How to catch a hacker - Everything you need to know

[Toxin]

Introduction

Didn't we all have a moment while playing CS:S when we were really asking ourselves "Isn't that guy totally hacking?". While experienced hackers are very hard to reveal, they do sometimes make mistakes and with some experience you can catch them.

First of all, very many players that have been accused of hacking are simply extremely good, and that has to be cosindered. Only a tiny portion of players out their use cheats and hacks to gain an unfair advantage.




First time hackers

Let's say you see a person come into the server and gets his butt owned. The next day he comes back and suddenly dominates the server... Random? I don't think so. Either that person has become extremely good overnight, or - in most cases - has gotten himself some cheats to not get picked on etc. This 'First time hackers are easy to catch.
How to spot a first time hacker:
First time hackers usually have little experience on how to operate cheat/hacks and will most likely just stand in spawn for a few seconds trying to modify the hack. That is easy to spot and you should be always supiscous, should this happend multiple times.
Also, an unexperienced hacker will most likely use the hacks without care, such as spraying his/her weapon the whole time or get a headshot over a long distance while moving. Another very obvious way to catch newbie hackers is by spectating them and looking out if the shoot trough walls or doors. Many of them will usually lock onto the target and stay locked eventhough the target disppears out of his/her view. Many very new hackers will set their Hacks too high and will spin around very frequently, as if knowing that someone is about to ambush them. That can either be done with wallhacks, radarhacks or simply aimbot.




An experienced hacker
Experienced hackers are a whole new category. They know how to use their hacks and usually come in with the hacks prepared. They usually don't make many visible mistakes and usually seem friendly to not get suspiscous. However, they do several mistakes that newbies also do. One way to catch them is if they just randomly spray when they win the round or when they are bored, then look exactly how and where the bullets hit and maybe you can catch them with a no-spray-hack.
Experienced hackers never shoot trough walls but use the knowledge the wall hack provides them to their advantage by avoiding the enemy and ambushing him. One obvious way to catch hackers is by spectating them and looking out if they have recoil. Should the screen show that they have recoil but they always land in the same place, you know ist hacks.

I hope this helped. I was bored and tried to do something productive for the community.

[DoubleSb]

Dr. Hacks.

[Troy]

NIce guide , you probaly know what hackers do.

[Pancake Batter]

Cool guide, I use to report hackers all the time back in '07. I'd start doing it again but I lost interest in sitting around in spec all the time.

[XeNo]

There's a lot more to it than that.

Tricks of the trade, my friend.


The obvious ones will always be exactly that, obvious, their crosshair will shake, they'll get near impossible headshots, they'll play like an idiot but get kills all the time.

Catching good hackers is all about practice, learning how to spot one, what certain traits give them away, ect. ect.


Really catching hackers is almost like a job, the more you work at it, the easier it is.

[Wrathek]

There's a lot more to it than that.

Tricks of the trade, my friend.


The obvious ones will always be exactly that, obvious, their crosshair will shake, they'll get near impossible headshots, they'll play like an idiot but get kills all the time.

Catching good hackers is all about practice, learning how to spot one, what certain traits give them away, ect. ect.


Really catching hackers is almost like a job, the more you work at it, the easier it is.

I do that shit all the time and I don't hack

[Chobber]

I do that shit all the time and I don't hack

But thats just pure darn luck! :D

[FightingRooster]

Although I don't play many games where hacks are useful (Deathrun, minigames), I'll keep this in mind ;)

[Dracula]

As XeNo said watch for shaking, the hackers who either buy their hacks or make them will not shake to violently [just a small amount] but its still detectable.

[SneakySnake]

Just let VAC do the work.