The US government does not force us to use a KYC (ID verification / know your customer) provider, at least - not a basic web hosting provider. That could change whenever though, and I’m not sure if Racknerd has any special circumstances.

As for why would a company do this - to prevent fraud and abuse. If a customer signs up and uses a stolen credit card, who do you think is on the hook for that loss? Not the victim, not the bank - us.

Why would they use a stolen card if they’ll just end up getting their services cancelled one might ask - abuse. They’ll setup servers, create phishing pages, and immediately start sending out spam emails. Or distribute malware, or host illegal content, etc.

This creates more work for us and negatively impacts the reputation of our network, and harms our legitimate customers.

So yeah, if something so much as looks out of place on their order / information (such as using a VPN to place the order) we will usually start a ID verification. We’ll usually suspend them to lock them out while we wait on their response, or in extreme cases - immediately cancel and refund.