Prolific Call of Duty Cheat Developer Insists It’s Shutting Down — but Players Are Skeptical

Call of Duty cheat provider, Phantom Overlay, is reportedly shutting down.

In a statement posted to Telegram, the cheat provider declined to comment on why it was closing down “immediately,” adding: “This is not an exit scam and no external entity could ever compel me to exit scam my customers. I’ll keep everything updated, safe, and online for 32 days longer.”

The reason Phantom Overlay is committed to staying online for 32 days is to ensure people with a 30-day key “get their full money’s worth.” The cheat creator also said they would partially refund lifetime keys, too.

Crucially, many other cheat providers piggyback off Phantom Overlay’s systems, so this shock closure could have a broader impact on the cheating ecosystem.

“I can’t believe it!!” commented one gamer on X, formerly known as Twitter (thanks, Dexerto). “Does this mean the Season 3 cheat update is really gonna work?!”

Other commenters were less convinced, with one stating: “They’re just rebranding. They have the same provider under multiple names/brands. The cheaters won’t stop.”

Activision recently admitted its Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 anti-cheat efforts “did not hit the mark” at the Launch of Season 1, particularly for Ranked Play after initially pledging to kick cheaters out of the game within one hour of them being in their first match.

It did, however, assure players it now routinely bans cheaters due to increased “velocity” from several Ricochet Anti-Cheat systems, in addition to the over 19,000 accounts it recently removed.

The apparent prevalence of cheaters is considered by some to be ruining competitive multiplayer, and Activision had come under fire for failing to address the problem. Things got so bad that last month, with the release of Season 2, Activision let console Ranked players disable crossplay with PC players.

Cheating is not unique to Call of Duty, of course, but it has become more problematic for Activision ever since it released free-to-download battle royale Warzone in 2020. But despite investing millions of dollars developing its anti-cheat technology — as well as pursuing cheat makers in the courts, with a number of recent high-profile successes — fans remain sceptical of the Ricochet system.

In related news, earlier today, we reported it looks like we’ll finally find out more about the return of Call of Duty Warzone‘s much-loved Verdansk map on March 10.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.