Activision is escalating its fight against cheaters in Call of Duty

Activision is going after the developer behind a popular Call of Duty cheat in court. The company claims the GameHook and Lergware hacks are so damaging that some players have stopped playing the PC version of Black Ops 6 entirely. Both tools let users boot others from matches and even take down multiplayer servers, while GameHook also includes an aimbot that guarantees every shot lands.

Making cheats like this breaks the game’s terms of service, usually just leading to a ban. But Activision says the developers made money off these hacks, selling them to players and pulling in a hefty profit. According to the lawsuit (via IGN), “Activision is informed and believes, and on that basis alleges, that Defendants have received significant revenue from their activities, to the detriment of Activision and its player community.”

Activision points to Ryan Rothholz (online alias Lerggy) as the original creator of Lergware. The company sent him a cease-and-desist in 2023, but instead of stopping, he just changed his username and handed the cheat’s source code to other hackers. Activision also named two others—Collin Gyetvai and Jordan Newcombe Boothey—as resellers of the hack.

The gaming giant isn’t just asking for money—it’s pushing for legal penalties against those involved, which could total millions.

Cheating in Call of Duty isn’t anything new. The community has been notoriously toxic for years, and Activision’s past attempts to crack down haven’t worked well. Call of Duty: Warzone used to shadowban reported cheaters, and before that, Call of Duty: Vanguard made it so hackers couldn’t see other players. But these fixes were just temporary, and cheating is still a huge issue for the online player base.