Among Us: “Banned for hacking” message explanation

Anti-cheat features in Among Us have been kicking players from games and telling them they were “banned for hacking.”

Among Us refers to hacking as anything which involves altering the fundamental functionality of the game’s code, either manually or through an outside program. This includes, but is not limited to, mods which always make you the imposter, remove kill cooldowns, show you the teams when you shouldn’t be able to see them, or let you use vents as crewmates.

What can hacking in Among Us lead to?

In some cases, merely having these mods installed will prompt the Among Us anti-cheat program to force you to disconnect from any games you join, and as such these should be avoided whenever possible.

One (not named here) mod in particular, promised many tools which would help the user violate the rules of the game. Users who reviewed this mod seemed either unaware that these were considered hacks, or did not care.

Review of an Among Us cheat mod

Review of an Among Us cheat mod

Whether they’re aware of it or not, using these kinds of mods can lead to unfun games that make other players not want to play Among Us at all. Anyone who hopes to be able to play with friends or a dedicated playgroup should uninstall any kind of mod that promises to do anything like that.

I like Among Us, but the hacking is a little out of hand.

— Walter Bunn (@rhettelawe) November 3, 2020

There are false-positives happening on Among Us roo

That said, it must be admitted that Among Us will occasionally kick a player out of a game even if they weren’t cheating. Forest Willard, the sole programmer for Among Us, has been working to resolve these issues, and reduce the chances of kicking non-hacking players from games, but it will take time.

Anyone who is removed from a game who knows they weren’t hacking, has no mods installed and no programs meant to influence the game running, may just want to wait a few moments and try rejoining.

??? I got kicked from a game of among us for hacking. you think I am smart enough to know how to do that?

— Mother Fucker Unlimited (@chidoriyoshino) November 3, 2020

If the problem persists, try relaunching Among Us, or restarting your computer if necessary. False positives do happen, but they aren’t too common, and will usually resolve themselves with some patience.

How common is hacking in Among Us?

Among Us had a wave of hacking affect the game for a few weeks, and that has only recently been solved. It began with the kind of cheating some mods offer players, but eventually got to the point where hackers were able to spam the chats of many lobbies, or even delete the map entirely.

Fortunately, the developers have been working to combat these issues to ensure that Among Us players can have a safe and fun game.

Anti-cheat features will continue to be implemented into the game as development continues. For now, anyone who is seeing this message pop up consistently should make an effort to remove any mods they may have downloaded and try playing Among Us without any kind of outside programs meant to affect it.