When Congress decided to pass a bill that would essentially remove the rights of Americans to have internet privacy, users scrambled to find a way to protect their online data. One of the most readily available options is VPNs, which made them ideal. Unfortunately, this race for anonymity has also spawned a fake VPN trend, where companies are pretending to offer privacy services to vulnerable customers.

One of the first to publish the scam is Vice’s Motherboard, mostly because the writer was actually contacted by the scammers. Nicholas Deleon had previously written about the startup called Plex in the past and he was contacted by the company MySafeVPN, which claimed to be affiliated with Plex.

The method of contact was via email and in it, MySafeVPN basically urged Deleon to use its services due to the dangers that the recent anti-privacy Congressional bill posed. Skeptical but intrigued, Deleon got in touch with Plex to confirm if the offer was real. It was not.

"This is *absolutely not* a Plex affiliated service or offering," Plex co-founder and Chief Product Officer, Scott Olechowski said. "If anything, it suggests that mysafevpn.com is super sketchy and we would recommend using almost any other VPN service with your Plex Media Server."

It seems users of other services have been getting the same messages as well, which led to the conclusion that user information was stolen at some point to contact different people. The most likely explanation is that message boards were hacked and details were taken.

A long winding road of investigations later, Deleon managed to come in contact with the fake VPN service and the person he talked to ended up exploding on him, hurling insults and generally proving that MySafeVPN is as fraudulent as they come. The main takeaway from this development is that Trump and the Republican Party have basically pulled the rug out of millions and now the vultures are circling.

As Forbes reports, it’s much better to choose VPN services that already have a track record of providing reliable services. There are several examples of these services featured on sites like TorrentFreak. Before actually spending money on VPNs, however, it’s worth noting that these measures are not foolproof. Some user data can still be tracked and recorded.