The risk associated with free VPNs This app sells you on the dark web and you should delete it from your phone
Gorilla Tag players were using a free VPN called Big Mama not to hide their IP address to cheat in the game. But it turned out that the VPN was selling their IP connection for criminal activities.
Gorilla Tag is one of the most played VR games. Similar to Among Us or Roblox, it is a game for socializing with other players and playing simple games. It is mainly played by children and teenagers.
In Gorilla Tag, you are a gorilla moving around scenes using controls with motion sensors as hands.
In the game, the person who is the fastest and most skilled at avoiding other players wins. But someone discovered that by using a free VPN called Big Mama, the game adds some lag, allowing you to communicate with other players more easily in order to catch them.
The news spread quickly, and hundreds of players rushed to install Big Mama VPN to cheat. A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is used to hide your IP address and encrypt your connection, at the cost of adding a bit of latency. This latency is longer on free VPNs. This is what Gorilla Tag players took advantage of to gain an advantage in the game.
Unfortunately, these players don't realize that free VPNs aren't free, so some use ads, others sell the data that moves inside the VPN, and others exploit it to commit crimes.
An investigation by Trend Micro, via Wired, found that Big Mama was selling these users’ IP addresses on the dark web for as little as 40 cents on the dollar. These IP addresses were being used for DDoS attacks, botnets, andphishing scams.
Of course, there are free VPNs that are completely legal and valid, but not everything available can be trusted. If you use a VPN, make sure there is a serious, trustworthy company behind it.