Spent $40 on a 'privacy focused' VPN that ended up being a total scam.

Saw an ad for this service called 'SecureTunnel' that promised no logs and military grade encryption. The website looked legit, had all the right buzzwords. Bought a year subscription on a whim. First red flag was the download link just gave me a weird .exe file. Installed it, and my browser started getting slammed with pop-up ads for other junk. Did some digging, and the company is registered to a PO box in a country with basically no data laws. So much for privacy. I'm out forty bucks and learned a hard lesson about trusting slick marketing. Has anyone actually found a VPN they trust that doesn't cost an arm and a leg?

3 comments

3 Comments

olivia_harris1910d ago

What's wrong with a little extra ad revenue?

hollyn7010d ago

Extra ad revenue" is how we got 15 second unskippable ads before a 30 second video. It's why every news site has autoplay videos and pop ups now. It turns small choices into a worse experience for everyone. That little extra always leads to more.

finleyw9912h ago

I get where hollyn70 is coming from, but I see it differently. In my experience, that extra revenue can just mean keeping a free service alive without making it awful. My favorite podcast uses a short, skippable ad read by the host to stay free. It feels fair. The bad stuff happens when companies get greedy, not from the basic idea of making a little money.