Dear scriptor-ga,
Please check this company to AMBIA Technology or Ambiatech.  
(http://www.ambia-tech.com) ?  Im trying to find a real ipod
distributor, but Im not confident in this company.  They sent me a
document from goverment that autorized then to make business.

This website is a scam or real company ?

Thanks

Jose L. Ayala

Thank you,

Dear joselayala,

I recommend not to trust this company. In addition to all the
well-founded concerns expressed in the comment below by ratty_-ga, I
found out that their mailing address is fake. On their website, they
claim to be loacted at Menteng Raya 874. There is indeed a street of
that name in Jakarta - but it is only 800 meters (about half a mile)
long. The highest house number in that street is obviously number 76;
there are no houses with higher numbers, and there would be absolutely
no room for them. This is more than only dubious. A reputable,
reliable company would certainly not use a fake address on their
website.

Besides, it is interesting to note that the people working for this
"business" do obviously not know their own company's correct address.
On the website, it's Menteng Raya 874. In the domain registration
record, however, it's Menteng Raya 847 (which does, of course, not
exist either).

It is also noteworthy that the domain has not only been registered
very recently; also, it was registered for the time span of just one
year. Already on 22 December 2006, the registration will expire again.
Either the owners of Ambia Tech have not much trust in the durability
of their company, or this is a typical "disposable" domain scammers
prefer to use. Fraudsters usually register their domains for only one
year and simply abandon them once they don't need them any longer.
Reliable companies would hardly do that.

These points, together with the fact that this company has not even
been around for three weeks now and yet they unrealistically claim to
"have built a solid reputation", that they use a ridiculously
primitive shopping cart system, that they won't tell anything about
accepted payment methods, shipping costs, delivery conditions, etc,
show very clearly that they can't be trusted. I strongly recommend
that you avoid doing any business with them.

Regards,
Scriptor 



Sources:

Allwhois Domain Database
http://www.allwhois.com/cgi-bin/allwhois.cgi

Indonesian Yellow Pages
http://www.yellowpages.co.id/index.html

Mapquest: City Map Jakarta
http://www.mapquest.com/maps/map.adp?formtype=address&country=ID&addtohistory=&city=Jakarta

Search terms used:
"ambia tech"
://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=%22ambia+tech%22&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=
"Menteng Raya"
://www.google.de/search?q=%22Menteng+Raya%22&num=20&hl=de&lr=&newwindow=1&c2coff=1&safe=off&start=0&sa=N

Hi

As I don't know the company personally, I can't make a definite statement.

However this question does get asked a few times, so here's some suggestions:

1. Check the domain name. In this case, http://www.ambia-tech.com was
only registered on 21st December 2005. If this was the creation of the
company, even if they are legitimate they will have no track record on
customer service, returns, etc. Be wary of this.

2. Do a search for the domain name in a search engine. The more hits,
the better established the company. Have a look at a few of those
hits.
  eg. http://www.tradekey.com/profile_view/uid/22084/AMBIA-technology.htm
  "We have built a solid reputation as reliable..." - since December 2005?

3. Do a search in news/discussion groups. Are there many hits? Have
people used them? What was their experience?

4. Check out their address. In this case, they have the same phone
number and fax number. This is not a good sign.

5. Do they use https for payments? Invoicing? Accept credit cards?
   In this case, when you "add to cart", you are sending them an email.
   You can try it (no costs or commitment to you at this stage).

And there are various other checks.

Ambia Tech may be a legitimate company, but I would be VERY wary and
would need to be convinced before I sent them ANY money.

Ratty