Ask HN: Hetzner asking for passport for new account? just me, or everyone?
Just made a Hetzner account, activated 2FA, the usual.
Then go to buy a storage box, and I get this;
> Our automated system check indicates that your account information has an increased level of risk. Please choose one of the following verification methods:
And you can pay 20 EUR up front by PayPal, or hand over your passport (fat chance!)
Is this genuine, or does everyone get this and it's a fake reason?
(I've signed up to pay by bank transfer, so I'm also wondering why they don't ask me for pre-payment by bank transfer. As it is, no way on God's clean earth they get a passport, and I'm not on Paypal, so will try to use a friend's, but seems my second try to board Hetzner train has bounced - first time I left almost immediately, when I saw spaces not permitted in passwords.)
You raised some red flags with the information you provided. This doesn't happen to everyone. A support rep from Hetzner has spoke a bit more about this process on WebHostingTalk before[1], although they don't get into which specific heuristics may result in flagged accounts for obvious reasons. I'd imagine it's a combination of things like unpaid balances on previous accounts, IP address reputation, uncommon e-mail domains and so on.
[1] https://www.webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?t=1810197&p=10...
Good.
I've seen, or I think I've seen, AWS and Twitter giving completely fake "security" reasons for eliciting additional information. I made an account on Twitter, did nothing with it at all, next day was told I violated the T&C and needed to prove my identity by handing over phone number.
So I'm cagey about this sort of thing. Obviously, actual real security concerns are a good thing to see, people are thinking about the issue and taking care, and asking for validation is naturally what you do and it's better than a flat no. OTOH, passport is BS - solves their security risk but gives me a security risk.