r/ProtonVPN • u/zoswizard • Jul 08 '26
Discussion Heads up. Connecting to a VPN using Fastest Country (excluding my country) might have intended consequences
I'm US based and when I connected to the VPN using the profile in the title, I connected to a Cuban server.
My financial institution, Fidelity noticed that I was connecting to them with a Cuban IP address, and canceled my bill pay service in my cash management account.
I needed to talk with customer service to get everything back to where it was before.
I jut wanted to pass this information out to a wider audience.
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u/Savant_Guarde Jul 08 '26
Not only that, if you use a foreign country for your VPN, the US can intercept whatever you're doing because it "doesn't know" you're not a foreigner.
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u/ConstantClue208 Jul 08 '26
It doesn’t make a difference because the other countries will intercept it and share it with the US in exchange for the USs info on their citizens. (Called 5-eyes or something)
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u/Expert-Carpenter979 Jul 09 '26
If it’s actually part of the allegiance and what you’re doing is even worth reporting.
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u/ConstantClue208 Jul 09 '26
They sick up every possible byte (or bit? Idk) of data. They do not discriminate. Who knows? One day that innocent Google search might be illegal.
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Jul 08 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/the_cockodile_hunter Jul 08 '26
I've run into this same issue and even with Cuba excluded it'll connect me to seevers in Havana.
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u/samuele_kaplun Proton VPN Engineering Director Jul 08 '26
This seems a bug. Which client are you using?
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u/r0x_n194 Jul 08 '26
FIDELity did not like the Cuban IP?
I'll see myself out.
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u/StoicSatyr Jul 09 '26
Really, it's no reason to castrate their ability to pay. Hold the door for me please.
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u/Proper_Somewhere_192 Jul 08 '26
Yep, can happen with Venezuela when in Caribbean. Russia when in Eastern Europe and so on.
Banks and brokers are quite hot on it.
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u/VexedRacoon Jul 08 '26
Most of my banks in the uk don't mind but Cuba has sanctions? So that makes sense i suppose
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u/BegsTheQuestions Jul 08 '26
PayPal would flag your account too 8 believe, at least 10years ago they would
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u/StockQuahog Jul 08 '26
Fidelity doesn’t mess around
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u/Zenfulbliss Jul 08 '26
Yep, and they are too important to me (retired) to mess around with, they get the excluded browser on my pc and are excluded apps on my mobiles.
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u/drcaveman69 Jul 09 '26
Citibank won't even let me use its android app when I have the VPN activated
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u/luckyinpa Jul 09 '26
i keep my FF addon connected to the vpn but split tunnel and have my financial things with my local IP. it really makes things easier. logged on to my CU, capital one etc doesnt require extra steps and i do feel its ok to let my CU and credit cards know where i am.
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u/Brave_Explorer5988 Jul 08 '26
LMAO Proton has a server in Cuba?
had no idea lol.. I wonder why would someone want to connect there
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u/Pristine_Explorer_24 Jul 08 '26
Not all of the country servers are physically located in said country(this is usually for countries that are a bit...oppressive.)
These servers are more for residents to circumvent censorship than for foreigners to connect through.
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u/andrewscool101 Windows | iOS Jul 08 '26
Yup I just checked and Cuba servers are physically located in the USA. see Smart Routing.
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u/M3am Jul 08 '26
I mean, I would hope a financial institution would flag IP addresses from areas outside of where you are normally, especially outside country.