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In May 2025, Ars Technica reported their research into this issue, as more complaints started coming in; "In March, complaints started appearing online about lifetime subscriptions to VPNSecure no longer working".[1]
The license was purchased in 2018 through StackSocial. The full name of the item was "VPNSecure: Lifetime Subscription". For a period of time the VPN worked as expected.
In May 2023, VPN Secure was acquired by new owners. According to their email to customers, they acquired "the technology, domain, and customer database — but not the liabilities." On April 28, 2025, all lifetime deal accounts were deactivated.
The new owners claim they were unaware of the lifetime subscriptions when they made the acquisition, stating: "Unfortunately, the previous owner did not disclose that thousands of Lifetime Deals (LTDs) had been sold through platforms like StackSocial."
The VPN service hadn't been used in a while and then at the beginning of 2025 any attempt to connect to any servers was failing. Also the server list on the members page is showing following message: "INFORMATION: You will need to purchase a valid VPN membership to view server information. Select Buy Now from the menu" even though the profile page shows 2263 days of 7300 used (don't ask about why a LIFETIME Subscription equals to 7300 days).
This is a case of changing the terms of purchase after the fact.
To maintain the integrity and efficiency of our services, any account with no active login for a period of six months will be automatically erased. Please note that this includes accounts with lifetime deal access.
VPNSecure's email to customers which has the template appearance of having been written by chatgpt [2]
If you have purchased a lifetime deal but fail to connect to your account within the specified six-month period, you will lose access to the lifetime deal. It is essential to log in at least once every six months to keep your account and lifetime deal active.
We encourage all users to maintain regular activity on their accounts to avoid deactivation.
Company hasn't responded to a support ticket asking to clarify the issue. However, affected customers report receiving emails claiming the new owners had provided "two additional years at no cost" as a "gesture of goodwill" and offering discounted renewal rates ($55 for 3 years, $19 for 1 year, or $1.87/month billed annually).
The company states they cannot issue refunds and directs customers seeking compensation to contact StackSocial or "the previous VPN Secure owner based in Australia."
