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Where do you get the impression that I have any sort of dislike towards you? That is your OWN ASSUMPTION. Please read my first and second post in this thread; I clearly just offered a suggestion, and you took offense.
@AsuraHosting, us (users) have no control over maxmind and it's not our choice to use it or not. Why would I go to mixmind with anything, I have no dealings with them! The issue discussed here is providers accept their risk flags and as it's been pointed out in this thread those flags are not always relevant. I have a firm belief there are no good or bad countries and I can't accept flagging all people from a single country as a fraud just because maxmind determined that in their calculations.
Luckily I'm in neither of those countries, but I still feel sorry for those people marked as fraud by default, not very nice to say at least. It's been a good discussion so far, don't ruin it :P
@vedran: I'm have absolutely no intention on ruining this topic; I was just suggesting that you guys are doing too much speculating when you can easily e-mail & question maxmind about their own operations.
To be fair, connecting from a high-risk country is just a part of the calculation MaxMind makes, it's not an automatic red flag. Now, if you connected from a high-risk country and gave false/inaccurate information, then things start to add up.
Still, even if the risk score (which is configurable by the provider) does trigger and automatically set the order to fraud, there is nothing stopping the client from opening a support ticket and explaining the situation. I handle a few dozen such requests every time we do a sales round. (And in most of those cases, simply correcting their information and re-running the fraud check clears them.)
You do have a pretty unique system where you have to register an account before signing up for a VPS. If there are problems you'll let your client know and it will get resolved, so I'm not worried about you at all! I'm worried about those providers which would just say "no can do" when they get a red flag from maxmind. If I'm in the process of ordering something and I get flagged, I certainly wouldn't bother to try to clear that up without a good reason.
That policy was rescinded, actually. Clients are allowed to create their account when the place an order (and not be verified beforehand); they just get audited before the order is accepted, and orders from verified clients have priority.
Very true. Although to be perfectly honest, any provider that would be unwilling to let you prove your identity (such a certain RU host I was a client of recently) or at least work with you on getting things straight is a provider I wouldn't do business with anyways.
@miTgiB : Hi Tim, I missed your msg on here, pleased to say its all sorted now - thanks for looking into this.
At least I seem to have stimulated some interesting discussion
Well, that's good but sadly not all providers are prepared to clarify situation through support ticket and they take maxmind decision as final as @KuJoe stated here http://www.lowendtalk.com/discussion/comment/25936#Comment_25936 And now I am thinking.. maybe exactly such discussions help to better understanding from clients and hosts perspective and maybe some changes in more positive way where no one lose.
edit.
@tehdan that's great. I am glad that you sorted issue and you got vps with decent host.
Sorry for my naivety but what exactly is a fraudulent order? Is it someone using a false identity? Why would that matter?
Be at/near the address you submitted and don't remain on your VPN and you will pass 99.9% of the time, there is nothing to discuss really, if these simple steps are followed.
Unless you're at home, don't use VPN but happen to have from your IP from old Serbia and Montenegro(CS) or Vietnam or something similar.
It's always something to discuss that's why we are here unless you prefer "how big is your I/O" threads more.
That's only in regards to "high risk countries". I used to have a different stance, but there's only so much money somebody is willing to lose before they change their mind. Luckily it wasn't with SD, but I learned my lesson early on (literally 100% of all manually verified accounts from "high risk countries" resulted in a chargeback costing me hundreds of dollars on a $1 product).
At the end of the day, it's all about how much risk the company is willing to invest and with payment processors' policies these days the company puts it all on the table why the client puts absolutely nothing. Am I willing to risk $20+ for $2 of potential revenue from a source I have already been warned about and have experienced loss from in the past? No. I feel that playing it safe is the smart move for a new company.
So people which bothers to open support ticket, to explain situation kindly and are prepared to provide copy of ID, etc... usually goes through all this hassle just to robber you? I mean of course this happens too, but is this a rule in hosting industry?
(I am not asking about maxmind now but about those which open support ticket and are prepared to clarify situation). If that's a rule then we can wonder if @tehdan which opened this thread and then clarified situation with host will rip-off Tim too, can't we?
I don't have enough time to dodge the tin foil when you get going.
@Tim you're not forced to anything here. But I am glad that Hostigation which you represent at LEB/LET joined to this community anyway.
It did happen enough times for me to put a stop to it. ID cannot be verified without investing money. For a VPS that makes us less than $1/month, we are not willing to invest any additional time or money. The problem is, they aren't just trying to rob me of $10, they are trying to profit off of me while robbing me of $10. As for the industry rule, I don't know. I can only speak for myself and so far myself has lost $0 to "high risk countries".
Talk about irony.
In the end everything depends on the providers policies, I have been flagged as fraud for making my orders in Mexico, I can say that this happen with BuyVM, 123Systems, ensSouth (now death), webFaction, hostgator (sorry to include a couple of shared hosts).
I just opened a ticket and waited for their response, with some I was lucky they provided the service with others, i just got a straight "NO".
@Kujoe interesting your policy on SecureDragon, specially since I was thinking in grabbing a Xen vps, will search for another provider, sorry to say this don't take it personally, but I understand your view as an owner.
@thekreek No offense taken. I'm a bit confused because I think you misread my posts in here since Mexico is not considered a high risk country.
@thekreek: We've never had an issue with Mexico getting flagged either. I think you might be inputting some other information that's causing an issue.
Read the news... LOL, j/k but yes, is sad here...
lol when i was in taiwan, i got flagged by maxmind
@Kujoe @Damian i live in Mexico, but the card I use is from the US (the exchange rates from MX banks, really sucks, and also their policy on refunds its a complete joke).
That's most probably the reason I always get flagged, although on some occasions I've been flagged when I even used Mexican cards.
@yomero, yes the latest news from Mexico are not so good, it all depends on which state you are.
@thekreek
I am in the capital city :P
I have been rejected by many sites during the years, some of which dont use maxmind, however, fraudsters use US CC and proxies, so it is doubtful the help of Max in this case.
I also have US card shared with a friend, so that wont stop me IF i really want it, but this kind of rejection usually pisses me off, so only real fraudsters will make it, not the legit ppl from those countries.
It is funny that I get phone calls still, even when I am rejected :P
M