GTA Online Still Isn't Safe as Players Get Banned, Unbanned, and Rebanned

Participating in Grand Theft Auto Online is still proving to be a risky venture as many players report that they're being banned again shortly after being unbanned.

Days ago, GTA Online players began reporting that they were getting banned out of nowhere following the release of a new update. It wasn't – and isn't – just isolated incidents either with more than enough players corroborating the stories of false bans to indicate that something fishy is going on. Banned players have speculated that something might've changed in the last update with the way that the game targets modders and other cheaters which is resulting in players who have never used mods or only altered the single-player component being banned either permanently or for varying amounts of time.

Many of these bans turned out to not be as permanent as players might've thought. In a reassuring notification, players have begun reporting that they've been unbanned from GTA Online. Players who had invested hundreds of hours into the game and had tons of Shark Card funds to their name were relieved to find that they could once again play GTA Online if not still a bit peeved at the whole situation, though it was quickly discovered that the false bans weren't fully resolved yet.

While it may have looked like the troubles were over, it appears that ban hammer is still swinging wildly in GTA Online. Multiple reports of players being rebanned are showing up within the game's subreddit as parent posts with even more comments echoing the message. The ban wave has hit players hard enough to warrant a stickied post at the top of the Reddit forum that shared updates on the initial situation a few days ago and has now been updated with the current status of players being banned, unbanned, and rebanned.

"Even though many have reported being unbanned, there's also plenty of reports of people getting re-banned," the stickied post reads in response to a question about whether it was safe to return online or not. "Maybe Rockstar didn't fix the initial issue that caused people to get banned before reversing them, or maybe someone made a 'mistake' that restored peoples accounts. Either way, it is still currently not safe to go online. Whether you've never been banned in the first place or even if you see that you have been unbanned, do not log back in yet."

The ban wave appears to only be affecting PC players for the moment, so console owners can continue playing without consequences it seems. Rockstar doesn't appear to have issued any comment on the situation aside from the typical correspondence with players trying to appeal bans and emails that say bans have been reverted, though those who are holding out for a resolution will hope that the silence ends soon.