RICOCHET Anti-Cheat is no longer just about banning players. Activision is targeting the people building and selling the cheats.
The battle against cheating in Call of Duty has taken a very real-world turn.
Activision has publicly revealed that its anti-cheat team recently traveled to Ohio during the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 closed beta to confront cheat provider Elocarry, delivering a cease-and-desist demand in person. The publisher also filmed the encounter and released the footage through the official Call of Duty social channels.
“RICOCHET Anti-Cheat Doesn’t End When Your Match Does”
That’s the message Activision wants the cheating community to hear.
In a post accompanying the footage, Activision explained that cheat developers operate around the world—and the company is prepared to pursue them outside the game itself. The Elocarry visit was presented as one example of a larger campaign, rather than an isolated incident.
The encounter itself was relatively straightforward. A representative arrived at a residence in Ohio, approached the front door and handed legal documents to an individual whose face was blurred in the released footage. The representative explained that the paperwork came from Activision’s attorneys and directed the recipient to contact the listed law firm.
Importantly, this was a cease-and-desist demand, not a police arrest or criminal prosecution.
Activision Says More Than 375 Cheat Operations Have Been Disrupted
The Elocarry action is part of a much larger effort.
According to Activision, the company has now:
- Disrupted more than 375 cheat reseller operations
- Served more than 80 cease-and-desist demands
- Shut down more than 30 vendors
- Indicated that litigation could follow when necessary
That represents a significant shift in strategy.
Rather than relying exclusively on detecting individual cheaters and banning their accounts, Activision is attempting to attack the business ecosystem that supplies cheats to players in the first place.
The Message Is Clear
Build cheats. Sell cheats. We will find you.
Activision has made it clear that it wants the financial incentive behind cheat development to disappear. If cheat sellers lose their websites, customers and ability to operate, the company believes it can make cheating more difficult before the software even reaches a player’s computer.
Elocarry Appears to Have Paused Call of Duty Cheat Sales
The Elocarry situation also appears to have produced an immediate result.
Following the legal action, the official Call of Duty account shared an image showing a message from the Elocarry Discord indicating that Call of Duty cheat sales had been temporarily paused while the operator reviewed the matter internally.
That doesn’t necessarily mean the broader operation has disappeared, but it demonstrates what Activision is trying to accomplish: disrupt the supply chain and force sellers to reconsider whether continuing to operate is worth the risk.
RICOCHET Is Fighting on Multiple Fronts
The legal offensive is only one part of Activision’s anti-cheat strategy.
RICOCHET Anti-Cheat has been a core part of Call of Duty’s security system since its introduction in 2021. The system combines server-side detection, analytics, investigations, account enforcement and a PC kernel-level driver designed to identify software attempting to manipulate the game.
Activision has continued expanding those capabilities.
In its Season 05 update for Black Ops 6 and Warzone, Team RICOCHET said it had targeted 22 additional individuals responsible for developing and selling cheats, with formal cease-and-desist demands sent alongside efforts to dismantle their advertised services. The company said that effort had contributed to the closure of nearly 40 cheat developers and resellers since Black Ops 6 launched at that point in the campaign.
The latest numbers show that campaign has continued to grow substantially.
Activision Is Going After the Cheat Marketplace
This is arguably the most important part of the announcement.
For years, anti-cheat has largely been a technological arms race.
Cheat developers create software.
Developers detect it.
Cheat makers modify it.
Anti-cheat teams update their systems.
And the cycle continues.
Activision is now adding another weapon to that fight: legal and business disruption.
By targeting developers, distributors and resellers, the company is attempting to make cheating more expensive and more dangerous for the people profiting from it.
The strategy also gives Activision another way to attack cheats that manage to evade technical detection.
RICOCHET’s Fight Moves Into Modern Warfare 4
The timing is also significant.
Activision’s latest campaign comes during the Modern Warfare 4 beta period, giving Team RICOCHET an opportunity to test and improve its systems against a large player population before launch.
Activision said that during the first beta weekend, infection rates were lower, hardware bans were harder to evade and its time to action improved. The company also deployed new detections throughout the weekend and said Team RICOCHET would continue monitoring matches and adapting its systems during the next beta period.
That suggests Activision wants Modern Warfare 4 to launch with a stronger anti-cheat foundation than previous entries.
Why This Matters to Call of Duty Players
Cheating is more than an annoyance in a competitive shooter.
A player using an aimbot, wallhack or other prohibited software can undermine an entire match. Legitimate players can spend weeks improving their skills only to encounter someone using software designed to bypass the normal rules.
That is why targeting cheat sellers could be more significant than simply banning another batch of accounts.
A banned player can create another account.
A disrupted cheat service has to rebuild its infrastructure, find customers and potentially deal with legal consequences.
That’s a much bigger obstacle.
A New Kind of Anti-Cheat
Activision’s approach can now be viewed as a three-part strategy:
1. Detect the cheater
RICOCHET identifies suspicious behavior and unauthorized software.
2. Remove the cheater
Accounts and, in appropriate cases, hardware can face enforcement.
3. Target the source
Activision pursues the developers and sellers supplying the cheating tools.
The third part could ultimately prove to be the most interesting.
Activision Is Sending a Warning
The footage of the Ohio visit wasn’t necessary to explain that a cease-and-desist had been issued.
Activision could have simply announced it.
Instead, the company showed players what enforcement looks like.
That makes the video as much a warning to the cheating industry as it is an update for Call of Duty players.
The message is essentially:
You aren’t invisible.
And with Activision claiming hundreds of reseller operations have already been disrupted, cheat developers now have another problem to worry about beyond RICOCHET detection.
They have to worry about Activision finding them.
