Are you risking your GTA Online account by staying in lobbies with hackers?
An increasingly common misconception among GTA Online players is that getting money dropped on you by hackers will result in your account being banned. The ban resulting from the sudden increase of cash you're carrying around. However, there are a number of ways to minimize any sort of harm that hackers may inflict upon you when and if this occurs. We've put together a hacker avoidance guide before, but that touched on different topics than this guide.
First of all, getting money dropped on you won't get you banned, and it has never caused false bans. Another misconception is that whether or not you bank the cash actually matters. Some claim banking it will save you from a ban, others that banking it is what causes the ban. Neither are true, because banking the cash makes no difference whatever which way. You're not getting banned for this, period.
One more thing before we proceed: the quickest, safest and overall best way to avoid issues caused by hackers is to simply hop to a different lobby. No method beats this right now. Even though a recent upgrade to the in-game anti-cheat allows for the mid-session banning of hackers, reporting someone won't insta-ban them since that system would be open to abuseby trolls and griefers, especially considering that absolutely every ban is non-negotiable.
However, if for whatever reason you decide to risk it all and stay in a lobby with a hacker, there are some precautions to take. Again, we'd just suggest switching sessions, but hey, some of you folk are off your axels. Sometimes you might meet someone who is a 'nice hacker', someone who doesn't crash the lobby with the spawning of infinite Titans, or doesn't take all your guns away from you.
First of all, there are no 'nice hackers'. They might not be screwy right now but you can bet that they cocked up other lobbies for kicks before, and will do so again. Any and all forms of hacking are in breach of GTA Online's EULA and ToS, and bans are issued in these cases.
Now, while dropping cash on you won't result in the banhammer descending upon you, hackers can get you banned in other ways. A golden rule is never, ever to get into a car with a hacker. A number of hack effects, like god mode, are transferrable this way, meaning if you hop into a car with an invincible player, you'll be invincible too. But without any of the anti-ban precautions these hackers have set up you'll probably tick off the anti-cheat within seconds.
God mode isn't the only effect that is transferrable this way, but all of them will get you banned. The thing with hacking is that for all the masking techniques out there, none are fool-proof and even the best can only buy you time before you're banned. If any of you think it's a great idea to set up a mask of some sort and hop into a hacker's car as an easy way to get an unfair advantage, be warned that you're just signing the death sentence of your account.
A common thing to experience is having all of your weapons taken from you by hackers. This particular problem is quickly resolved with a single loading screen, like going to your apartment or something. However, you'll reinitialize without any ammo, even though your weapons are back. Not only does this mean that your carefully cherished firework rockets are adiós, but you can waste a bunch of cash on buying it back.
We risk repeating ourselves, but here, session hopping is your best best. Even if you're stuck it out with the hackers up to this point, unless you want to waste hard earned money on ammo you never fired, switch sessions as quickly as possible. Dallying too much will make the issue 'set', but if you're swift you'll load into the new lobby with all of your weapons and ammo on you.
Evidence for this next tip is anecdotal at best, but hey, if it works for just one guy out of ten, it's still helping (and with the number of players playing GTA Online, one out of ten is still almost a million a week). When a hacker begins to crash the lobby with infinite prop spawning, turn your in-game field of view to the ground as quickly as possible and try to switch session before it boots you out.
The idea is that even though the props will exist within the game world, the hardware will be less taxed — this can even be tested on mid-range PCs ambiently. Have an FPS counter on, look out into the distance so many objects need to be rendered. Then look down right at the ground, and you'll get significantly better framerates due to the fewer objects.
Sometimes, hackers will spawn props into your character model that persist after several lobby switches. In these cases, a full reboot of the system is suggested, though simply switching to singleplayer then back to multiplayer also works most of the time. We have yet to hear of this causing a ban. However there is a likelihood of having an altered player model trip the anti-cheat, so for your safety we'd suggest rebooting your system entirely.
Another way to avoid bans is to not interact with hacker-spawned vehicles or other items. Occasionally you'll meet an alleged 'nice hacker' who spawns a dozen Duke O'Deaths into the lobby for players to have fun with. Except the hack is kind of like a virus that spreads from carseats. Like sharing a car with a hacker, sitting in a hacked car is like painting a target on your colluding ass.
Speaking of collusion, there is one thing that is rarely spoken of but does cause bans. See, people can't only report hackers, but people who outright ask for cash. Chat-log screencaps of you polishing gizzard for easy money (since money drops don't cause bans) are all Rockstar Support needs to let loose the dogs of ban to feast upon your greedy shins.
If you've possibly, even inadvertently, done anything stated above to put you at risk of a ban but haven't been banned yet (and are actually, genuinely innocent), we'd suggest keeping an eye on the forums. Usually whenever there is a banwave, pissed hackers whine about it in drove so they are hard to miss. Ban waves themselves come in smaller sub-waves, and if you're not caught by the first, staying offline for a while might save your account.
That said, none of this is a guarantee. For your own safety, just burn the lobby-hopping suggestion into your mind and use it as your go-to method for hacker avoidance. If you're ever in a situation where you're tempted to stay in a lobby with a hacker, just ask yourself whether risking your account, and all progress on it, is worth it all.
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