VPN/Alt Account bans

[trackles]

So i get into quite heated arguments with lots of people buying and selling fake acocunts or use VPN to break region lock, who dont care they are breaking Terms of Service when they do. I was wondering if any of you could confirm if youve recieved an account ban from a service before for these things

[crunchyfrog]

You'er not likely to get that information for a number of reasons. Mostly though, such people don't tend to use the forums, so you're kind of looking in a nunnery for a prostitute - complete the wrong place.


The thing to remember is that it IS VERY CLEARLY a breach of contract to do so. YOu might get away with it for a time, but you will always be at risk of it, and if you get noticed for another reason, well, you're going to have a bad day.

Rest assured that breaking the region lock to purchase games isn't so easy anymore as you now have to have a registered address in that country plus a payment card provided by that country too.

[Zukabazuka]

Buying and selling account is still illegal and believe Valve is doing something about it. As for using VPN it is ok to use, but if you use it to buy games from other countries or bypass some release date to play a game earlier then you are gonna be trouble with Valve. Pretty sure it easy for them to detect it.

[Spawn of Totoro]

Just for using one? No.

For using one to bypass regional restrictions or to make purchases? Yes.

For Steam accounts, they can not be sold, traded or transferred. The account may be locked if it has been found to have as such. There is also the potential of the original owner reclaiming the account for the buyer, and the buyer would still be out the money spent.

Don't argue with them. If you suspect they have done any of the above, report the account and move on.

[nullable]

Originally posted by trackles:

So i get into quite heated arguments with lots of people buying and selling fake acocunts or use VPN to break region lock, who dont care they are breaking Terms of Service when they do.

A bit of advice, you're probably wasting your time. They either know what they're doing or have rationalized their actions and since you're not in a position of authority they're free to ignore you or argue in circles.

Originally posted by trackles:

I was wondering if any of you could confirm if youve recieved an account ban from a service before for these things

If you get caught abusing the system Steam will punish you. They don't benefit from enabling it. There's just a lot of users to manage... You may not always agree with the consequences or the time frames involved. But it's not your job to worry over them either.

[Zekiran]

Report, block/ignore, and move on. Beyond that it's nunya.

[Black Blade]

I have not been ban oni t, however, I only ever did it once and only to get the Valve Index Controllers, I do hope Valve was alright with it, but unlikely to do that ever again, it's pretty tense, also was not to get any price faver or anything, there was really no other way for me to get the controllers at all besides that, and I paid all taxes and stuff in my country for it, and shipped it in the US to get it then to here

I don't know anyone personally that it happens to, however, I did read here on the forums from the past at least twice if I remember correctly someone that got here talking about getting his account locked/banned as of using a VPN to buy games
I assume most that do it will not post about it in most cases

Overall I think sooner or later Valve will get on them, and they may get punished for it, hopefully also learning from it