VPN4Life is a new site that is promising a lifetime of private and anonymous access to the internet through their servers for a one-time fee of $50. Their mission statement is to “free the world from ISP monitoring, government restrictions, and capitalism’s growing influence on the Internet.” Pretty bold words there, but how else are you supposed to sell the lowest tier of what appears to be a pyramid scheme?
A private VPN with unlimited bandwidth will probably run you at least $20 per month. Torrentfreak asked one VPN provider and found that the reason for that is simply that passing all that traffic requires purchasing a certain amount of dedicated bandwidth. For a decent speed line, that’ll run from $10 to $20 a month. So how is VPN4Life planning on providing unlimited anonymized data service for a flat one-time fee? No matter how many people sign up, their investment in the service is eaten up by cost in a matter of months. And unfortunately, it’s likely that the people who are most likely to want a VPN service are also the most likely to check into it, as it’s hardly a product for your average Joe Six-Packet.
Is it possible they know something we don’t about the sustainability of their business? Given the simple fact of the cost of their service and their pricing model, it would have to be a pretty big secret. Of course, if you get in on the ground floor, you might just get your money’s worth, especially if you take advantage of the $29 limited offer that’s good for the next 50 people or so. You may be party to a new generation of internet fraud, but I’m guessing it won’t be the first time.
UPDATE: Apparently they just send you a free VPN tool. Avoid. If you paid, you can get your money back however. A much simpler scam than we first thought!
If this is all it takes to be an entrepreneur these days, sign me up. From the T&Cs:
“We cannot and do not guarantee the speed of our services. We also cannot and do not guarantee that you will have uninterrupted services. We have no control and cannot guarantee on how the internet will perform in your area.” …. “No refunds will be given if you are dissatisfied with our services.”
I suppose if you can get 100 people to give you $29, by downloading a trial of Swish and throwing up a page on some sketchy host–and then get CrunchGear to blog about you–you’ve just made about $2994.
sigh, too late in the afternoon. my snarky math can’t keep up with my snarky comments.
how about $2894?
isn’t it $2900 .. i am trying to figure out where the rest $6 went
I figure a $2.99 for a godaddy domain and a few bucks for a month of hosting.
it sounds stupid , funny and weird and thats how i agree with u for such scams :)
Well, I’m doing my part! Now I just wait for them to send me my check, right?
Now isn’t that already all the popular web services do? (Until they run out of cash part) Especially with the “help” of the crisis, it will become more clear. For example, how does twitter make money? I read that even Facebook is thinking about making “premium” accounts. And although they are projected to make profit this year, youtube (at least for a long time) hardly covered their bandwidth bills.
Isn’t that what they all do?
It will become more clear, but at least some of those services have legit business plans based on ad revenue, halo services, or whatnot. This one is doomed from the start.
I wouldn’t trust it. They just registered their domain on December 19, 2008. All other domain info is hidden. They are hosted by gnax.net, at atlantaNAP.
Sounds like a quick scam to me. Get many people to pay them $50 then say company went belly up because of the economy and other factors.
by the way, it says on the feature page that you get
“10 gig connexion”
I love a healthy dose a skepticism but with enough initial users, through a combination of over-subscription and generating revenue from the initial investment…this isn’t completely impossible.
Most people simply will pay and won’t use it.
That’s a lot of work for a cheap score — what was it, $3k?
What I suspect they’ll actually do is attempt to insert Internet advertising into web browsing done through the service, like how some ISPs tried (or are still doing, can’t remember). I suppose since the advertising is ‘unblockable’ they’ll command a higher rate and potentially make profit that way.
Seems kinda odd. Especially since I imagine you all got the same “52 Left!!” bit down at the bottom. And, as Justin pointed out, the terms and conditions. Has anyone actually signed up for this?
look at the branding icons on their site (MSN, skype, etc) and then go to strongvpn.com and view theirs, eerily similar. this is scamx0r nearly without a doubt (and i was just about to pull the trigger on purchasing this too) the math simply DNC.
shame.
Hosted by Homeland Security… “Promise we won’t peek…”
well i wonder if its from house of godaddy again !
Do you remember those emails, gazillions of them, that arrive in your inbox everyday, claiming that his/her uncle or client has died and left billions of dollars and now wants to transfer them out of the country and needs your help?
Senders of those emails are probably getting smarter. And, what’s the best way to have people pay them $50 other than setting up something like this?
It’s not even $50 per year, but a one time fee for an eternal hosting? May be not getting smart after all.
Has anyone tested it ?
Does it work ?
Is that even a relevant question? Isn’t it obvious this is a scam? Are people more naive then ever?
Hmmm. I wonder if the scammers conversation went something like this….
“What would be the most effective way to target a large audience with an internet virus? How about getting a few popular blogs to write about our (ficitious) company that offers a deal too good to be true? Yeah, those bloggers always provide a link to the company site, thus we are guaranteed a sizable portion of their followers will visit our site. Taking over the computers of the thousands of naive fools that register is certainly much easier via a direct VPN connection. They might as well be granting us full access to their PCs! Hey, I got an idea!! Why not write the contract in such a way that prevents of from being sued when we…”
Are you really naive enough to believe this scam?
hello, it’s à big Bu….. i paid 21€ to vpn4life, and i received anchorfree (a free vpn software….).
DON’T BUY VPN4LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
same here. got anchorfree. However, I complained and got a refund.
According to the T&C they don’t refund. How did you convinced them?
I also paid for their “service”, but after reading your comments I want back my money too. This is what I wrote to them:
—————————————
I’ve been concerned about you don’t really provide any VPN service. Instead of this, you provide a free VPN client called AnchorFree.
For consequence, and taking into account you don’t display any terms of service in your website, I claim for the refund of the money I paid (29 $) into my Paypal account (xxxxxxx@gmail.com). Otherwise, I will have to turn to the appropiate authorities reporting this activity.
Sincerely yours,
—————————————
Is there any chance to get back my money or to report this activity to the US authorities?
Thanks for your help.
Apparently 4 minutes after making my complaint, they refunded me the 21,42 € I paid. I advise you all to do the same. They DO refund. Don’t believe what the T&C of the website says.
You can use my e-mail as template to claim back your money (send it to orders@vpn4life.com). But you must specify your Paypal e-mail address.
Excellent. Glad we got this cleared up.
These guys rely on Paypal as a payment processor. They are issuing refunds as fast as possible so they may keep their account in good standing and not get it frozen. People need to specifically tell Paypal what this scam is to ensure they cannot take in more money.
I’d also like to thank enigmax from TorrentFreak for publishing two articles advertising VPN scams. He’s really helping the community get ripped off. How much do you get paid enigmax?
bt, if you look at the torrentfreak posts, the first says it looks dubious, the second says it’s a scam.
NEW VPN SCAM BEWARE! Watch out for WorldVPN they’re cheaper than the rest but they will take your money then give you a working vpn connection for about 24 hours then the server is mysteriously “destroyed” in their own non sensicle words. Promises of a refund are made but won’t ever materialise.
World VPN are rip off merchants
I was about going to purchase worldvpn account. Thanks for your warning.