In case someone's reading this pinned topic, here's what's currently known / assumed:
Consequences of bans:
If you get caught and banned
both the hardware
and the account are banned.
Hardware ban means that console won't ever be able to log in to PSN again, with any account.
Account ban means the account is
completely closed. You will not be able to log in to that account from any device, and yes, that does include PS4 and PS5, and if you had any store purchases, they're gone for good. For this reason it is
extremely recommended to use a throwaway account when using PSN on a modded PS3.
How to bypass the ban:
The hardware ban can be bypassed by spoofing the console's IDPS (that's the unique ID that the console sends to identify itself), however it's not as simple as it sounds.
You can't just send any number and expect it to work. It has to be taken from a real, unbanned console. The only real way to obtain those is to dump them from dead units.
WARNING - There are people who sell IDPS numbers online. The problem is not all can be trusted, an unfortunately there isn't a way to know that in advance. The risk is that the seller might sell the same IDPS number to multiple people, which means that at some point it's very likely that two consoles will attempt to go online with the same IDPS at the same time, which would result in a ban of both, along with the associated accounts.
There's no way of bypassing account bans. The only way is to avoid serious consequences in the first place by using throwaway accounts.
How to avoid getting banned:
Unfortunately the only 100% sure way to avoid a ban is not to mod your console in the first place. Since a 2nd hand PS3 costs less than $100 these days, some people get a second PS3 and keep it unmodded just for PSN.
How to minimize the risk of getting banned:
The good news is we now know enough about the ban behavior to make it 99% safe (it'll never be 100% safe though).
The first thing you need to do is disable CFW / HEN syscalls before going online. CFW and HEN create custom system calls that allow homebrew to do things that the PS3 normally doesn't permit. Certain games can detect those syscalls and report them, leading to bans. Recent CFWs will allow you to temporarily disable those syscalls so you can go online without them being detected. This is baked into Evilnat CFW (accessible through the CFW tools menu), or if you have webMAN MOD installed (highly recommended), just press R2+Triangle. By default new CFWs will block access to PSN if syscalls are not disabled, in order to prevent accidents.
Note that disabling syscalls will break many homebrew apps (it's not a good idea to use homebrew while logged in to PSN anyway). To restore the syscalls, restart your console.
Another note: You may hear people talk about PSNPatch and SEN Enabler. These are old and outdated utilities. Everything now is baked into the firmware.
Things to avoid:
There are multiple things that increase your ban risk and you should not do:
- Cheat / use game mods - The overwhelming majority of people who get banned get banned for cheating. This should not come as a surprise to anyone. IMHO people who cheat online are asses and deserve a ban. Don't be an ass. Please note that sometimes a modded game is enough for a ban, even if you don't actively cheat, so avoid using any modded games.
- Sync hacked trophies - Another common cause of bans. If you use a trophy unlocker app to give yourself trophies and then try to sync them, a ban is very likely. Sony has heuristic methods on the server side that detect hacked trophies and ban the offending accounts. Giving yourself trophies you haven't truly earned is also a form of cheating. Unfortunately since it runs on Sony's server we have no way of knowing exactly what the algorithm is. We do know that one of the methods used is to check the trophy time stamp and see if you got a huge number of trophies in a short period of time. We do know however that it's not the only detection method, and we don't know them all.
- Spoofing your firmware version - PSN generally won't allow you to connect without being on the latest firmware. Some people who don't want to upgrade decide to spoof their firmware version, i.e., make the console report it's on the latest version when it actually isn't. The problem is that sometimes Sony changes things in the PSN protocol, and if a console says it's on the latest version but attempts to use an outdated version of the protocol then the spoof can be detected. Fortunately spoofing is not required as of the time of posting this - The latest firmware is 4.91, and there's already CFW based on it (Evilnat 4.91) and HEN supports it too.
- Unreleased / beta games - If you play those and then sync trophies you might get banned. The reason is that the list of trophies can (and usually does) change during a game's development cycle. The earlier the build, the more likely that the list of trophies are not the same as the final release, which means you'd be synching trophies that might not exist in retail PSN, leading to a ban, as you're not supposed to be able to play unreleased / beta games on a retail system.
- Pirated digital games - Unlike disc games, which can be purchased in retail store and/or second hand, digital games can only be downloaded from Sony's store, and that means Sony has a list of all digital games you have (or should have). Attempting to sync saved games or trophies from a game that's not on your purchase list is a dead giveaway that it's pirated. I know there are people who played pirated digital games and haven't been banned but note that this can be detected retroactively. Also note that if the same game has both a physical and digital release, they have different title IDs, which means that from PSN's perspective they're two different games.
- Playing one or more of the following games: CoD BO2 / BO3 / Ghosts / AW / Any later CoD game, Destiny, GTA V - These games are notorious for actually scanning your console, looking for homebrew related files and reporting on you, leading to a ban as soon as you hit the multiplayer button. Even if you revert to OFW, they may still find some leftover files and you might get banned anyway. If you've ever been on CFW or HEN and just have to play these games online you will need to both revert to OFW and reformat the HDD. Some (but not all) have modded EBOOT files (known as Anti-Ban EBOOTs) that remove those checks but you still risk your console and account if it so happens that the modder has not done a perfect job. Note that playing the single player mode is safe as long as PSN is not connected while using those games.
Things that won't get you banned:
Connecting to the Internet by itself will not get you banned. It is only possible to get banned if you log in to PSN. Doing things that require an Internet connection but don't require PSN (e.g., downloading game updates, synching date and time) will never result in a ban.
