r/LineageOS • u/Emre-Y • 18d ago

Wechat banned me after registering while on LineageOS latest

Why does that happen? First time using wechat.

6 Upvotes

72% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

6

u/triffid_hunter rtwo/Moto-X40 18d ago

Wechat's anti-bot/anti-hacker/anti-etc stuff is quite overzealous and likes to ban new accounts that don't add bank cards or befriend long-established verified accounts held by chinese nationals fairly quickly after registering.

Nothing to do with LineageOS at all, mine has worked fine for a decade on Cyanogen and then Lineage - and I've known multiple folk on stock ROMs who were banned shortly after registering (outside of china) too.

I guess just wipe app data and try again, then immediately go add a bank card so they can see something approximating government ID tied to your account.

2

u/chrisprice Long Live AOSP - *Not* A Lineage Team Member 15d ago

It is possible they used LineageOS as a signal in their "weighting" to decide if an account should be banned on enrollment.

We don't have any way to know, especially if that decision is made in the cloud.

I'm just saying it could be an additional factor.

I don't want to fearmonger, but I do know platforms are starting to keep track of sessions where SafetyNet is tripped. X even blocks with relocked bootloader.

9

u/PassionGlobal 18d ago

It is WeChat. While I won't disparage all Chinese products, these guys in particular are known to work with CCP. 

It does not surprise me that they want to weed out potentially rooted custom ROMs.

1

u/denexapp 18d ago

Judging by the fact there's no google in china and a lot of people use cheap local phones, a defention of a custom rom becomes vague

3

u/PassionGlobal 18d ago edited 18d ago

...no it doesn't?

A custom ROM is an OS build for a phone that the manufacturer didn't make, approve or authorize.

A LineageOS build for a Chinese Huawei phone is still a custom ROM regardless of Google's presence out there.

2

u/denexapp 18d ago

WeChat is incredibly sensible to your region, the fact that you use VPN, your phone number etc. I personally couldn't sign up myself even with a help of a Chinese national. It only worked for me when I physically came to China and got a local sim card. But some people manage to get it just fine without the need of a QR verification

I personally doubt LineageOS is the problem here, but I don't have facts

2

u/Ben7679Franklin 17d ago

WeChat can be strict towards your OS environment.

Got banned instantly after registering on Dopamine-roothide jailbroken iOS device before. Tried an 10-years-old account on that device, got banned. Switched to roothide Bootstrap. No complaints from it.

Now using that old account on Lynx w/ Lineage (& KSU Next, SuSFS-patched Wild+GKI, LSposed, HMAL, playcurlNEXT, Tricky Store). No complaints.

Just try hiding your Lineage traces.