Why Free Cheats Get You Banned – Real Examples From 2025

In 2025, game developers are more aggressive than ever in fighting against cheaters. From kernel-level anti-cheat systems like Ricochet, BattlEye, and EAC, to account-wide and even hardware bans — the risk of using cheats has skyrocketed, especially if you use free cheats.

If you’ve ever wondered why free cheats get detected so fast, or you’re thinking about downloading that shady “unlock tool” from YouTube — this article is for you. Let’s break down how free cheats really work, why they’re dangerous, and show real examples of players getting banned in 2025.

🚨 What Are “Free Cheats” Exactly?

Free cheats are usually:

Open-source or cracked versions of paid cheats
Publicly available on forums, YouTube, Discord, or sketchy websites
Packed with malware or spyware (often FUD – Fully Undetectable to antivirus)
Outdated and never updated to bypass modern anti-cheat systems

They may promise full aimbot, ESP, or “Unlock All” features — but the price you pay is your account, your PC, or worse — your personal data.

⚠️ Top 5 Reasons Why Free Cheats Get You Banned Instantly

1. Public Code = Easy Detection

Most free cheats use code that’s already been sigged (signature-detected) by anti-cheats.
As soon as you launch it — the system sees a known cheat and flags you.

📌 Example: A free ESP hack for Apex Legends circulating in March 2025 was detected within 24 hours and led to over 15,000 instant bans.

2. No Kernel or Anti-Detection Layer

Paid cheats often include advanced evasion (kernel drivers, ring0, DMA, encryption).
Free cheats? Just raw injection. That’s like sprinting naked across a battlefield.

3. Lack of Obfuscation

Free cheats don’t pack or scramble their code.
Anti-cheats like BattlEye or EAC can scan the memory space and easily recognize unprotected code blocks.

4. You’re Sharing It With 10,000+ People

When everyone downloads the same cheat, it becomes public enemy #1 to developers.
Detection becomes a matter of when, not if.

📌 In January 2025, a popular free Rust cheat was downloaded over 40,000 times. Within 3 days, 90% of users were banned. Some even got HWID banned.

5. Built-In Malware & Backdoors

Let’s be honest: why would someone give away a “free cheat”?
Usually because:

It includes a cryptominer
It’s a stealer (grabs your browser cookies, logins, or Discord tokens)
It injects rat/trojan access to your PC
It auto-adds your PC to a botnet

And no, disabling antivirus isn’t the solution — it’s the trap.

💀 Real Examples From 2025

Let’s go over a few true cases reported by users this year:

🧊 Case 1: COD Unlock All Tool on YouTube

A free “Unlock All” posted in February had over 100K views.
Thousands used it… and just 2 weeks later:

Banwave confirmed by Activision
7,200 accounts disabled
Dozens of Reddit threads with users complaining: “I only used a free unlocker!”

🔥 Case 2: PUBG Mobile Android Hack (No Root)

Claimed to be “100% undetectable”.
The app injected code into the game — and within days:

Accounts banned
Devices blacklisted
Several users had to change IMEI or switch phones entirely

🧟‍♂️ Case 3: DayZ ESP from Cheat Forum

An open-source ESP script was uploaded to a public cheat site.
Problem? It was last updated in 2023.
BattlEye had already sigged it.
Ban reports flooded in, along with spyware infections on multiple users’ PCs.