My steam account was banned for no reason

Hello,

When I loged on my steam account the other day I got a message saying I had been banned for cheating, this is strange because I have never cheated and absolutly despise people who cheat.

When I opened a ticked all they said was VAC has confirmed you were cheating,

I was really looking forwed to the medic update tomorow and I just got all the tf2 acheivments.

anyway would anyone know how I contact valve on this,

Cheers

i looked it up, and it seems really strict. they won't un-ban you no matter what. strange. you can read the steam support site provided below and click on customer service on the lower right side of the page; but i'm not sure that will do anything.

https://support.steampowered.com/kb_article.php?ref=4044-QDHJ-5691

it seems like it might be some program you have on your system, something that you may not be aware of? cuz they do say that they do not even listen to people's reporting of players they suspect are cheating, so it seems that the vac system tries to detect any programs that enable cheats. so you may have accidentally installed something? i dunno.

There is no way valve will unban you from VAC. No matter what evidence you can give them, they will not ban you. The only way for you to plan again is to buy the games again.ElectricNZ

that's really pretty harsh, i think they should do something like 10 day or month ban as a first warning or something

Why's it harsh? Why would you even cheat in the first place?

There are a few programs that can cause VAC to ban you, they are not cheats. But it is highly unlikely you would have been using them.

I also don't care if the OP was cheating or not, because there's no way he can get his account unbanned.

I've been there, posting on a forum when my account was VAC banned, trying to convince people I didn't cheat, all that happens is you get flamed, and I was really annoyed when people just say "learn your lesson" or "dont cheat again".

All I'm saying is this, no matter what, the only way you can play again is to buy the games again, as simple as that.

Why's it harsh? Why would you even cheat in the first place?

There are a few programs that can cause VAC to ban you, they are not cheats. But it is highly unlikely you would have been using them.

I also don't care if the OP was cheating or not, because there's no way he can get his account unbanned.

I've been there, posting on a forum when my account was VAC banned, trying to convince people I didn't cheat, all that happens is you get flamed, and I was really annoyed when people just say "learn your lesson" or "dont cheat again".

All I'm saying is this, no matter what, the only way you can play again is to buy the games again, as simple as that.

ElectricNZ

so do you know why you were banned? i personally believe you (no reason not to), so i'm not probing here. just curious.

Why's it harsh? Why would you even cheat in the first place?

There are a few programs that can cause VAC to ban you, they are not cheats. But it is highly unlikely you would have been using them.

I also don't care if the OP was cheating or not, because there's no way he can get his account unbanned.

I've been there, posting on a forum when my account was VAC banned, trying to convince people I didn't cheat, all that happens is you get flamed, and I was really annoyed when people just say "learn your lesson" or "dont cheat again".

All I'm saying is this, no matter what, the only way you can play again is to buy the games again, as simple as that.

ElectricNZ

Seriously though having all your games taken away from you is wrong. Maybe ban you from playing it online, but a complete ban is too harsh. They should refund a person anyways when banning them otherwise its just stealing their money.lenson

it's not a complete ban. you can still play all your single player games. you can even play multiplayer, just not vac-secured ones.

[QUOTE="lenson"]Seriously though having all your games taken away from you is wrong. Maybe ban you from playing it online, but a complete ban is too harsh. They should refund a person anyways when banning them otherwise its just stealing their money.fireandcloud

it's not a complete ban. you can still play all your single player games. you can even play multiplayer, just not vac-secured ones.

oh ok i misunderstood.

Small claims court will get you a refund. Then use that to make a new account. Valve/Steam wont send anybody to court and you will get a verdict in your favor with a simple explanation of the problem and asking that the cost of the game/games be refunded to you. Since Valve/Steam wont send anybody to court, there wont be a reason to bring up their full ban policy and I doubt a small claims judge will take the time to fully read it for themselves. Collecting the judgement isnt that hard if you plan ahead. Infact, you will spend more time filling out the complaint than you will in court. Just my two cents on the matter. kodai

Does it matter if I dont live in North America?

Well, you posted this before I followed thourgh. Yeah, it does matter wether or no you live in N. America. However, most countries do have some sort of small claims court system. If Valve is doing business in your country then you should look into it. More often than not, you wont need a lawer and some countries may not even require you apear in court. Just send a letter of affidavit in some locals. What country do you live in?kodai

New Zealand

Oh yeah, you have a small claims option and Valve/Steam does business there. Go for it. Once a judge rules in your favor (excuse me, favour ^_^) you'll get a sheriff to enforce the courts rulling. The only thing you'll need to put any real effort into is figuring out where the sheriff can collect your due as well as cort costs from. Find the distributor of their retail media and offer that as an option. Also the shipping yards that bring in the retail copies to your country is another option. If all else fails, you may be able to get a lean placed on one of their servers in NZ. Thats when the sheriff goes in and places a little sticker around the power switch and turns it off. They cant turn it back on until they give they pay off the debt to the sheriff. They'll pay up REAL quick if that happens. Then the sheriff pays pulls out your share and pays you. If he has to collect product instead of money, then you may ahve to wait for the sheriff to sell the product via legal means (ie government auction or whatever methods are available in your country) to get your money back to you. Still, it's one of those things that works like this. If they make you suffer, you will make them suffer. Seems like a lot of work for something like this, but if your there when the sheriff goes to collect, you feel VERY happy. Trust me on that.

this is why you buy games retail and not use some 3rd party wareBLaZe462

Steam is not 3rd party. Retail or Digital release will still meat with the same result. Valve/Steam (same company) can still ban him. Infact, since you have to go through Steam at least once for all of the games, your subject to their ban rules right off the bat. Again in this case, reatil or digital versions are the exact same thing.

[QUOTE="BLaZe462"]this is why you buy games retail and not use some 3rd party warekodai

Steam is not 3rd party. Retail or Digital release will still meat with the same result. Valve/Steam (same company) can still ban him. Infact, since you have to go through Steam at least once for all of the games, your subject to their ban rules right off the bat. Again in this case, reatil or digital versions are the exact same thing.

I do buy retail games I just keep valve games and games I cant get retail on there (audiosurf) or sometimes i get good bargains there because off the prices of retail here

Oh yeah, you have a small claims option and Valve/Steam does business there. Go for it. Once a judge rules in your favor (excuse me, favour ^_^) you'll get a sheriff to enforce the courts rulling. The only thing you'll need to put any real effort into is figuring out where the sheriff can collect your due as well as cort costs from. Find the distributor of their retail media and offer that as an option. Also the shipping yards that bring in the retail copies to your country is another option. If all else fails, you may be able to get a lean placed on one of their servers in NZ. Thats when the sheriff goes in and places a little sticker around the power switch and turns it off. They cant turn it back on until they give they pay off the debt to the sheriff. They'll pay up REAL quick if that happens. Then the sheriff pays pulls out your share and pays you. If he has to collect product instead of money, then you may ahve to wait for the sheriff to sell the product via legal means (ie government auction or whatever methods are available in your country) to get your money back to you. Still, it's one of those things that works like this. If they make you suffer, you will make them suffer. Seems like a lot of work for something like this, but if your there when the sheriff goes to collect, you feel VERY happy. Trust me on that.

kodai

so has this happened to you before or something?

[QUOTE="ElectricNZ"]

Why's it harsh? Why would you even cheat in the first place?

There are a few programs that can cause VAC to ban you, they are not cheats. But it is highly unlikely you would have been using them.

I also don't care if the OP was cheating or not, because there's no way he can get his account unbanned.

I've been there, posting on a forum when my account was VAC banned, trying to convince people I didn't cheat, all that happens is you get flamed, and I was really annoyed when people just say "learn your lesson" or "dont cheat again".

All I'm saying is this, no matter what, the only way you can play again is to buy the games again, as simple as that.

fireandcloud

so do you know why you were banned? i personally believe you (no reason not to), so i'm not probing here. just curious.

I think I was banned because I was using HLSW, which is a server admining program, which I found out later while talking to some other server admins, can sometimes cause VAC bans.

I don't think that the small claims court is going to be able to help you.

You agreed to the Steam EULA when you signed up, which included - "Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers."

I don't think that the small claims court is going to be able to help you.

You agreed to the Steam EULA when you signed up, which included - "Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers."

G013M

But I did not do that

[QUOTE="fireandcloud"][QUOTE="ElectricNZ"]

Why's it harsh? Why would you even cheat in the first place?

There are a few programs that can cause VAC to ban you, they are not cheats. But it is highly unlikely you would have been using them.

I also don't care if the OP was cheating or not, because there's no way he can get his account unbanned.

I've been there, posting on a forum when my account was VAC banned, trying to convince people I didn't cheat, all that happens is you get flamed, and I was really annoyed when people just say "learn your lesson" or "dont cheat again".

All I'm saying is this, no matter what, the only way you can play again is to buy the games again, as simple as that.

ElectricNZ

so do you know why you were banned? i personally believe you (no reason not to), so i'm not probing here. just curious.

I think I was banned because I was using HLSW, which is a server admining program, which I found out later while talking to some other server admins, can sometimes cause VAC bans.

oh i have my own server and i used mani-admin etc but i think alot of people use mani-admin

I don't think that the small claims court is going to be able to help you.

You agreed to the Steam EULA when you signed up, which included - "Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers."

G013M

Ahh, thats why I suggested that he not make the court aware of Valve/Steams policy on the matter. The judge simply wont look for it and you know they wont send a lawyer in for small claims. All he has to do is give his side of the story and the judge will take it from there.

Sonir77, yes I've been to small claims quite a few times (not agains Valve though). The trick is not to bite off more that you can chew. Dont try to sew for missing work on the day you go to court and what not. Dont look at a judge and call them "your honor" or whatnot. Call them "judge" everytime you need to personaly address them. Look them right in the eye and let them know you honestly feel you've been jilted. You let them know that you not somebody to be treated this way and it's simply in everybody's best interests to rule in your favor. I'm sure a few judges have thought me nothing more than an raging, ego maniac, but what matters is I won the game.

[QUOTE="G013M"]

I don't think that the small claims court is going to be able to help you.

You agreed to the Steam EULA when you signed up, which included - "Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers."

kodai

Ahh, thats why I suggested that he not make the court aware of Valve/Steams policy on the matter. The judge simply wont look for it and you know they wont send a lawyer in for small claims. All he has to do is give his side of the story and the judge will take it from there.

Sonir77, yes I've been to small claims quite a few times (not agains Valve though). The trick is not to bite off more that you can chew. Dont try to sew for missing work on the day you go to court and what not. Dont look at a judge and call them "your honor" or whatnot. Call them "judge" everytime you need to personaly address them. Look them right in the eye and let them know you honestly feel you've been jilted. You let them know that you not somebody to be treated this way and it's simply in everybody's best interests to rule in your favor. I'm sure a few judges have thought me nothing more than an raging, ego maniac, but what matters is I won the game.

cool

[QUOTE="kodai"][QUOTE="G013M"]

I don't think that the small claims court is going to be able to help you.

You agreed to the Steam EULA when you signed up, which included - "Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers."

Sonir77

Ahh, thats why I suggested that he not make the court aware of Valve/Steams policy on the matter. The judge simply wont look for it and you know they wont send a lawyer in for small claims. All he has to do is give his side of the story and the judge will take it from there.

Sonir77, yes I've been to small claims quite a few times (not agains Valve though). The trick is not to bite off more that you can chew. Dont try to sew for missing work on the day you go to court and what not. Dont look at a judge and call them "your honor" or whatnot. Call them "judge" everytime you need to personaly address them. Look them right in the eye and let them know you honestly feel you've been jilted. You let them know that you not somebody to be treated this way and it's simply in everybody's best interests to rule in your favor. I'm sure a few judges have thought me nothing more than an raging, ego maniac, but what matters is I won the game.

cool

Is it really worth the fuss? The orange box costs now how much? 50 or 60 dollars? You really want to waste so much time for so little money?

Did the show you evidence that they caught you cheating?

4yrs is a very long time of playing dont they know..

Sorry man but they have some pretty solid evidence of you cheating if they banned you. Were you sharing your account with a friend? or it could be possible that you didn't keep your account secure enough and your account was compromised and that could be what got you banned. I know it sucks man but VAC only bans you when you have been really cheating whether you did it personally or not. Also I seriously doubt small claims court will help you much. bignice12

You are wrong, there has been so many cases where VAC has had false positives. Theres been articles from respected gaming sites posted about it.

If you really think an anti-cheat app, or any software in the history of the world is 100% fool proof, you are wrong.

[QUOTE="bignice12"]Sorry man but they have some pretty solid evidence of you cheating if they banned you. Were you sharing your account with a friend? or it could be possible that you didn't keep your account secure enough and your account was compromised and that could be what got you banned. I know it sucks man but VAC only bans you when you have been really cheating whether you did it personally or not. Also I seriously doubt small claims court will help you much. ElectricNZ

You are wrong, there has been so many cases where VAC has had false positives. Theres been articles from respected gaming sites posted about it.

If you really think an anti-cheat app, or any software in the history of the world is 100% fool proof, you are wrong.

I agree with that. I love Steam but the anti cheat system they use is very tyrannical. You don't know why they ban you. You don't know whether they made a mistake or not. Hell, Valve itself doesn't even know whether they've made a mistake or not because they won't listen to you and you don't get the chance to make your case. It's like Valve is saying: "We are always right and you are always wrong."

So you still haven't said what Valve said other than the vague paraphrase of "you were cheating".

What did Valve say you were doing, using that they banned you for? They tend towards being very specific so you should know what you did (or was done in your account's name) that got it banned.

So you still haven't said what Valve said other than the vague paraphrase of "you were cheating".

What did Valve say you were doing, using that they banned you for? They tend towards being very specific so you should know what you did (or was done in your account's name) that got it banned.

WDT-BlackKat

no, they specifically say in steam support that they won't tell you what you did wrong. go to the 3rd post on this thread, and there's a link to their website that specifically states this.

so four years of buying games and a perfect VAC record gone done the drain? this really sucksSonir77

Wow thats very harsh they'd ban your account if you did nothing wrong. Any idea how it happened?

Just a note from the Steam support site:

"The VAC system does not generate false-positives. Only hacks and cheats (modifications designed to give one player an advantage over other players) will trigger a VAC ban - any modifications to a game's core executable files (.EXE) or dynamic link library (.DLL) files will trigger the VAC system."

http://supportwiki.steampowered.com/wiki/Valve_Anti-Cheat_System_(VAC)

So you can see why Valve makes the banning process permanent and non-arbitratible. There is essentially in their mind NO bans in error. This was not the case for VAC1 where they reversed many people's bans. But with the current VAC2 it is thought that there are no issues.

I have never heard of such a thing as a false positive ban from VAC2 so if there is such a thing let's see some "evidence" in the form of links. And I don't mean other forum posts "OMG I GOT BANNED FOR NO REASON". I mean journalistic articles. With the plethora of traditional and web based gaming magazines there should be such articles out there if there is indeed a problem with VAC2.

All this talk about going to court over such a thing isn't worth it, The court costs alone will probably end up costing you more then what it would if you say brought the orange box.

So before you think about going to court weigh up the time and money it will cost to go to court and the amount itll cost you to buy the games again.

(Thats just my opinion)

Sorry to hear you got your account banned again, but from what I have read VAC2 doesnt falsely accuse people.

[QUOTE="bignice12"]Sorry man but they have some pretty solid evidence of you cheating if they banned you. Were you sharing your account with a friend? or it could be possible that you didn't keep your account secure enough and your account was compromised and that could be what got you banned. I know it sucks man but VAC only bans you when you have been really cheating whether you did it personally or not. Also I seriously doubt small claims court will help you much. ElectricNZ

You are wrong, there has been so many cases where VAC has had false positives. Theres been articles from respected gaming sites posted about it.

If you really think an anti-cheat app, or any software in the history of the world is 100% fool proof, you are wrong.

Its not 100% fool proof, but it takes an OBVIOUS cheat to get banned by VAC. There has not been any cases where VAC banned you for something other than obvious cheats. And it sucks at that, as new vac-proof cheats are released monthly, and it takes weeks for VAC to catch up.

dude i know how its like.

its sucks ass from a straw!

i got banned for no reason too.

and im also figuring how if there is a way to unban my steam acc.

how did i got banned:i had 5 kills in a row. yea i got banned cuz i killed 5 guys.

peace.

Rules/Terms/Regulations for using STEAM (http://www.steampowered.com/v/index.php?area=subscriber_agreement)

5. ONLINE CONDUCT, CHEATING AND ILLEGAL BEHAVIOR

You agree that you will be personally responsible for the use of your Account and for all of the communication and activity on Steam that results from use of your Account. (1)Your online conduct and interaction with other subscribers should be guided by common sense and basic etiquette. Specific requirements may also be found in the Steam Online Conduct rules at http://steampowered.com/index.php?area=online_conduct, other Rules of Use, the Subscription Terms, or in terms of use required by third parties who host particular games or other services.

Steam and the Steam Software may include functionality designed to identify software or hardware processes or functionality that may give a player an unfair competitive advantage when playing multiplayer versions of any Steam Software, other Valve products, or modifications thereof ("Cheats"). You agree that you will not create or assist third parties in any way to create Cheats. You agree that you will not directly or indirectly disable, circumvent, or otherwise interfere with the operation of software designed to prevent or report the use of Cheats. You acknowledge and agree that either Valve or any online multiplayer host may refuse to allow you to participate in certain online multiplayer games if you use Cheats in connection with Steam or the Steam Software. Further, you acknowledge and agree that an online multiplayer host may report your use of Cheats to Valve, and Valve may communicate your history of use of Cheats to other online multiplayer hosts for Valve products. (2)Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that Valve believes is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers. You acknowledge that Valve is not required to provide you notice before terminating your Subscriptions(s) and/or Account, but it may choose to do so.

My thoughts on the Highlighted areas:

(1) - The use of "common sense and basic etiquette" is very broad and leaves Valve a lot of breathing room to enforce their policy. I feel that that wording they are using is poor judgement on their part because there are quite a few people (from my own personal experience) that have no clue what common sense is or how make use of basic etiquette. Think of this sentence as a legal loop-hole they can put in place to protect themselves when they ban/close accounts. The link to (click here) Steam's Online Conduct doesn't help out because it doesn't expand out enough on what they consider to be "common sense" or "basic etiquette" - it only brushes up on a few guidelines that can be expanded upon if needed when they ban/close an account.

(2) - Once again they leave in board terms here "for any conduct or activity that Valve belives is illegal, constitues a Cheat, or which otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers." to help protect themselves. They fail to list or even provide a list of known ways to cheat for their Subscribers to see. We (the Subscribers) put our trust towards Valve blindly and assume they'll use good judgement when making decisions to ban/close an account.

Basically what it all boils down to is this:

As a company (Valve in this case) does not feel the need to spend the time, manpower or money to provide it's customers with satisfactory results/answers/solutions to the actions that the company makes. The company places in broad terms that protects them and then they can basically go "Ha, ha! Look what we can do and you can't fix it because you agreed to our Terms and Conditions when you signed up!" In the end, the customer is screwed one way or another and the company keeps on going on in their daily business like nothing bad has happened. The company's main goal is to make as big a profit as possible while providing a product that suites the needs of the majority of their customers.

To simply put my point: You're screwed and there's nothing you can do about it.

As for going to Small Claims Court, any judge that doesn't check into the company's terms and conditions that this issue would fall under is a pathetic excuse for a judge and they shouldn't be working as one. It took me a whole 2 minutes to find and read through Vavle's policy on banning accounts.

There is no way valve will unban you from VAC. No matter what evidence you can give them, they will not ban you. The only way for you to plan again is to buy the games again.ElectricNZ

while this isnt the reason i no longer buy games off steam it is a good reason as having to buy all ur games over again is expensive

while some people call it the fututre and it may very well be but as long as retial is still around i will continue to buy from there and i dont see it going away anytime soon;)

my bro has orange box it is really anoughing cuz he lets me play but sometims NO if i make a new steam account will i have his games ????dvd604