Rating adjustment when opponent violates Fair Play policy

I occasionally get notified that my rating has been adjusted upwards because one of my opponents has been detected to have violated the fair play policy. My rating usually goes up around 8 points, and since I'm assuming this happened in a game I lost, it's essentially restoring my rating to what it was before the match.

I appreciate that Chess.com does this, but I believe they should go further and adjust my rating as though I won the match, which would amount to an average 16 point increase, from a loss of 8 to a gain of 8. After all, my opponent cheated during the game, and that should result in an automatic forfeit for them and a victory for me, not a no-contest.

I received two of those notifications. I have no idea how they would know that someone was cheating. Maybe it's something else?

I'm not proposing that Chess.com assume I would have won. I'm proposing that they consider in-game cheating to be a forfeit. Just as it is in any other form of head-to-head competition. If you cheat during a tennis match or boxing match, your opponent is declared the winner. Why should this be any different? It makes no difference what would have happened.

They ban the player, as if he doesn't exist. If they award points against non existant opponents, they would mess up the rating with the influx of rating points.

The point of the rating is balance, someone wins rating points, someone loses them. If one player wins, and nobody loses, that would disbalance the rating. Tennis and boxing do not use the same rating as chess does, chess.com uses glicko rating and there is a mathematical formula behind it. Influx of points messes up the formula, and affects everyone.

@5

"The point of the rating is balance, someone wins rating points, someone loses them."
++ No, that is not true. In Glicko-2 en even in Elo there is no balance: a player with a higher RD or a higher K wins or loses more than his opponent.

"If they award points against non existant opponents, they would mess up the rating with the influx of rating points." ++ Yes, that is true. Somebody could propel his rating to 3000 by playing cheating friends.

There is still balance on a grand scale, because if they win more, they lose more for a loss as well, when their rating is not established (let's use this term). The system doesn't know what is their true strength so it is in a process of determining it.

For established players (in terms of rating), there is balance between opponents as well.
The point is that the formula would be disrupted if what OP wants come into existence.

By the way, does anyone know how does FIDE handle this (points where one player is caught cheating)? In OTB chess however, the situation is different because there isn't as much cheating as online, here they ban tens of thousands of accounts every month and that could affect the ratings significantly, while in OTB chess, there are significantly less cases.

@7

"There is still balance on a grand scale"
++ No. Newer players have a higher K and a higher RD and thus win/lose more rating than established players. That is also a reason why there are sometimes grand scale corrections to all FIDE ratings.

"how does FIDE handle this"
++ The disqualified player loses the game and the game is rated as a loss for him.

5. Unplayed Games

5.1 Whether these occur because of forfeiture or any other reason, they are not counted. Except in case of force majeure, any game where both players have made at least one move will be rated, unless the regulations relating to Fair Play require otherwise.

https://handbook.fide.com/chapter/B022022 

They win more as well, that is my point.

As for FIDE, ok, but what happens to the rating of players who play against a caught cheater in FIDE rated tournaments? Do they win Elo points normally, or they just get a win for the tournament but the rating is unaffected because of cheating?

@9

any game where both players have made at least one move will be rated

I saw that, but this "unless" part is a bit vague.

Interesting, so basically in OTB when you play against a cheater it counts as a win rating wise as well.

Though online cheating is much more frequent, so I suspect such games in OTB will basically have a meaningless effect on the rating, which is why I presume they can do that.

Thank you for the answer.

@11

"this "unless" part is a bit vague."
Examples:
Some player is caught with a cell phone during a game with at least 1 move played. He gets a loss. That counts for the tournament as well as for the rating.

Some 1000 rated player plays a Swiss tournaments. In round 6 with standing 5/5 he is caught with a cell phone in a game with at least 1 move played. He gets a loss. That counts for the tournament as well as for the rating. After inspection it is ruled he has cheated in the previous 5 rounds as well. Those games in the previous 5 rounds he has won are not rated.