Do not make or sell game cheats and aids, including AI aids that “only read the screen and never touch memory,” and do not sell modified builds that add features to software such as WeChat

Selling a cheat to 20 person-times, or earning 5000 yuan, is enough for up to 3 years; especially serious cases get 3 to 7 years. Someone who made wall-hack and aim-assist cheats sold over 80000 yuan worth in 3 months, got 1 year suspended for 1 year and a 5000 yuan fine. Someone who took server-side code, ran a private server, and took over 20000000 yuan in top-ups got up to 4 years, with fines as high as 10000000 yuan

Cost

No money spent. The trade-off is giving up income from such orders and “little tools.” The hard part is that the money comes fast and it is unclear who will pursue you

Benefit

Providing programs or tools specially used to intrude upon or illegally control computer information systems, when circumstances are serious, brings up to 3 years and a fine concurrently or alone. Concurrent means prison plus a fine; alone means fine only. Especially serious circumstances bring 3 to 7 years plus a fine. The threshold for “serious circumstances” is providing the tool to 20 person-times or more, or illegal gains of 5000 yuan or more. Illegal gains means the money earned from this. Intentionally bypassing or destroying technical protection measures set by the rights holder may also constitute copyright infringement, with up to 3 years, or 3 to 10 years in serious cases. Official case: Wang and others made and sold cheats that read and modified game memory for wall hacks and aim assist. In 3 months they sold over 80000 yuan and profited over 30000 yuan. Sentence: 1 year suspended for 1 year, fine 5000 yuan. Suspended for 1 year means a 1-year sentence that is not served yet; if you stay clean that year you need not go to prison. Xiang and others sold the “TZ” series of cheats with sales over 200000 yuan; Xiang got 3 years suspended for 3 years and a 20000 yuan fine. Liu and others obtained game server programs, changed parameters, ran private servers, and took over 20000000 yuan in top-ups. Sentences from 4 years to 2 years 6 months, fines from 10000000 to 1300000 yuan. Not only games. A Shanghai company made custom ROMs that added dozens of features to WeChat on the phone — auto-forward, like, mass message, and more. Those phones were sold as “marketing phones,” 2381 units. In 2019 the Shanghai Xuhui court convicted the company of copyright infringement, fined it 500000 yuan, and sentenced the person in charge to 1 year 6 months suspended for 1 year 6 months (nationwide)

Notes

Published cheat rulings all involve reading or writing game memory and bypassing anti-cheat. Aids that “only screenshot or only simulate key presses” have not yet appeared in official rulings. But the ticket-snatching case in item 3 shows that never touching memory and only sending requests can still support a conviction for illegally obtaining data. Whether it is a crime and under which charge is decided by investigating authorities from materials the vendor submits when reporting — not by the author. Selling to 20 person-times already meets “serious circumstances”; that bar is low.

Sources · 4

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2. 最高人民法院、最高人民检察院 (2011). 关于办理危害计算机信息系统安全刑事案件应用法律若干问题的解释（第三条）. ga.sz.gov.cn/ZWGK/ZCFG/ZCJD/content/post_1304…（深圳市公安局转载）；最高人民检察院 (2026). 上海静安：严惩制售游戏外挂黑灰产共护清朗网络空间. spp.gov.cn/spp/zdgz/202608/t20260825_735480.s…
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