The new owners of VPN provider VPNSecure have drawn ire after canceling lifetime subscriptions. The owners told customers that they didn’t know about the lifetime subscriptions when they bought VPNSecure, and they cannot honor the purchases.

In March, complaints started appearing online about lifetime subscriptions to VPNSecure no longer working.

The first public response Ars Technica found came on April 28, when lifetime subscription holders reported receiving an email from the VPN provider saying: “To continue providing a secure and high-quality experience for all users, Lifetime Deal accounts have now been deactivated as of April 28th, 2025.”

A copy of the email from “The VPN Secure Team” and posted on Reddit notes that VPNSecure had previously deactivated accounts with lifetime subscriptions that it said hadn’t been used in “over 6 months.” The message noted that VPNSecure was acquired in 2023, “including the technology, domain, and customer database—but not the liabilities.” The email continues:

Unfortunately, the previous owner did not disclose that thousands of Lifetime Deals (LTDs) had been sold through platforms like StackSocial.

We discovered this only months later—when a large portion of our resources were strained by these LTD accounts and high support volume from users, who through part of the database, provided no sustaining income to help us improve and maintain the service.

VPNSecure is offering affected users discounted new subscriptions for either $1.87 for a month (instead of $9.95), $19 for a year (instead of $79.92), or $55 for three years (instead of $107.64). The deals are available until May 31, per the email.

This week, users reported receiving a follow-up email from VPNSecure providing more details about why it made its bold and sudden move. Screenshots of the email shared on Reddit say that the acquisition by InfiniteQuant Ltd. (which is a different company than InfiniteQuant Capital Ltd., an InfiniteQuant Capital rep told Ars via email) was “an asset only deal.”

A VPNSecure representative claimed on the reviews site Trustpilot that the current owners “did not gain access to the customer database until months” after the acquisition. According to VPNSecure’s owners, their acquisition netted them “the tech, the brand, and the infrastructure/technology—but none of the company, contracts, payments, or obligations from the previous owners.”

The current owners said they didn’t sue the seller because “a corporate lawsuit would’ve cost more than the entire purchase of the business.”

VPNSecure also apologized to any customers who felt caught off guard by the changes, noted their backlash, and thanked those who purchased new subscriptions.

The email’s authors claimed that they could have chosen to shut down VPNSecure after learning about the lifetime subscriptions but “chose the hard path.” They also emphasized they “never will” sell lifetime subscriptions.

Unaware of Lifetime Subscriptions

Customers have been incredulous about VPNSecure’s owners not knowing about the purchased lifetime subscriptions before buying the company. The firm’s email to customers this week said the current owners reviewed six to 12 months of VPNSecure’s prior “financials” before making the purchase, but the listing, profit and loss statements, and communications never mentioned lifetime deals.

The email included a link to a VPNSecure sales listing dated April 2023 that shows an “estimated valuation” of $282,090–$344,770 and doesn’t mention lifetime subscriptions.