When there are prizes on the line, fairness matters more than anything. No one wants to lose to someone who cheated. We take that seriously, and we have built Impulso so that fair play is the default, not an afterthought. Here is how it works, in plain terms, and what happens when something looks wrong.
No. Every score and ranking is calculated on our servers, never on your phone. The app only reports the steps your device records to Apple Health or Android Health Connect. It cannot send us a score, edit a leaderboard, or set its own rank. This is the single most important protection: there is no number on your phone for a cheater to tamper with.
Only steps measured by your device's motion sensor and synced through Apple Health or Health Connect. Steps that are typed in by hand are ignored and never count toward a league. League steps are also counted from the moment a league starts, so steps you walked earlier in the day do not carry in and everyone effectively starts from zero together.
Automated checks run continuously in the background and flag activity that is not physically plausible, such as impossibly high daily step totals. Anything that trips a check is set aside for review rather than quietly counted. We keep adding and tightening these checks over time as we learn the ways people try to game a step tracker.
We are honest about this: no automated system catches every trick the instant it happens. Suspicious patterns are flagged and reviewed, and we are continually strengthening detection. Just as importantly, our payout process is built so that even if something slips past a check, it does not turn into a paid prize without a closer look first.
Flagged accounts can have their results voided, be removed from the standings, and have any prize withheld. Serious or repeated abuse can lead to removal from Impulso entirely. Cheating to take a prize from honest players is treated as a serious breach of our terms.
Winners are verified before any money moves. If a result is unusually large, unverified, or comes from a flagged account or an unverified device, the prize is automatically held for a manual review instead of being paid out. Real cash is only released on clean, verified results. This protects the people who earned their place fairly.
No. Impulso leagues are decided by your verified step count, not by chance. There is no random draw and no element of luck in who wins. The members who walk the most across the league window finish on top. Prizes are fixed amounts, announced before each league opens, and paid by Impulso. Results are scored server-side with device checks and anomaly detection to keep competition honest. Entry is limited to verified members aged 18 and over in Australia.
Tell us. Email the details and we will look into it. Every report is taken seriously and helps us make the next league fairer for everyone.