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[Warning] CharityHost "New Owner"? Evidence of Bait & Switch, Doxing, and Andre's (NeoTechAdmin) Con
Donald2018
Member
Hi everyone, I'm a new member here on LET.
I decided to register and post this because I uncovered some concerning findings about CharityHost within the Chinese VPS community (NodeSeek).
Given CharityHost's notorious history and the involvement of the banned provider Andre (NeoTechAdmin), I felt it was important to share this evidence with the LET community to prevent others from getting scammed.
I conducted a "mystery shopper" test to verify their "new owner" claims. The results were shocking—involving bait-and-switch tactics, infrastructure that still links to Andre, and serious privacy violations.
The Origin
Although CharityHost is notorious, and every time they posted before, the community would flood the comments with warnings.
Recently, however, CharityHost claimed a change in ownership.
Seeing their new posts, it was hard to say whether the warnings still applied without knowing if anything had actually changed.
So, I decided to purchase a machine from their promotion out of my own pocket, thinking I'd test it to see if it was truly a "new boss, new atmosphere."
My Registration Info: (This will be important later)
* Name: Host Charity
* Email: cao@nimama.de (A Chinese slang joke)
I picked a machine from CharityHost's promotional thread on NodeSeek.
Here are the details of the machine I selected:
| Promotion Page | Details | Invoice |
|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
As you can see, whether it's the promotion page, the instance page, or the invoice interface, the instance is clearly labeled as having an NVMe drive.
So, I proceeded with the standard first step after getting a VPS: a NodeQuality test. The key point here is the disk performance.
Below are the Disk Test Results
Below is the full NodeQuality Report
NodeQuality Link
What level does this IO test represent?
| Disk Type | Sequential R/W (1m) | Random R/W (4k) | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| High-End NVMe SSD (PCIe 4.0) | 7000 MB/s | > 80 MB/s | Enthusiast |
| Mainstream NVMe SSD (PCIe 3.0) | 3000 MB/s | > 50 MB/s | Mainstream High Performance |
| Standard SATA SSD | 500 MB/s | ~ 30 MB/s | Standard Speed |
| Mechanical HDD | 150 - 200 MB/s | ~ 0.5 MB/s | Storage/Warehouse |
| Your Test Result | ~ 120 MB/s | ~ 1.8 MB/s | Restricted / E-Waste |
I bought an NVMe SSD, but the result is worse than an HDD???
Let me check how CharityHost described it:
I don't seem to have bought the wrong plan???
Authentication complete: It's still garbage, and I asked for it.
So, I posted a review thread on NodeSeek.
Here Comes the Interesting Part (Bait & Switch)
Later, I looked at a few review threads from winners of CharityHost's giveaways.
Review Thread 1:
--------------------Disk dd R/W Test--Thanks to lemonbench--------------------
-> Disk IO Test (4K Block/1M Block, Direct Mode)
Test Operation Write Speed Read Speed
100MB-4K Block 34.6 MB/s (8444 IOPS, 3.03s) 56.0 MB/s (13670 IOPS, 1.87s)
1GB-1M Block 106 MB/s (101 IOPS, 9.89s) 106 MB/s (101 IOPS, 9.89s)
Review Thread 2:
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50) (Partition -):
---------------------------------
Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 102.56 MB/s (25.6k) | 102.35 MB/s (1.5k)
Write | 102.83 MB/s (25.7k) | 102.89 MB/s (1.6k)
Total | 205.40 MB/s (51.3k) | 205.25 MB/s (3.2k)
| |
Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 97.70 MB/s (190) | 96.48 MB/s (94)
Write | 102.89 MB/s (200) | 102.90 MB/s (100)
Total | 200.60 MB/s (390) | 199.38 MB/s (194)
Review Thread 3:
fio Disk Speed Tests (Mixed R/W 50/50) (Partition -):
---------------------------------
Block Size | 4k (IOPS) | 64k (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 102.55 MB/s (25.6k) | 102.35 MB/s (1.5k)
Write | 102.82 MB/s (25.7k) | 102.88 MB/s (1.6k)
Total | 205.37 MB/s (51.3k) | 205.24 MB/s (3.2k)
| |
Block Size | 512k (IOPS) | 1m (IOPS)
------ | --- ---- | ---- ----
Read | 97.75 MB/s (190) | 96.54 MB/s (94)
Write | 102.94 MB/s (201) | 102.97 MB/s (100)
Total | 200.70 MB/s (391) | 199.51 MB/s (194)
What does this show? So, the giveaway winners who advertise for you get special treatment? But the VPS I paid real money ($2.50) for is trash like this? Isn't this a classic "Golden Sample" / Bait & Switch scam?
Actually, I thought about a possibility later: Did I just happen to land on a node with a broken hard drive? However, the merchant's subsequent operations seemed to dispel my doubts.
CharityHost's Response
The Email
They sent an email stating termination due to:
"Use the Services to compete with us or damage our services. Harass, annoy, intimidate, or threaten our employees or agents. Disparage, tarnish, or harm us or the Services."
And they issued a refund.
First:
As mentioned above, my registered name was Host Charity, but the email directly addressed me by my Nodeseek forum username, Donald2018.
This proves that they are not only monitoring the forum constantly but also linking forum identities with client privacy. Doxing me, really? Thankfully, the forum doesn't allow full doxing.
Second:
- I didn't seem to use their VPS to compete with them or do anything with it; I just ran a NodeQuality test.
- I didn't even @ them? How did I harass, annoy, intimidate, or threaten their employees or agents?
- Does this mean that running a test and evaluating real data counts as disparaging, tarnishing, or harming their reputation? Are my test results fabricated?
Forum Private Message
He answered in Chinese.
English：
- You have already chased away the problematic person. Why continue?
- If you don't like the service, why not just leave?
- I come in peace... we don't need to be adversaries.
My Reply:
Replies to My Review Thread
Replies to Me in His Old Thread
Below is today's new reply and my response (he even @Admin to play the victim):
So? The so-called "New Owner" is just old wine in a new bottle?
At first glance, this explanation was a bit confusing. But after going in circles, it means the new owner only bought the CharityHost shell, but the upstream provider is still Andre (NeoTechAdmin).
Doesn't that mean:
- Found someone to take over? (
) - Changed his own name? (
)
So after this attempt, my opinion remains the same as before.
The so-called change of ownership is just a change of packaging.
TL;DR (Summary)
- False Advertising: Advertised as NVMe, actual test result: 400 IOPS (1.7 MB/s). This is worse than a mechanical HDD.
- Bait & Switch Fraud: Giveaway winners get good machines (13k IOPS), while paying customers get trash (400 IOPS).
- Rebranding Confirmed: The "new owner" admits NeoTechAdmin is the supplier, and the ASN hasn't changed. This is just Andre's reseller model.
- Privacy Violation / Doxing: I registered with
Host Charity/cao@nimama.de, but the merchant's refund email addressed me directly by my forum IDDonald2018. This confirms they are monitoring the forum and linking user identities. - Conclusion: Avoid at all costs. Run.
LowEndBox & LowEndTalk.
Comments
noted with thanks
But you really are Donald2018
Donald2018 is the name of my Chinese community nodeseek, which I also use on LET. However, my registration information on CharityHost is not this name, so CharityHost traces it back to my forum username.
@ServerBachelor
As a stone, we are furious that you likened Andre's garbage drives to our species.
teh public_ftp drives with pr0n on it?
under new management of "Josh" (Andre)
Seriously where the hell did Andre even find hard drives capable of being that terrible?
Did you search them before registeing?
They(or he/she) are well known as spying on customer's file.
They claim CharityHost has a new owner, and I'm personally investigating to verify if this is true.
I don't trust what they say. I think Owner changing is just strategy to avoid their shit reputation.
They turned their sights to the Chinese forum NodeSeek, hoping to exploit the information gap to generate new orders, but their hardware and service quality remain substandard. However, many LET members are also active on that forum. They flooded CharityHost's promotional threads with warnings, and now CharityHost is struggling to survive on NodeSeek as well.
Honestly if this is a problem. Report him to the authorities in the US - state and federal. This qualifies as fraud and comes with jail time.
They published change in ownership in writing. I am sure the government will get all over it as a compliance violation for not reporting in annual filings timely. And don’t wait annually if ownership changes. Should be quick.
But I don’t get it. If change in ownership, won’t hardware and all go to new host owner?
Look how he asked admin to step in because of harassment, doesn't that sound like charityhost actual? There is no Josh.
100%
https://host.charity/ updating soon
I'm pretty sure Andre banned you because he's trigger happy, yes, but also because your registered name was the same as my website where I document his abuses:
https://host.charity/
If you want to be his customer, use a different pseudonym. But honestly, idk why anyone would want to be Andre/Josh's customer.
This is hilarious. Very well played @Donald2018
Just want to point out that providers linking forum users to their information they provided during sign up and in tickets is not something new and has happened a lot here in LET especially when a bad review is posted. I'm not sure I'd use the word doxing.