'Diablo 3' cheaters will be permanently banned if caught using mods, bots or hacks

Blizzard lays down the law with new outline on how cheaters in Diablo 3 will be handled.

Users who attempt to cheat the system in Diablo 3 could get permanently banned, according to a recent blog post by Blizzard titled "Cheating in Diablo III."

As detailed in the post, users who use hacks, bots, or modifications in any form could be permanently banned by the company and unable to log in to the game via their Battle.net account.

"Blizzard Entertainment has always taken cheating in any form in Blizzard games very seriously, and that's no different for Diablo® III. If a Diablo III player is found to be cheating or using hacks, bots, or modifications in any form, then as outlined in the Diablo III end user license agreement, that player can be permanently banned from the game. This means that the player will be permanently unable to log in to Battle.net® to play Diablo III with his or her account.

"Playing Diablo III legitimately means playing with an unaltered game client. Doing otherwise violates our policies for Battle.net and Diablo III, and it goes against the spirit of fair play that all of our games are based on. We strongly recommend that you avoid using any hacks, cheats, bots, or exploits. Suspensions and bans of players that have used or start using cheats and hacks will begin in the near future."

It is unlikely there will be a method of appealing the ban.

Blizzard continues to tighten its security prior to the launch of its real-world money auction house which will allow users to use real money to buy items in-game, as well as make money by selling items through the auction house.