Why are VAC bans still on your account forever?

[Chibi Life]

I know I have a level 0 account but my post history goes back many years you can see I'm not a troll account or an alt account. I have no VAC bans.

But I have always avoided ANY game that says it uses VAC because I'm terrified of a ban for false reasons like I'm a programmer and often forget I have visual studios open, or I just used cheat engine for a previous single player game and forgot to close it before opening a VAC game.

A person's Steam account can be one of their most expensive assets they own. It just seems unreasonable to me that a single VAC ban taints the entire account 'forever'. It also seems the general consensus is most people agree that it should taint your account forever.

I would like to think that a year is long enough for any cheaters to give up and lose interest and, if not, at least a whole year went by withour them being in your game. They will probably return without cheating this time or just get banned again.

I'd like to have a reasonable discussion, not intending to inflame or start a fight. Thanks for your understanding.

[Ettanin]

Permanent bans for cheating are the industry standard. Easy Anti Cheat, Vanguard and BattlEye and many other less notable systems do the same.

If you don't cheat, you have nothing to worry about. Valve will remove VAC bans that come from false positives within two weeks up to multiple months they became aware of the false positive. They check signatures and cheat detection patterns regularly.

Valve tried temporary bans until 2005, but all cheaters did was recycling old accounts on which their ban had already been lifted, therefore, since 2005, any new VAC ban became permanent.

As for account security, that's your responsibility. If you handle your credentials with care and don't allow anyone else to use your account, you won't have to worry about VAC.

[J4MESOX4D]

Permanent bans are permanent. VAC only bans for cheats and any bans issued in error which is extremely rare are removed.

Temporary bans were tried in the past and they didn't work as users would just cheat again. There already enough with more than one account banned as it is.

It's zero tolerance.

[d3str0y3r]

Valve already tried temporary bans.... they didn't work.

[Longy999]

They already tried temporary bans and cheaters went straight back to cheating again, hence the revamp and making the bans permanent

I personally agree with a life time ban, losing access to parts of a game and having items for it locked to the inventory will deter some from ruining it for others

False bans are extremely rare and are overturned by the system anyway. Don't believe the scores of cheaters who come here proclaiming their innocence

[Chibi Life]

Account cycling to continue cheating... I guess I didn't quite understand how mentally ill some cheaters can be. That's the saddest thing I've ever heard.

[Chibi Life]

Originally posted by dazza0511:

Originally posted by 🎃👻d3str0y3r👻🎃:

Valve already tried temporary bans.... they didn't work.

Wasn't the temporary bans kinda half assed though? they only banned for months or 1 year. They should have done 5 or 10 year temp bans instead of making the bans so short.

Bans based on account's networth can also help I just thought of that. If it's a brand new Steam account valued < $10 based on its value the ban can be permanent, 1 year, 2 years etc.

Err well you'd have to have a way to know if your account isn't just filled with free humble bundle things too I guess. Not sure if Valve can track that or not.

[Ettanin]

Originally posted by Chibi Life:

Bans based on account's networth can also help I just thought of that. If it's a brand new Steam account valued < $10 based on its value the ban can be permanent, 1 year, 2 years etc.

No. Everyone, rich or poor, can cheat equally and therefore deserves to be punished equally.

Anyone foolish enough to let their account get compromised by phishing or scamming also deserved it.

[Chibi Life]

Originally posted by Ettanin:

Originally posted by Chibi Life:

Bans based on account's networth can also help I just thought of that. If it's a brand new Steam account valued < $10 based on its value the ban can be permanent, 1 year, 2 years etc.

No. Everyone, rich or poor, can cheat equally and therefore deserves to be punished equally.

Anyone foolish enough to let their account get compromised by phishing or scamming also deserved it.

You're right, that would just punish poor people while allowing rich people to fund dozens of steam accounts to account cycle still.

Hardware IDs change (When you buy new hardware/new pcs) and can be spoofed.
IP addresses change.

[Snivy]

Originally posted by Chibi Life:

Originally posted by dazza0511:

Wasn't the temporary bans kinda half assed though? they only banned for months or 1 year. They should have done 5 or 10 year temp bans instead of making the bans so short.

Bans based on account's networth can also help I just thought of that. If it's a brand new Steam account valued < $10 based on its value the ban can be permanent, 1 year, 2 years etc.

Yeah why not make VAC bans totally unfair...
Don't have the money to fill up your account with 1000$ worth of items, cause you couldn't afford it? Permanent ban for you! You're a rich dude with a account worth someone's yearly income? Just a small slap on the wrist, cya again next year!

[Snaggle]

Originally posted by dazza0511:

They should have done 5 or 10 year temp bans instead of making the bans so short.

I think it would still lead to the same problem.

1: Get banned
2: Make new account
3: Invest hours/money into that new account
4: The new account is your now your main account
5: 5 years later your old account is unbanned
6: You trade/sell any items from the old account
7: You now have an unbanned, unused old account

The old account has no real purpose anymore as you've spent 5 years or whatever building the new one. So it's basically a spare you can either use to cheat on, or sell. Both of which Valve don't want.

I could just be reaching here. But what would a lot of people do with an old account they don't need or don't really care about anymore?

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

Originally posted by Snaggle:

Originally posted by dazza0511:

They should have done 5 or 10 year temp bans instead of making the bans so short.

I think it would still lead to the same problem.

1: Get banned
2: Make new account
3: Invest hours/money into that new account
4: The new account is your now your main account
5: 5 years later your old account is unbanned
6: You trade/sell any items from the old account
7: You now have an unbanned, unused old account

The old account has no real purpose anymore as you've spent 5 years or whatever building the new one. So it's basically a spare you can either use to cheat on, or sell. Both of which Valve don't want.

I could just be reaching here. But what would a lot of people do with an old account they don't need or don't really care about anymore?

A lot of the appeals here are likely bought accounts, trying to get the bans lifted so they can cheat or get the skins in the account's inventory.


If OP has zero intent on cheating, they have ZERO to fear from VAC games, js.

[Abigail From Sneaky Squid Dept.]

Originally posted by Chibi Life:

.Hardware IDs change (When you buy new hardware/new pcs) and can be spoofed.
IP addresses change.

You don't even need new hardware to change a hardware id.

And if you read the cs2 discussion, people scream valve is already too lenient towards cheaters.

[Chibi Life]

Originally posted by Leonardo Da Pinchi:

Originally posted by Snaggle:

I think it would still lead to the same problem.

1: Get banned
2: Make new account
3: Invest hours/money into that new account
4: The new account is your now your main account
5: 5 years later your old account is unbanned
6: You trade/sell any items from the old account
7: You now have an unbanned, unused old account

The old account has no real purpose anymore as you've spent 5 years or whatever building the new one. So it's basically a spare you can either use to cheat on, or sell. Both of which Valve don't want.

I could just be reaching here. But what would a lot of people do with an old account they don't need or don't really care about anymore?

A lot of the appeals here are likely bought accounts, trying to get the bans lifted so they can cheat or get the skins in the account's inventory.


If OP has zero intent on cheating, they have ZERO to fear from VAC games, js.

I promise I'm not a cheater or a person who intends to cheat. I've always been concerned with false positives as my steam account is worth like 20k according to some site that estimates account value. While that doesn't stop you from playing non-vac games, just seeing that horrible "vac ban" thing on a person's account profile sucks.

So I've been intentionally avoiding vac games for fear of false positives. But as someone said here, how many false positives really exist or are just cheaters trying to get out of their ban by lying.

[Leonardo Da Pinchi]

Originally posted by Chibi Life:

Originally posted by Leonardo Da Pinchi:

A lot of the appeals here are likely bought accounts, trying to get the bans lifted so they can cheat or get the skins in the account's inventory.


If OP has zero intent on cheating, they have ZERO to fear from VAC games, js.

I promise I'm not a cheater or a person who intends to cheat. I've always been concerned with false positives as my steam account is worth like 20k according to some site that estimates account value. While that doesn't stop you from playing non-vac games, just seeing that horrible "vac ban" thing on a person's account profile sucks.

So I've been intentionally avoiding vac games for fear of false positives. But as someone said here, how many false positives really exist or are just cheaters trying to get out of their ban by lying.

False positives are rare, but do exist. However they're remedied within the first week of the ban, then the ban's removed automatically.

As Valve/the programs updates the definitions, there's going to be false detection here or there, however once it's clarified the detected program isn't a cheat/mod/skinchanger/etc, the program then reverses the ban.

[Abigail From Sneaky Squid Dept.]

Originally posted by Chibi Life:

Originally posted by Leonardo Da Pinchi:

A lot of the appeals here are likely bought accounts, trying to get the bans lifted so they can cheat or get the skins in the account's inventory.


If OP has zero intent on cheating, they have ZERO to fear from VAC games, js.

I promise I'm not a cheater or a person who intends to cheat. I've always been concerned with false positives as my steam account is worth like 20k according to some site that estimates account value. While that doesn't stop you from playing non-vac games, just seeing that horrible "vac ban" thing on a person's account profile sucks.

So I've been intentionally avoiding vac games for fear of false positives. But as someone said here, how many false positives really exist or are just cheaters trying to get out of their ban by lying.

Simple, don't cheat. Vac isn't some kind of boogie man. Valve has generally preferred the policy that a cheater gets away with it then an innocent user getting banned, hence false vac bans are rare.