From the reports of pure decimation on the Pokefarmer forums I have to say it is looking more and more like the people who bot are just spinning the hamster wheel and getting nowhere. Use bot get to level 30 - 33 and then perm ban, restart, rinse and repeat every two weeks.
I'd like to debunk a bunch of theories based on being a witness/participant in many banwaves. I have strong collection of evidence hundreds of reports and input which tells me the most probable scenario is the following, please feel free to contradict me with your own personal or anecdotal evidence but what I present here is pretty strong:
1) Any bot that uses any fake hash will be flagged. There is no safe bot because accessing the API outside of the game client is easy for Niantic to detect and they have had months of API and client updates to work on this.
2) To date the bossland and all other fake paid hashes do not adequately simulate the game client signature so they are all pretty easy for Niantic to detect.
3) While using an old or deprecated API will certainly get you banned faster, even using the current API you still get flagged and if you continue eventually banned.
4) It seems Niantic will only ban accounts who have used botting with API -2 to the current API. They don't go after old accounts that botted before that point so if you stopped like I did months ago you will be safe as long as you never use the API outside of client again.
5) Although it is likely ALL bot accounts are flagged only a certain number are actually banned at any one time by Niantic by necessity(huge numbers of accounts and
databases) or by design(keep botters guessing). They are also trying to keep their user account numbers steady/growing so banning bots too fast is not a good idea for them either.
5) During banwaves Niantic can choose to ban a few or a large number of accounts but it seems the most recent one was more thorough..
6) IT DOESN'T MATTER what your actions are, you are DREAMING if you think you are safe with:
a) I only bot 2 hours a day
b) I don't snipe
c) I only bot around my home area and I keep my IP the same as where I am playing at.
d) I don't do perfect throws everytime
e) I only walk like a normal human and not always the same path
From a logistics perspective deep scanning huge databases of data and recording GPS coordinates is not something Niantic is doing or will likely ever do. Instead they have an easy method of just looking for the fake UK26 signatures and until the Hashing services are able to completely reverse UK26 or use Niantic's own Hashing routine(this was being done before) I think Niantic can and will be able to ban bots whenever it pleases them.
What makes many of you confused is that even if you are flagged you don't get banned right away or ever. I can attest to this I have 4 accounts that I botted up until a few months ago, and I got the, your account is suspected of using thrid party tools popup. Well I stopped all botting and just spoof/snipe right now, the accounts range from lvl 29 - 37 and none are banned over the last 4 months.
This may not be popular news and I see the bot makers and sellers wanting to obfuscate this information with their marketing but this is the reality as I see it.