YouTube is canceling Premium subscriptions with fake locations

If you used a virtual private network (VPN) to purchase YouTube Premium in a country where it is cheaper, your subscription may be at risk. In the last days, several people who has used this trick reported having their subscriptions canceled automatically, like previously reported by Android Police.

The workaround involves using a VPN to change your location to a country where YouTube Premium is offered at a lower price. For example, YouTube Premium costs $13.99 per month in the US for ad-free access to videos, YouTube Music, and offline downloads, but just $1.05 per month (869 ARS) in Argentina. But now it appears YouTube is cracking down on subscribers who don’t live in those countries.

In a statement to On the edge, YouTube spokesman Paul Pennington says the company has “systems in place” to determine the location of its users. “In cases where the sign-up country does not match where the user accesses YouTube, we ask members to update their billing information for their current country of residence,” says Pennington. It doesn’t say whether YouTube has started automatically canceling subscriptions using spoofed locations.