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This shady VPN has seemingly been caught stealing from Windscribe
Whether it’s making too-good-to-be-true promises, collecting your data, or having apps filled with ads and trackers, suspicious free VPNs are bad news.
But we can now add stealing VPN servers to the growing lists of reasons to avoid.
The suspect in question, Jet VPN, appears to have been caught stealing Windscribe’s servers to host its own VPN.
The VPN has thousands of five star reviews and claims to be “100% private and secure.”
Windscribe found out about Jet VPN’s actions almost by accident and subsequently banned the stolen accounts it was using. Jet VPN reportedly then turned its attention to stealing from Private Internet Access.
The damage and impact to Windscribe appears to be low. But this is a concerning series of events and highlights how only the best VPNs can be trusted.
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Major problem but minimal damage
Taking place at the end of July 2025, Windscribe’s discovery started with another suspicious VPN, Hizen VPN.
The app has zero reputation, no social media presence, and a sketchy website. Despite this, Hizen VPN was the sixth most popular free app on the Google Play Store (at the time of the incident) and Windscribe wanted to investigate. It found the app was filled with ads and rarely worked.
When checking on Hizen VPN a week later, Windscribe saw Jet VPN sitting at #8 on the Google Play Free Apps charts. Like Hizen VPN, Jet VPN has no reputation, no social media, and an even more basic website – seemingly only two pages.
On a hunch, Windscribe connected to a Jet VPN server to examine its VPN IP address. Windscribe were shocked to find Jet VPN was using – or rather stealing – Windscribe’s servers.
JET VPN has been using OUR Windscribe servers to host their VPN. Absolutely shameless.No one’s heard of them but they came out of nowhere into the top 10 Free Apps in the Play Store.Well, we banned your access to our service so enjoy your broken app you slimey bastards (1/4) pic.twitter.com/7FAkvZtSLAJuly 22, 2025
This was now a much bigger issue than exposing a suspicious VPN. Windscribe worked out Jet VPN was using a stolen Windscribe account and its authentication to access its servers and offer connections.
That account was quickly banned. Jet VPN then reportedly stole a second account and which was subsequently banned too. Windscribe has reported that Jet VPN then switched to leeching off Private Internet Access’ servers. We have contacted Private Internet Access to confirm this. At the time of writing, they had not yet confirmed nor denied the server theft.
Thankfully, there was minimal damage to Windscribe’s service or infrastructure. Windscribe claimed its servers were only being used for a few days and Jet VPN’s user base was under 100.
Windscribe has said it is adding more mitigations to protect against this happening again but added that automated checks to stop moves like this were not that simple. It added that the minimal usage meant no major red flags were triggered but it will continue to monitor its servers.
Reviews continue to pour in
In the days following Windscribe’s discovery, positive reviews of Jet VPN continued to pour in and it rose to #5 on Google Play’s free apps list. Windscribe noted almost 500 reviews coming in one night.
Windscribe discovered that it was previously a picture frame app and had likely been bought or repurposed into a VPN app.
Since Windscribe’s announcement there have been a string of one star reviews warning users not to download Jet VPN.
Tom’s Guide has reached out to the developers of Jet VPN for comment but haven’t received a response at the time of writing.
Windscribe said it contacted Jet VPN’s developers, who denied it used Windscribe servers. Windscribe responded by saying it must have been a “total coincidence” that once the accounts were banned the “whole app went down.”
Suspect free VPNs have spiked in popularity, especially in the UK thanks to the Online Safety Act and Windscribe has said it will continue to keep an eye out for them.
This incident raises questions for Google Play’s verification processes. In January it announced the introduction of a verified badge for VPN apps that have undergone security assessments.
Jet VPN hasn’t been awarded one of these badges but we would like to see more diligence from Google when it comes to VPN apps that feature in the top charts.
We test and review VPN services in the context of legal recreational uses. For example: 1. Accessing a service from another country (subject to the terms and conditions of that service). 2. Protecting your online security and strengthening your online privacy when abroad. We do not support or condone the illegal or malicious use of VPN services. Consuming pirated content that is paid-for is neither endorsed nor approved by Future Publishing.
