Same thing happened with me years and years ago. They stick a "seeder" in there that doesn't actually share any of the file and just tracks every IP that pops up.

You want a VPN program with an auto killswitch in case the VPN momentarily disconnects so your real IP isn't broadcast during the outage. In the past I've used PrivateInternetAccess, before they were bought, and currently use Proton. Both have killswitches.