Answering and accepting just in case someone else comes across the same issue.
The problem was that the URL generated in my code, did not PREPEND the 'https' protocol to the URL and so the failure.
So, what was generated was
rs-4615.xyz.com/users/profile_view/20492083
INSTEAD OF
https://rs-4615.xyz.com/users/profile_view/20492083
-- This is the correct one.
@jstim, thanks for all your help.