Dear aluivera,
I carefully examined the four companies on your list. Here are the
results of my research:
--- Bluedigitals Ltd. ---
The first thing I did concerning Bluedigitals was to check the
ownership records of their domains, "bluedigitals.com", and
"blue.digitalshop.us".
Firstm, this is registration record for "bluedigitals.com":
bluedigitals co.ltd
Stanley, Marilyn
19908 CR 510
Brazoria, TX 77422
US
Phone: 9797981856
It is already very suspicious that a company that claims to be located
in Indonesia is suddenly resident in the little Texan town of
Brazoria. I checked the Texas Secretary of State's database of
registered companies and found out that no such business entity exists
in the state of Texas. Also, Bluedigitals Co. Ltd. is not listed in
the database of Texas taxpayers. Furthermore, a Texan business would
not be a "Co. Ltd.".
Even if we ignore this and assume that Bluedigitals simply had their
domain registered through one Marilyn Stanley reportedly livin in
Brazoria, it is hard to imagine why a Indonesian company would choose
the unhandy way to get their domain through an individual in Texas.
After all, there are domain registration services in Indonesia, too.
The telephone number, 979-798-1856, is indeed a number from the
Brazoria area. But although it is currently assigned, it is not listed
in directories. There is no evidence that the number is indeed
connected with any company of the name Bluedigitals or one Marilyn
Stanley. It used to be the number of a local Brazoria organization,
The Imagine Foundation. I tend to believe either that or the database
of assigned telephone numbers is where the persons who registered the
domain got the number and the related place name from. There can be no
doubt that these persons used fake address data to register the
domain. That already makes Bluedigitals a more than just dubious
business. Actually, they used fake address data for domain registratin
to avoid being tracked by their victims - the typical behaviour of
fraudsters.
This impression is supported by the fact that the domain was
registered only on 15 May 2005 and will already expire on 15 May 2006.
This is typical for online frauds: The use of "disposable" domains
that are simply abandoned once they are not needed any longer. If
Bluedigitals are indeed "one of the premier suppliers of electronics
equipment on the Asia [sic!]", why would they register their domain
for only one year? If they have been founded already in 2000, as they
state, why did they wait 5 years before they finally registered their
.com domain? This is clearly not the behavior of a reputable company.
Besides, it is extremely revealing that a company that claims to be
very important and existing for already 5 years does not produce more
than only 17 results upon a Google search for "Bluedigitals Ltd" -
with 16 results coming from a business-to-business marketplace website
where sellers can simply add their company profile and offers without
being checked at all. In brief words: It is obvious that this
"company" does not exist and that this fraud is not older than the
domain registration.
As for their second domain, "blue.digitalshop.us": This is not even a
real domain. When having an online store website hosted with Zanadoo
Web Hosting, a customer will get a free third-level domain of the
format "XYZ.digitalshop.us".
By the way, they even made a double-typo when writing their own
address on the "About us" page. There is no street "Sosrowijoyo" in
Yogyakarta, only "Sosrowijaya". And neither Google nor the Indonesian
Yellow Pages don't list any company at Sosrowijaya 4. This would be an
extremely poor result for "one of the premier suppliers of
electronics" in Asia".
Regarding all these evidences, it is almost unnecessary to point out
that the only payment methods available to non-Indonesian customers -
wire transfer, telegraphic transfer, down payment - are typical for
scams.
The final result: Bluedigitals is a scam.
--- Hendra Kusuma Inc. ---
Again, my first step was to check who the registrant of the domain
"all-electronicshop.com" is. This is the result:
Chau, Rasi
ATTN: ALL-ELECTRONICSHOP.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA. 20172-0447
Telephone: 570-708-8780
This is not the address of the person or entity who registered the
domain; it's the address of the domain registration provider Network
Solutions. Whoever registered it, used an anonymizing service offered
by Network Solutions. Quick Google search revealed that quite a few
shady businesses have domain registration records listing that address
and phone number. Of course, a reputable company has no reason to
conceal their actual location and contact information. If a company
makes use of an anonymizing service, it is because they have something
to hide.
But even without a proper address, there is enough to reveal that
Hendra Kusuma Inc. is a scam. For example, their domain has been
registered only on 7 September 2005 and will already expire on 7
September 2006. As already said above in the Bluedigitals analysis,
reputable companies don't use such short-term domains, so it is once
more one of the "disposable" domains typical for scams. Furthermore,
it is worth noting that the e-mail address they provide is
"sales@all-electronic.com", thus using a different domain. And
"all-electronic.com" has been registered only recently, on 1 November
2005, for only one year. It's been registered through Unasi Inc, a
Panama company providing anonymous domain registration. The fraudsters
behind Hendra Kusuma do everything to confuse those who try to track
them.
On their website, they state that Hendra Kusuma Inc. was founded
already in 2001. But a Google search for "Hendra Kusuma Inc." leads
not to one single result, which is not much after 4 years in business.
Searching for "www.all-electronicshop.com" produces 7 results, of
which 6 are just entries in business-to-business offers sites where
anybody can leave offers. Yet these entries are revealing: While on
their own website they claim to be "Hendra Kusuma Inc", they call
themselves "Hendra Kusuma Co., Ltd." in their profile at
01Wholesale.com: http://01wholesale.com/import-export-itemdetails-216983.html
They don't even know their own company name. And they don't know the
correct name of the street they claim to be located in. On their
website, they call it "Jendra Sudirman 234a". Unfortunately, there is
only a "Jendral Sudirman" street in Yogyakarta.
The conclusion: Hendra Kusuma Inc. is nothing but a scam.
--- PT. Markindo-Digital ---
At the beginning, I checked the ownership record of their domain,
"markindo-digital.com". Here is the result:
Davis, Matthew
19901 E. Chapman Ave.
Orange, CA 92869
US
Telephone: +1.714538XXXX
The "XXX" have been inserted by me. I have found out that this fake
address uses elements of an actual individual's contact information,
so I had to protect his privacy.
Again, we have the strange case of a (reportedly) Indonesian company
choosing the strange way of (reputedly) registering their domain
through some individual in the USA instead of simply using an
Indonesian domain registration provider. This alone makes them highy
suspicious. But in this particular case, things are even more brazen:
- The telephone number 714-538-XXXX belongs to a resident of Orange,
who is living very close to East Chapman Avenue. However, neither is
his name Matthew Davis, nor is his zip code 92869.
- Obviously, there is no street number 19901 along East Chapman Avenue
in Orange, CA.
Whoever registered the domain simply took some an Orange telephone
number and invented a name and an address to have fake contact
information for the registration. The reason is clear: The fraudsters
don't want to be tracked, so they use fake names and addresses. This
alone already shows that Markindo-Digital is a scam.
But there is more. They claim "PT. Markindo-Digital was established in
2002". But, as it is typical for scams, the domain was registered only
recently, on 26 October 2005. This would mean that they waited 3
years, which is absolutely unrealistic. And the domain will expire
already on 26 October 2006, which means that it is again just one of
the "disposable" domains scammers use for their fraudulent activities.
And, as I already anticipated, Markindo-Digital did not leave many
marks over their alleged 3 years of existence. Their name leads to
only 17 Google search results, 16 of which are simply entries the
scammers created themselves on business-to-business sites.
Maybe the boldest part of this scam is this statement on their
website: "Due to many fraud, we no longer accept other forms of
payment beside T.T in advance". Telegraphic Transfer is indeed
connected with frauds - fraudsters love this method of payment because
it is impossible to ever find out who actually got the money or to
call it back. Reputable businesses would never insist on this method
of payment which is only used by fraud "companies" like this one.
The result: Markindo-Digital is a scam.
--- PT. Kantani Persada ---
For examining the last company on the list, I once more started by
checking the registration record of their domain. This time, the
alleged registrant is:
David XXXX
XXX southwind circle
sunrise, FL 33326
US
Phone: +1.954384XXXX
Fax: +1.954384XXXX
The "XXX" have been inserted by me. I have found out that this fake
address uses elements of an actual individual's contact information,
so I had to protect his privacy.
The first question, as with the companies examined earlier, is: Why
should an Indonesian company ever want to register their domain
through an individual living somewhere in the USA instead of simply
using an Indonesian domain registration provider? This is again the
first point that's raising suspicion.
In this case, the fraudsters were particularly bold as they took the
entire name, address and telephone number of an actual person.
However, they were not even able to misuse this real data without
making a mistake: There is no "Southwind Circle" in Sunrise, FL - only
"S Wind Circle", with "Wind Circle" being the actual street name.
Upon closer examination of the website, things are getting bizarre for
there is a kind of déja-vu. Have a look at their "About Us" page:
http://www.kantanipersada.com/aboutus.htm
There, they are saying:
"PT. Kantani Persada was established in 2001. Our Company is an
Indonesia based technology solution provider delivering electronic
products. Our primary focus are selling all tv products in any brands
with low costs. We have grown and are now stocking 90% of our
inventories. In year 2000 we have expanded our branch warehousing
Facility in Jakarta Indonesia Bonded zone, to facilitate testing &
sorting out working & non working units. Our goal is to ensure buyers
are confident and receive the best products For their money"
And so on, and so on. And now have a look at the "About Us" page of
the "Markindo-Digital" fraudsters:
http://www.markindo-digital.com/files/about_us.html
Here is their statement:
"PT. Markindo-Digital was established in 2002. Our Company is an
INDONESIA based technology solution provider delivering electronic
products. Our primary focus are in Digital Mp3 Player such as Apple
Ipod, televisions, camera, printers & monitors, laptops and
peripherals. We have since grown and are now stocking 90% of our
inventories. In year 2000 we have expanded our branch warehousing
facility in Surabaya Indonesia Bonded zone, to facilitate testing &
sorting out working & non working units. Our goal is to ensure buyers
are confident and receive the best products for their money."
Isn't this fascinating? Two scams using almost identical wordings for
their made-up company profiles. And there can be no doubt that Kantani
Persada is a scam. They claim to be in business since 2001, but their
domain was registered only on 12 December (!) this year. They are not
listed in the Indonesian Yellow Pages, and a Google search for their
company name leads to only 2 results - and that is both times their
own website. An extremely poor result, should they really be in
business since 2001. But they aren't.
The image they use on their website to depict their company adds its
bit to uncovering the scam:
http://www.kantanipersada.com/images/companyfront.jpg
Although it is hard to say what company name is written on the wall
and on the large structure in the background, it is clearly not
"Kantani Persada" or anything containing those words.
And, not surprising: They insist on payment via Wire Transfer, Western
Union or Telegraphic Transfer, as only scammers do who prefer not to
be tracked once they received the money from their victims.
So Kantani Persada, as all companies on your list, is a scam
Hope this helps!
Best regards,
Scriptor
Sources:
Allwhois Domain Database
http://www.allwhois.com/cgi-bin/allwhois.cgi
Switchboard Telephone Directory
http://www.switchboard.com/
Mapquest
http://www.mapquest.com/
Google Maps
http://maps.google.com/
Texas Secretary of State: Corporation Search
http://ecpa.cpa.state.tx.us/coa/Index.html
Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts: Taxpayer Database
http://ecpa.cpa.state.tx.us/vendor/tpsearch1.html
Telephone Number Database
http://www.tndatabase.com/979/798/18/
PR Web: Zanadoo Web Hosting is now having a special
http://ww1.prweb.com/releases/2002/10/prweb48184.htm
Indonesian Yellow Pages
http://www.yellowpages.co.id/index.html |
