I was just reading through the interview process for RED, and they specifically forbid the use of VPN during the interview. I don’t understand this requirement, and it seems like it would just leak your IP address to the IRC host, which could potentially be used against you in a honeypot scenario. Once they have your IP, they could link that with the credentials used with the tracker while you are torrenting, regardless of if you used VPN while torrenting.
People selling invites and ban avoidance is why they do this. I was sketched out when I first had to do this like 7 years ago and I can tell you I don’t regret it for a minute. RED has an invites forum that will get you invites to some of the best trackers out there.
In my experience, almost all of the private trackers worth joining require you to connect to the site with your home IP. But, you can use your torrent client through a VPN. So the other users don’t see your home address.
I understand the caution. But, if it scares you away from joining you will be missing out.