Dear oversight,
After careful examination, there can be no doubt that Kupayak is a
fraud. I am absolutely certain of this for the following reasons:
- I checked the ownership record for the domain "kupayak.com".
Reportedly, the domain was registered by the following individual:
Betty J, XXXX
1421 XXXX Lane
Schaumburg
60173
IL
UNITED STATES
E-Mail: dexter@e-clubbing.com
Phone: +1.847619XXXX
Registration Date.... 2005-10-27
Expiry Date.......... 2007-10-27
(Note: The XXXX were inserted by me. I found out that this is an
actual person's name and address, so for privacy reasons I deleted
part of the information)
It is absolutely unbelievable that an Indonesian business would choose
the unnecessarily complex way to register their company domain through
an individual resident in the USA; there are domain registration
services in Indonesia, too. However, this is typical for online
frauds: The scammers register their domains using fake names and
addresses (either made up or simply taken from directories or the
like) to avoid being tracked by their victims.
- Also note that the domain was registered only recently, on 27
October 2005. However, on their website Kupayak claim that they have
been founded in 2004. Why would a real, existing company wait one full
year before registering their domain? In fact, it is more than likely
that this "company" is not one day older than their website.
- Note the e-mail address. It has nothing to do with Schaumburg,
Illinois or with Medan, Indonesia. Actually, it is the address of an
account with a free e-mail service provided by a nigtlife guide
website in Singapore. No reputable company would use a such e-mail
address.
- On their website, Kupayak claim that this is their street address:
Jln. Gatot Subroto No. 512
Medan, Sumatera Utara, 21163
Indonesia
This address is a clumsy fake. There is a Gatot Subroto street in
Medan, but its postal codes are 20112, 20113, 20114, 20118, 20119,
20122 and 20123. The postal code 21163 is not in any way connected
with the city of Medan. Actually, there is no place with that postal
code in Indonesia at all.
- For international customers, this "company" demands payment via
Telegraphic Transfer or Wire Transfer. This is typical for scams;
fraudsters insist on this payment method because it is impossible to
track who actually received the money, or to ever call it back once
the fraud has become clear. Reputable companies offer other, better
payment methods.
- Finally, I had a close look at the "certificate" Kupayak presents to
prove their legitimacy: http://www.kupayak.com/images/kupayak.jpg
This is also a fake. It is not important if a real blank certificate
was used for producing this, or if this document is completely made up
(after all, hardly anyone outside Indonesia would know what actual
Indonesian business certificates look like). Something else is more
revealing: The brownish preprint letters of this certificate are
surrounded by "noise" that is a result of image compression to reduce
size for online use. However, the black-printed entries are not
surrounded by noise. This means, the entries have not been there when
the document was scanned. Rather, the entries were added later using
computer graphics software. This becomes even more obvious at the
bottom of the document, where the fee stamp is: Part of the letter "K"
is printed over the stamp - this would not be possible with an actual
document. Besides, the "certificate" also uses the fake postal code
for the "company" address.
There is only one possible conclusion: Kupayak is a fake. I strongly
advise not to do any business with them.
Regards,
Scriptor
Sources:
Allwhois Domain Database
http://www.allwhois.com/cgi-bin/allwhois.cgi
Switchboard Telephone Directory
http://www.switchboard.com/
Indonesian News Online: Complete Indonesian Postal Codes
http://www.indonesianewsonline.com/prangko/stamps/kodepos.htm
e-Clubbing Free E-Mail
http://mail.e-clubbing.com/email/scripts/loginuser.pl |
