Reported player who get banned punishment goes something like
1st ban 3 days 2nd ban 1 week 3rd ban 2 weeks 4th ban 1 month 5th ban forever
I always make sure the file a report against griefers in my games and if I have friends who were in the game I get them to do it as well. The more reports against someone for the same game the higher their report goes on the list. If someone is clearly enjoying ruining the game, they've probably done it before. I like to imagine that some of the people I report are on their 2nd or 3rd bans and will be unable to play HON on that name for weeks.
Also, the number of griefers etc in low level games has certainly gone up, especially with the influx of $10 accounts. Most of those accounts are not owned by actually new players, obviously.
Do you get like a warning message at all? Or do you just wake up one day and you cant log in?
Login screen says that this account has been suspended when you try. You receive a followup email explaining why and for how long you have been banned. It's a shame more people don't use the rap feature. most people don't seem to know it exists when the guy who sells his items and buys a pk and tablet and starts griefing people as his team won't cc shows up.