It's not "cheating" in that players are using the system as-is, and after a critical mass of people adopt it, there is no way to play competitively without it.
The simple answer becomes to patch the behavior out of the system, although that is rarely popular with the people who have adopted the strategy and invested a lot in the system.
"Cheating" is extremely damaging to the fabric of the society, making it zero-trust, while also making people lose the ability to win fairly, either because they cheat all the time, or everyone around them does.