Within this Guide we will explain the following VAC related topics:

• What is VAC, how does it work and how can I see if I am banned?
  
• How long do VAC bans last? Is there any way to appeal them?
  
• Which games are using VAC?
  
• Which games will I be banned from if I recieve a VAC ban?
  
• VAC vs. Serverban
  
• How can I see if I've been banned by VAC?
  
• My items are gone, is this because of my VAC ban?

VAC (Valve Anti Cheat) is a system that reliablely detects programs that give players an unfair advantage. If such a program has been detected, a ban will be triggered and the person will no longer be able to play on VAC secured servers of the game he was banned in (and of games that are using the same engine as the game that they were banned in, this applies to Source and Gold Source engine only).
VAC bans are delayed. This means until the ban applies it can take weeks or even month from when VAC has detected a running cheat.

"All VAC bans are permanent - Valve has a zero-tolerance policy for cheating and will not lift VAC bans under any circumstances."
However, there are known cases in that Steam Support has lifted false-postives (bans that have been falsely triggered). Please do not open a Steam Support ticket regarding your VAC ban if you know that the ban was triggered correctly. This will just take time and, as stated above, Valve will not lift correctly applied VAC bans under any circumstances. There is no way to appeal them.
More information can be found in the VAC Support FAQ

Note: Any tools on the internet claiming to be able to remove a VAC ban from your account are fake and do most likely contain viruses. Do not download them, it won't work.

Contrary to popular belief, VAC does neither ban the full Steam account nor does it ban players from all VAC secured games. VAC bans you from secured servers of the game you were banned in.
Note: There is an exception for Source and Gold Source engine games: Bans in a game using any of these two engines are engine-wide bans which means you will be banned from the game you cheated in and from all games that are using the same engine as the game you cheated in.

Example:
Let's assume that you have been banned for cheating in Team Fortress 2. Because Team Fortress 2 is using the Source engine, you will be banned from all Source engine games (Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 2: Deathmatch, Day of Defeat: Source, Team Fortress 2), but you won't be banned from games that are using a different engine, for example you won't be banned from Day of Defeat because it's using the Gold Source engine.

The difference between a VAC and a server ban is pretty easy. VAC bans are automatically triggered by the VAC system and will ban you from all VAC secured servers of the game you cheated in and all games that use the same engine as the game you cheated in (this applies to Source and Gold Source engine only). A server ban mostly only bans you from a specific server and is triggered by a server administrator. Nobody except the server administrator itself, not even Steam Support, can remove this ban so it's not necessary to open a support ticket to request an unban.

It's simple, just visit your Steam Profile and have a look at the right site. If you've been banned by VAC it will show the following message:



This message can differ from yours, depending on the time you've been banned and in how many games you've been banned.
If your VAC Status is clean it will not show any message.

Note:
VAC bans are delayed which means that you can never be sure that VAC didn't detect a running cheat. VAC can take weeks or even month until it bans you.

VAC will delete all your items except the paid ones from your inventory. This means all free items, e.g. achievement items will be removed from your inventory. Paid items, for examples items from the Mann Co. Store will remain accessible.

You will be unable to trade items from the game you are VAC banned on and there is no way to a different account, however, new games can still be purchased and registered on a VAC banned account

VAC bans are applied to all accounts sharing the same phone number.

The phone number on the VAC banned account(s) will be suspended for three months and cannot be added to another account during this time. If the phone number is later added to an account that receives a VAC ban, the duration of its suspension will be extended.

To prevent this from happening, do not link any "throw away" phone numbers to your account because you do not have how to know who has used them before.

Satoru has a great guide on using the Steam Mobile Authenticator:

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=562523394

• Steam Support FAQ