Falsely banned from Counter-Strike, a Steam game made by Valve

[p1xxz]

Hello,
So I got wrongfully banned from a game named "Counter-Strike:Global Offensive" I bought on Steam, a video-games platform for "cheating", this type of ban is called "untrusted". I got banned 3 years ago, 25th November 2015. I lost my access to the game and cosmetics for the weapons in the first-person game Counter-Strike I bought, a bit less than 100€ of cosmetics. I tried contacting support, but they only sent me copy-pastes. I tried emailing some Valve Corporation employees, they didnt answer.

Yesterday, I decided to pay few cents to get their phone numbers through Spokeo and sent to them a text message where I explained what happened. They didnt answer but they manually turned the ban into a "VAC BAN" or "Valve Anti Cheat Ban". I didnt hack so the first ban is wrong, but the second one is like an official ban that shows on my Steam platform profile. What can I do now to get this back ? As they wont do anything if only me tries to get my access to the game back. This ban is 100% wrong because I never downloaded hacks for it.

Here is their subscriber agreement : https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

By the way, I am from France but Valve Corporation is located at Seattle, WA. I posted on french law forums but they told me there is nothing I can do with french laws.

Cordialy,

 

[Zigner]

We're going to tell you the same thing. There is nothing you can do with US laws either.

 

[Shadowbunny]

Hello,
So I got wrongfully banned from a game named "Counter-Strike:Global Offensive" I bought on Steam, a video-games platform for "cheating", this type of ban is called "untrusted". I got banned 3 years ago, 25th November 2015. I lost my access to the game and cosmetics for the weapons in the first-person game Counter-Strike I bought, a bit less than 100€ of cosmetics. I tried contacting support, but they only sent me copy-pastes. I tried emailing some Valve Corporation employees, they didnt answer.

Yesterday, I decided to pay few cents to get their phone numbers through Spokeo and sent to them a text message where I explained what happened. They didnt answer but they manually turned the ban into a "VAC BAN" or "Valve Anti Cheat Ban". I didnt hack so the first ban is wrong, but the second one is like an official ban that shows on my Steam platform profile. What can I do now to get this back ? As they wont do anything if only me tries to get my access to the game back. This ban is 100% wrong because I never downloaded hacks for it.

Here is their subscriber agreement : https://store.steampowered.com/subscriber_agreement/

By the way, I am from France but Valve Corporation is located at Seattle, WA. I posted on french law forums but they told me there is nothing I can do with french laws.

Cordialy,

Their game --their rules. According to the link you provided they're within their rights to ban you for cheating.

".......Steam and the Content and Services 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 Content and Services or modifications of Content and Services (“Cheats”). You agree that you will not create Cheats or assist third parties in any way to create or use 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 Content and Services. 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. Valve may terminate your Account or a particular Subscription for any conduct or activity that is illegal, constitutes a Cheat, or otherwise negatively affects the enjoyment of Steam by other Subscribers. You acknowledge that Valve is not required to provide you notice before terminating your Subscription(s) and/or Account.


You may not use Cheats, automation software (bots), mods, hacks, or any other unauthorized third-party software, to modify or automate any Subscription Marketplace process.

 

[p1xxz]

@Shadowbunny I didnt cheat and never downloaded a cheat for their game either, if theres nothing to do as @Zigner said then ill surrend after 3 years of searching how to get that WRONG and FALSE ban lifted.

 

[Zigner]

You really couldn't come up with any other way to get back in to the game after 3 years? Wow.

You have no recourse.

 

[Taxing Matters]

[I didnt cheat and never downloaded a cheat for their game either.

What exactly did you do then? Steam doesn't just pull this ban for no reason at all. It must have detected something that could have affected game play. So what was it?

The bottom line is that the terms of service of Valve, like almost all online games hosted in the U.S., reserves the right to ban players for pretty much any reason. That leaves you without recourse in the U.S. for this. Unless there is some EU law that gives you more protection all you can do is try to persuade the company that you didn't violate the terms of service and hope that it will reverse the ban.

 

[p1xxz]

What exactly did you do then? Steam doesn't just pull this ban for no reason at all. It must have detected something that could have affected game play. So what was it?

The bottom line is that the terms of service of Valve, like almost all online games hosted in the U.S., reserves the right to ban players for pretty much any reason. That leaves you without recourse in the U.S. for this. Unless there is some EU law that gives you more protection all you can do is try to persuade the company that you didn't violate the terms of service and hope that it will reverse the ban.

I found that on hltv, also found that it comes from "forcing CVARS" so I got 2 hypothesis :
.

 

[FlyingRon]

You can complain all you want here, but it doesn't change the matter. We have nothing to tell you.
You can go joint the other banned users on the gaming forums and commiserate there.

 

[cbg]

You may or may not have been unfairly banned but you were not wrongfully (illegally) banned.

 

[Zigner]

I used a fov_cs_debug 100 command ...

So you admit to it...they probably considered that cheating. Because they consider it cheating, you're outta there.

 

[xylene]

You admit to cheating...

3 years later and you still aren't over this?

 

[p1xxz]

You admit to cheating...

3 years later and you still aren't over this?

When did I admit it ? This command I was talking about earlier was used on an offline server, where console cheat commands can be used (sv_cheats 1) and is part of the game so I never cheated or got advantage to beat other players.

 

[Zigner]

When did I admit it ? This command I was talking about earlier was used on an offline server, where console cheat commands can be used (sv_cheats 1) and is part of the game so I never cheated or got advantage to beat other players.

I suspect you left that setting active when you logged on to their server.

It doesn't really matter though. You were banned. Move on with your life. Go to Disneyland Paris and get your mind off of this obsession.

 

[PayrollHRGuy]

A little Googling show Steam considered it a cheat when used in multiplayer. You admitted to using it. Giving yourself a wider field of view is an advantage.

If the server was offline how did Steam find out about it?

 

[p1xxz]

A little Googling show Steam considered it a cheat when used in multiplayer. You admitted to using it. Giving yourself a wider field of view is an advantage.

If the server was offline how did Steam find out about it?

This is an hypothesis, I got two hypothesis that I wrote earlier and I didnt meant to use in multiplayer, found it on a viewmodel description and never thought it was a cheat (I can provide the video where I found this).
"OR the game thought I forced CVARS because they didnt reset correctly"
if my hypothesis is right and they didnt reset, when I logged off the offline server and went to online one I got banned, otherwise thats my second hypothesis thats right.