I like to try various providers and so in late 2024 I signed up for a super-cheap offer from Dasabo.
I never did much with it. The stereotypical idler. I was going to use it as either a monitoring node or an inbucket node but I never got around to doing much with it. I think I might have installed from their templates, ran my Ansible setup, and then let it sit. Easy money for the provider.
Late 2025 rolled around and I didn’t renew it. About six months later, all hell broke lose with Dasabo. There was the epic “Dasabo Acquires Dasabo” thread on LowEndTalk and then stories began to roll in about epic billing snafus where users were accidentally charged $5,000 or $10,000. Turned out it was a rogue employee. In the midst of this I got an urgent email from Dasabo that I needed to update the payment method stored on my site…needless to say, I did not do that.
And now there’s something new: mandatory KYC. From an email I received this week:
In compliance with applicable European regulations regarding security, transparency, and the prevention of illicit activities, our organization is required to perform a customer identity verification process (KYC – Know Your Customer).
We kindly ask you to complete the verification process via the following secure link…
The procedure is guided, fully secure, and will only take a few minutes.
Please note that completing this process is a mandatory legal requirement. Failure to complete or fully finalize the verification within 10 days of this notification will result in the closure of your account and the termination of all provided services, pursuant to applicable law and contract terms.
LOL wut?
I was curious so I logged in. Sure enough:
My Italian is a bit rusty but “account bloccato” and “verifica” and “completa verifica” sure sounds like mandatory KYC. I clicked the green button.
Clicking Decline just tells me that I need to agree. I can’t even get into the Client Area without going through this.
You All Must Be Mad
There was, naturally, a thread of outrage on LowEndTalk.
No one was sure what “applicable European regulations” were requiring this, since if that was true, tons of hosting providers would be requiring it.
Dasabo has subsequently said:
Targeted Verification: Enhanced KYC (Know Your Customer) verification is not being requested for all accounts. It applies only to specific accounts flagged by system alerts or other compliance triggers.
How absurd. What possible “trigger” could I have triggered? I paid with my credit card through Stripe, so Stripe already knows all about me. It was more than a year ago and I haven’t charged back, so apparently I really am the credit card holder.
And remember, they already had one employee who started issuing fraudulent charges to people’s payment methods on file…and now they want me to upload government ID.
🤡
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raindog308 is a longtime community LETizen, technical writer, and self-described techno polymath. With deep roots in the *nix world, he has a passion for systems both modern and vintage, ranging from Unix, Perl, Python, and Golang to shell scripting and mainframe-era operating systems like MVS. He’s equally comfortable with relational database systems, having spent years working with Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.
As an avid user of LowEndBox providers, raindog308 runs an empire of LEBs, from tiny boxes for VPNs, to mid-sized instances for application hosting, and heavyweight servers for data storage and complex databases. He brings both technical rigor and real-world experience to every piece he writes.
Beyond the command line, raindog308 has a life-long love of German Shepherd Dogs, high-quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop RPGs, playing guitar, and hiking in deep, quiet forests.
His goal with every article is to help users, from beginners to seasoned sysadmins, get more value, performance, and enjoyment out of their infrastructure.
You can find him daily in the forums at LowEndTalk under the handle @raindog308.
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