More Harm than Good

I’ve been using Surfshark for well over five years now. Many sites will no longer accept connections from Surfshark. It’s had it’s ups and downs over the years, but today was the topper. Shortly after logging into my US Bank account, I got a message saying access to my account was restricted, and I was logged out. A call to the bank verified that SOME VPNs will trigger this automatic two day suspension of online access. Thanks, Surfshark! I appreciate US Bank being hyper-vigilant and protecting me, but come on! This is the last straw!

If a VPN is there to protect your data, why does this happen?

Hello, thank you for sharing your experience with Surfshark. It’s sad to hear that you’ve been facing these issues with access to sites and services.

Now, some banks and other services do try and restrict VPN access in general, especially since there are some people who will use VPNs to try and abuse them, which is something we try to limit as best we can.

Regarding the issues themselves though, we’d love to take a more thorough look, perhaps you could reach out at [email protected] or via the live chats on our site?

It’s great for IPTV but that’s where it ends I feel. It’s target market idiot users in general.

I’ve also noticed a number of websites no longer will connect with Surfshark. I use a free web proxy to get around it.

Did you have 2FA active? Origin IP addresses shouldn’t matter anymore because 2FA takes care of the extra layer of security with the biometrics of your Android or iPhone device.

It’s a huge bank, so I’m amazed this is the first I’ve heard of it, either. I’m sure I’m not the first, but hopefully this post will prevent some other US Bank customers from getting shut down.

It is becoming increasingly more difficult to navigate the web with SS connected. What used to be a simple “set it and forget it app” now requires frequent trips to the SS screen to pause my connection. Unfortunately, I understand the limitations SS has while operating on iOS. You’d think split tunneling would be a thing for Apple in 2024.

iOS 17, facial recognition used to log in. Went to send the Zelle applet, was about to finalize the transaction, Unable to Access. Problem is on our end. Account is still accessible, just not online. Cards are still valid, and checks will be processed. My only access is online; the nearest branch is 165 miles away. When I started with SS, they were small enough that their IP addresses hadn’t been blacklisted, yet.

Sorry to hear. With my bank accounts, the moment I try to activate 2FA via iOS, I have to agree to a disclaimer that the bank is not responsible for un-authorized access using your biometrics.

As a test I did just now, I connected to the Kazakhstan SS vpn location with my iPhone and was able to log into all my bank accounts using FaceID with no extra security hurdles.