2025, 00:35

Re: How to report cheater ?

Post by tbhp »

I mean, I would have assumed a bug if that had happened to me. Seems a lot more likely than someone somehow managed to hack the system.
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Silene
Posts: 983
Joined: 23 October 2013, 17:50

Re: How to report cheater ?

Post by Silene »

good demonstration for why they disallow reporting cheaters (apart from multi-accounting). they would probably have over 99% false reports that take an immense amount of work to handle.

and it makes sense: given bga has rule-enforcement, it should be technically impossible to cheat apart from multi-accounting.
Check out the Allround-League: https://boardgamearena.com/group?id=7870115 --> a league where you have matches of random games vs. other players in your group. Season 9 registration oct. '25.
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Arjuna92
Posts: 103
Joined: 24 February 2014, 08:10

Re: How to report cheater ?

Post by Arjuna92 »

Silene wrote: 13 February 2026, 14:39 and it makes sense: given bga has rule-enforcement, it should be technically impossible to cheat apart from multi-accounting.
Should be but isn't quite. There are known bugs that can be exploited. And yet unknown ones, if you happen to stumble across them. That happened to me recently.
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euklid314
Posts: 684
Joined: 06 April 2020, 22:56

Re: How to report cheater ?

Post by euklid314 »

Arjuna92 wrote: 13 February 2026, 15:29
Silene wrote: 13 February 2026, 14:39 and it makes sense: given bga has rule-enforcement, it should be technically impossible to cheat apart from multi-accounting.
Should be but isn't quite. There are known bugs that can be exploited. And yet unknown ones, if you happen to stumble across them. That happened to me recently.
If the game has a bug then you should not report a player profiting from the bug as a cheater but you should report the bug to the game developer.

The term "cheater" is not applicable in this case...
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Arjuna92
Posts: 103
Joined: 24 February 2014, 08:10

Re: How to report cheater ?

Post by Arjuna92 »

euklid314 wrote: 13 February 2026, 15:36
Arjuna92 wrote: 13 February 2026, 15:29
Silene wrote: 13 February 2026, 14:39 and it makes sense: given bga has rule-enforcement, it should be technically impossible to cheat apart from multi-accounting.
Should be but isn't quite. There are known bugs that can be exploited. And yet unknown ones, if you happen to stumble across them. That happened to me recently.
If the game has a bug then you should not report a player profiting from the bug as a cheater but you should report the bug to the game developer.

The term "cheater" is not applicable in this case...
Of course I reported the bug. In this case, it was one that had gone unnoticed for years and over tens of thousands of games. Just because a game has been around for a while and been played a lot does not mean that there can't still be a bug or two around.

Where I think the term "cheater" applies is with the many bugs that have been waiting around in the bug system for years. If you know how they work and intentionally take advantage of them, that is cheating.
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tbhp
Posts: 726
Joined: 16 April 2025, 00:35

Re: How to report cheater ?

Post by tbhp »

euklid314 wrote: 13 February 2026, 15:36
Arjuna92 wrote: 13 February 2026, 15:29
Silene wrote: 13 February 2026, 14:39 and it makes sense: given bga has rule-enforcement, it should be technically impossible to cheat apart from multi-accounting.
Should be but isn't quite. There are known bugs that can be exploited. And yet unknown ones, if you happen to stumble across them. That happened to me recently.
If the game has a bug then you should not report a player profiting from the bug as a cheater but you should report the bug to the game developer.

The term "cheater" is not applicable in this case...
If they knew what they were doing, you should report both the bug and the cheater.

I mean, how could they not know? They can see that the points they earned are not what they should be. So they would be willingly benefiting from the bug, throwing it under the rug so to speak, which is cheating.

It's like if you are playing chess, and your opponent accidentally moves a piece in a way that benefits you, and you say nothing and just let the game go on. That would be cheating by omission.
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