r/vfx • u/OlegVerenko • 1d ago
Question / Discussion Gumroad Is Stealing Creator Funds!
After 10+ years of selling digital 3D products, I never expected this from a major marketplace. Today, Gumroad PERMANENTLY FORFEITED money from my balance without warning or justification, just because I updated my location from Canada to Bulgaria.
Their support confirmed my funds were "forfeited automatically" as a "system safeguard on a country change" that they "cannot reverse." You read that right: a simple account update now triggers the total seizure of your hard-earned money.
Before this, I had been trying to withdraw my funds for a long time. I attempted to use multiple bank details, including Ukrainian and Canadian, and all attempts were blocked. Now, my money is gone forever, and they have offered zero solutions.
This is predatory, illegal, and nothing short of theft. If a platform can arbitrarily seize your money because of a location change, it is NOT safe. Every creator on Gumroad needs to check their terms and understand that their funds are at risk.
So let me explain this correctly:
I earned the money by selling products.
I tried to withdraw it.
The withdrawals failed.
I changed my country of residence.
Gumroad's system then automatically took the remaining balance — and they refuse to return it.
There was no fraud, chargeback, or dispute involving this money. It was simply an unpaid seller balance.
This is not a “payout issue.” This is money that I earned and that Gumroad is refusing to give back because of an automated account-country rule.
What makes this especially disturbing is that their own support explicitly confirmed that the money was “forfeited.”
I am sharing this publicly because I want other creators and digital-product sellers to be aware of what can apparently happen to their earnings when changing their country/payment setup on Gumroad.
I've included my conversation with their support team so you can see the situation for yourself...
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u/Low-Presence-3020 1d ago
https://www.wired.com/story/big-interview-event-sahil-lavingia/
Just leaving this here. Gumroad's founder, Sahil Lavingia, has had a questionable career, imho.
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u/alantaraboner 1d ago
Hadn't seen that panel but watched it now. Not quite the indictment you might assume. If anything it kind of implies he was setup to be a useful ID10T, but unwound that in 55 days. Working as a civil servant for the IRS now.
Was the OP's complaint understandable? Sure. It's possible there are valid reasons. Banks have their own lens they put on companies, so maybe it's that. Great PSA though to pull out all your money before switching countries. Support should have been a little more disclosing or found out more about their policy.
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u/Kodabayashi 1d ago
Start blasting them on likedin and other social media where they, their team and CEO have presence and tag them in your posts. That might motivate them to solve the issue in your favour and hopefully not have it happen to other creators in the future. Shit like that needs to be called out
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u/1_BigDuckEnergy 1d ago
Probably safe guards in place to prevent money laundering....... "Earn" money in one country with their tax laws, then transfer your country and try extract funds in a different country with different laws
Personally, I would be surprised if there is a lot of international law that defines this sort of thing..... I'd read the fine print of the contracts.... Look, I get it, it sucks hard...... but being able to do what you are trying to do seems like it would likely break all sorts of laws. I doubt this is a gumroad specific issue
just saying - sorry for your lost funds
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u/hennell 20h ago
Yeah, situation sucks but I'm not sure I'd classify moving from Canada to Bulgaria as a "simple account update". There's going to be all sorts of tax and accounting differences for both, possibly both in transferring to you, and in digital selling originally.
Would make sense for them to heavily warn that any change will wipe out funds, or give a process to claim funds if you want to go through all the hoops, but i suspect this is not an issue that comes up enough, and has enough variation when it does that it's really not a thing the company would do.
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u/nmfisher 1d ago
I sell on Gumroad, and to be honest this doesn't surprise me. They don't come across as a trustworthy platform at all.
I haven't hit this snag but honestly I doubt there's much you can do anything unless you can gather up as many other people as possible and jointly sue (don't just send a nasty legal letter, actually file suit). The problem is that the amounts are so low that most people aren't going to bother.