Did you get an unknown, unauthorized credit card charge from rhsfty.com?
Did you know you gave your credit card to someone named Ntiana in Cyprus?
More charges are coming. It could be a scam. You need to act quickly.
This article will cover:
- What rhsfty.com is and how it ended up on your credit card
- The Risk of Identity Theft
- Why More Charges are Coming to your Credit Card
- 5 Things to do now to Protect Yourself
- How to cancel rhsfty.com
Other people have been scammed from rhsfty.com. It depends how you got there. After reading this article, I encourage you to verify this information for yourself. Let’s review what might have happened…
What is rhsfty.com?
rhsfty.com is the billing name for a branded online dating site – Lets Shine Together which you can find at LetsShineTogether.com.
The short gibberish name is used for discreet billing, and it is their customer service website. The charge often appears with the customer service number such as: rhsfty.com 855-499-8795.
A branded (also known as private label) dating site is a front end to a white label dating service company. Here is a quick summary of how it works:
- An entrepreneurial person works with the white label company and sets up a website – whatever theme they choose.
- The entrepreneur promotes and sends people to their dating website.
- The white label company provides an aggregated database of members from all of the branded dating sites.
- The white label company runs the dating website, collects the payments, takes their service charge, and pays the entrepreneur the rest.
Is rhsfty.com Legitimate?
Lets Shine Together is a real dating website. The site uses “Website Hosts” to “stimulate conversation”. The Terms of Use state that website hosts are not real persons. Therefore, I consider it Low Quality.
It might be a scam. The question really is: “How did you get signed up?” Scams occur during fraudulent sign ups. Keep reading. We will sort it out.
Why is White Label Dating a Problem?
How did rhsfty.com end up on my Credit Card Statement?
…or how did you get signed up? If you did not knowingly sign up for Lets Shine Together, then you probably signed up for something that advertised as free, but in reality there were hidden or hard to find charges. There are two primary ways this odd looking; strange credit card charge ends up on your statement:
- The Get Verified Scam – Signing up for an Age or Date Verification service that advertised as “free”.
- The Cam Scam – Signing up for a cam site or other adult oriented site that used your credit card to verify your age.
- The Free Smart Phone Scam – Signing up to register to win an iPhone, or responding to an ad that said you win an iPhone (or android).
- Online Game Scam – Free games, or adult games, that require you to provide a credit card for proof of age.
Behind each one of these scams, are trial-periods for dating and other sites, that turn in to expensive monthly subscription charges.
How Does The Scam Work?
I found rhsfty.com by purposefully clicking thru a scam site that a reader sent me. His “date” had asked him to get verified. For this article we will focus on the “get verified” scam.
Your Date
You meet someone online, and they express interest in you. They tell you they want to meet in person, but first you must verify to prove you are “safe” or something along those lines.
Your “date” sends you to a website that is advertised as a “free” verification service. The site asks for your credit card to verify you.
Charges are deliberately hidden or hard to find using a program command called iframe. These charges are usually around $39.95. Since these scams often sign you up for multiple sites with “bonus offers”, charges can be as much as $170 per month.
The Date Verification scam site connects to a click-generating web site, which sends you to a rotating set of billing sites. In your case it was rhsfty.com.
The terms of use have a “free trial period.” That leads to the subscription to the branded dating site and the charges. Since you did not know you signed up, you could not know to cancel the subscription before the trial period ended. You might have received an email reminder, which could easily end up in the spam folder – that is assuming you used your real email.
Who owns the facade date verification sites?
Sites are usually registered anonymously – usually in Panama. Occasionally, the sites belong to an identifiable person (men) in Bangladesh. I have found them in the Philippines as well. Since it is not possible for me to know how you got there, I cannot speak to your specific situation.
How They Trick You
The charges are completely hidden, or just hard to find. Because it is the internet, there are an infinite number of ways to get there. I found rhsfty.com by knowingly clicking thru one of the Get Verified scam facade websites, until i got to rhsfty.com.
There are two primary ways the scammers pull it off:
- iFrame: A web programming command that displays content from, and directs your credit card information to another site without you knowing.
- Too Big for the Smart Phone: Web Pages designed to hide information when you are on a small screen (your smart phone).
The Billing Site Changes
The date verification scam site connects to a marketing/click generating server(s), which assigns a billing site. The marketing server rotates the billing sites – In your case it was rhsfty.com.
Did you see how the rotation works in the video?
Confused?
The operators of these sites do that on purpose. It is a complex network of facade websites, obfuscating servers, and shell companies. The obfuscation provides plausible deniability – and – makes finding the responsible party difficult. This chart will give you an idea of what is happening.
Click Image to view full sizeIt is too much to get into in this article. You can read more at this website:
In Depth: The complex network of Age and Date Verification Scams.
Did you know you gave your credit card to someone in Cyprus?
Who Owns rhsfty.com?
The owner of rhsfty.com is Staffordish Limited PANAGIOTI KASPI 3 FLAT/OFFICE 202 Nicosia Cyprus 1097. The contact number is: 855-499-8795.
Ntiana Tsamourlidou is the registered director.
The concern with Cyprus is that companies can be registered anonymously, through a lawyer. The persons named, might not be the owners of the company. There are many shell companies in Cyprus.
With any of these companies, you need to find the shareholder(s) to determine the real owner. Good luck with that!
Companies in Cyprus can be researched at https://i-cyprus.com/.
For more information, see Staffordish Limited Company Profile.
A Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Privacy Policy
They have policies that say all the right things – except they are sharing your information with unknown business partners. This is not like you gave your credit card to amazon.com and have a reasonable expectation of privacy and security. They are sharing your information internationally.
Full privacy policy can be found rhsfty.com/privacy.
Staffordish has changed their privacy policy. It used to be much worse. The language seems to comply with the European Union privacy law (GDPR). Things to note:
- GDPR applies to EU citizens conducting transactions in the EU. GDPR does not apply outside the EU.
- Updating the policy does not magically change the company operations. Call me a skeptic.
- GDPR does not mandate operational security audits like you would find in a reputable retailer or bank.
Is Rhsfty.com Safe?
In my opinion, doing business with Lets Shine Together is not safe. Track with me on this.
- Your date was a dude in a faraway country. He sent you to a facade website.
- A low quality dating site, owned by Staffordish, a shell company operating in Cyprus.
- The white label dating company is unknown.
- There is an unknown payment processor. That company has your credit card information, and makes the charges on behalf of rhsfty.com.
- There are good, trustworthy payment processors, and those who you should never work with
Risk of Identity Theft
Combine the bad privacy policy, unknown companies with unknown security practices, and you have a great recipe for Identity Theft.
More Charges are Coming
The charge to your credit card account is a monthly (recurring) charge. Additionally, there might be charges from “bonus” offers, in the form of additional trial memberships. I hear from readers quite often that they have with 2, 3, or more charges on their account.
Charges Can be Hard to Cancel
Many Ronin readers have reported that the subscription is hard to cancel in these types of sites. There can be a delay between when you contact them, and when the cancel is applied. If it is at the end of the trial-period or billing period, you get billed again. Some of the “Bonus” sites require advance notice of 5-7 days before the next billing cycle. These are some of the many reasons I recommend canceling your credit card.
Who Has Your Credit Card and Personal Information?
I have no idea. When you entered your credit card, you gave it to a white label service company. That company is well hidden. An unknown payment processing company handles all credit card transactions. There are trustworthy payment processors, and there are untrustworthy payment processors. Staffordish will legally have access to it. An outsourcing company handles customer service.
… not equipped to handle your personal and financial information
Bottom Line: A shell company that is using a service with unknown origin, sharing your information as they see fit, and high risk security policies and unknown practices. I have no idea who is really involved here. There is no reason to believe, that any person or company in your transaction is equipped to handle your personal and financial information
But Wait! There is More!
…he said with a tip of the hat to Billy Mays…
Added Bonus: Free Spam and Phishing
If you have found this site, you probably gave your email to a scammer who then referred you to a date verification site. Therefore, the scammer will sell your email on the dark web. As a result, you might see a high rate of spam and sooner or later, phishing attempts.
How to Cancel rhsfty.com
855-499-8795 – If you are going to seek a full refund, you will need to call them.
If you simply wish to cancel, then go to their website.
Before you call or visit rhsfty.com you will want to know what you need to do to protect yourself – read and follow the instructions in the next section (What You Should do…).
Make sure that the site is secure. (When I checked it was, but that can change.) Before you enter any information, look for the https in the address of the website. The s means it is secure.
Apple products will just show a grey or green lock.
What You Should Do About a Credit Card Charge From rhsfty.com:
There are 5 things you need to do now to protect yourself. What you do depends your circumstance – why you think the charge is on your credit card.
Important: Only you can make the determination: Did you know? Should you have known? Were you scammed? This is a serious situation, but as long as you keep calm and act quickly, you will be fine. Click one of the options below and we will take it from there…
You remember signing up for a free service, such as a Date / ID verification or cam site, but it was free.
None of the above is familiar
Someone else in my Household did this.
Did You Use Your Debit Card?
Then you need to act extra quickly. I have had readers get their bank account drained by the date verification scam. You can read more about why you should never use a Debit Card online here.Thank you for visiting, and good luck.
Ronin Eternales