Security Review

Is hb-sama.com legit or a scam?

Our verdict:Safe· 94/100

Official website for the Curry&Cafe SAMA restaurant chain, featuring a 21-year-old domain and verified physical locations across Japan.

hb-sama.comScanned 1h ago
0
Trust score
SAFE
Heuristics 91·MT 95
View density

Analysis Summary

Threat Intelligence
0/92
All engines report clean
Domain Age
22 years old
Registered Nov 15, 2004
MT Intelligence
Safe
Low likelihood · 98% confidence
SAFE

No threats detected

All checks passed. This site appears legitimate — but always stay alert for phishing even on trusted domains.

Website Preview

Screenshot of hb-sama.com
LIVE RENDER
hb-sama.com

Automated page render — captured in a safe sandbox. What an ordinary visitor would see when loading the site.

MT Intelligence

Advanced threat intelligence
MT Security Analyst
Low scam likelihoodengineMT · Guardiantrust95/100
MT AgentLive web researchVisual inspection
0%
Confidence
The domain has been registered for over 21 years, which is a strong indicator of a stable and legitimate business. Our analysis confirms this is the official hub for the SAMA soup curry brand, operated by Highbridge Japan Co., Ltd. since 1999. The site provides detailed information on physical store locations in Sapporo and Tokyo, monthly menus, and corporate history. We found no malicious detections across our antivirus network or browser blocklists. Positive customer reviews on major travel and food platforms further validate its authenticity.
Full dossier
Analysis complete

Page Content

The website serves as a corporate and customer portal for the SAMA restaurant chain. It includes a store locator, monthly special menus, and information on their 'Online Shop' for retail products. The content is professionally maintained with recent updates regarding store hours and holiday schedules.

Infrastructure

The site is hosted on a stable Japanese IP address with no history of abuse reports. It uses a valid SSL certificate issued by a reputable Japanese authority. The technical setup is consistent with a legitimate regional business.

Domain History

Registered in 2003, the domain age of nearly 7,900 days aligns perfectly with the company's founding in the late 1990s. This long-term ownership is a primary trust signal that distinguishes it from temporary scam sites.

Web Reputation

The brand maintains a positive reputation across independent review aggregators. Customers frequently share photos and reviews of the physical dining locations, and the site is linked from reputable food blogs and social media communities.
Risk Factors
1
  • No specific risk factors identified; the site exhibits all characteristics of a legitimate business.
Positive Signals
5
  • Domain age exceeds 21 years, indicating long-term stability.
  • Verified physical restaurant locations with consistent third-party reviews.
  • Zero malicious detections across 92 antivirus engines.
  • Active business registration for Highbridge Japan Co., Ltd. found in Japanese directories.
  • Clean hosting IP with no history of abuse or phishing reports.
AI Recommendation
This site is safe to use. You can browse store locations or visit their linked online shop with confidence.
Next-gen fraud intelligence
Evidence-backedCross-checked

Web Research Findings

Our live research agent queries scam-report databases, consumer-review sites, news coverage, and general web search for hb-sama.com, then cross-checks business-registration records and look-alike domain patterns. Everything below is pulled from what it actually found.

Domain age
21 yrs
Registered Nov 2004
Business registration
Active · Japan
Site traces back to an actively registered business.
Clone check
Not a clone
No well-known site's layout or branding detected here.
Typosquat check
No look-alike match
The domain doesn't resemble any well-known brand's spelling.
Web mentions
3 positive
Key findings
7 headline facts from open-web research
  • hb-sama.com is the official website for Curry&Cafe SAMA, a Japanese soup curry (スープカレー) restaurant chain primarily based in Hokkaido (Sapporo area stores including Oyachi Sohonten, Hokudai Mae, etc.) with locations in Tokyo and partner stor
  • Operated by 株式会社ハイブリッジ・ジャパン (Highbridge Japan Co., Ltd.), founded April 2, 1999, by President 高橋秀一 (Takahashi Shuichi); company has operated for over 25 years with physical restaurants, online shop (sama-online-shop.com), and franchise/part
  • Site lists multiple active stores, monthly curry menus, news (including 2026 store closure announcements), and "About" section on company values and staff training.
  • Positive customer reviews on TripAdvisor (4.0/5), Tabelog, Reddit (praised as "best curry soup"), Yelp, and other platforms; no scam, fraud, or phishing reports found across searches.
  • Domain age of ~7898 days (~21.6 years) aligns with company founding in 1999; no negative mentions linking the domain to scams, malware, or complaints.
  • Related online shop at sama-online-shop.com sells Hokkaido-style retort curries; Instagram and LINE accounts tied to specific stores.
  • No evidence of typosquatting, cloning of major brands, or suspicious activity; appears to be a legitimate long-running local restaurant business.
Positive reviews (3)
Quotes indicating the site is legitimate.
  • TripAdvisoropen

    "Curry & Cafe Sama Oyachi, Sapporo: See 11 unbiased reviews of Curry & Cafe Sama Oyachi, rated 4.0 of 5 on Tripadvisor"

  • Redditopen

    "Sama": it's a big chain restaurant that has shops all over Japan . The best curry soup I ever had! Here's a link: https://hb-sama.com/"

  • Tabelogopen

    "Curry&Cafe SAMA Kanda ten ... 3.24"

Business registration
Status: active · Japan

株式会社ハイブリッジ・ジャパン (Kabushiki Kaisha Highbridge Japan), founded April 2, 1999 (Heisei 11), by President Takahashi Shuichi. Operates SAMA soup curry chain with multiple Hokkaido and Tokyo locations; capital ¥12.8 million (older data); listed in Japanese business directories.

Research summary
Narrative write-up from our AI analyst, grounded on the facts above
We found that hb-sama.com is the official site for Curry&Cafe SAMA, operated by Highbridge Japan Co., Ltd. (founded in 1999). The business is actively registered in Japan and manages multiple physical locations in Hokkaido and Tokyo. Independent review sites like TripAdvisor show a 4.0/5 rating for their flagship stores, and food enthusiasts on platforms like Reddit frequently recommend the chain. No evidence of fraud or malicious activity was identified during our web research.

Antivirus Engines

Clean pass · verified
Clean across 92 engines

We cross-check every URL against our antivirus network of 92 malware and blacklist engines. None of them flagged this URL in the last scan.

0Malicious0Suspicious59Harmless92Engines
Clean
Kaspersky
Clean
Bitdefender
Clean
Microsoft
Not in pass
ESET-NOD32
Not in pass
Avira
Not in pass
Sophos
Clean
Fortinet
Clean
Google Safebrowsing
Clean
Emsisoft
Clean

No engine detections. The URL passed every antivirus and blacklist engine we queried in this scan. Stay vigilant — AV coverage is only one signal among many.

Security Scans

Blacklist Check
Not flagged on major threat lists

Checked against the major public blocklists used by browsers and security tools — no hits.

Contact Verification

We fetched the page and looked for real-world contact details. Legitimate businesses almost always publish an email on their own domain, a phone number, and a postal address. Scam shops usually don't.

What We Found
No clear contact details on the page
Emails on site's domainNone
Phone numbers2026.07.01
Postal addressNot listed
Linked social profiles0
Signal Summary
Several contact red flags
  • No contact email found anywhere on the page.
  • No postal address visible on the page.
  • Phone number listed (2026.07.01).

Domain & Encryption

Domain History
Age22 years old
RegistrarGMO Internet Group, Inc. d/b/a Onamae.com
RegisteredNov 15, 2004
ExpiresNov 15, 2026
Owner privacyVisible
Encryption Certificate
StatusValid
ProtocolTLSv1.3
IssuerJapan Registry Services Co., Ltd. · JPRS Domain Validation Authority - G4
ExpiresAug 13, 2026 (42d)
Self-signedNo
Hosting & Technology
HostingSAKURA Internet Inc.
Server locationJP
Web servernginx
Platform / CMSWordPress

Server Reputation

Abuse Intelligence
Confidence score0%
Reports on file0
ISPSAKURA Internet Inc.
Usage typeData Center/Web Hosting/Transit

Still, stay alert

No major threat indicators — but a clean scan does not guarantee every page is safe, and phishing emails routinely spoof real domains.

  • Double-check the exact URL in your address bar

    Confirm you are actually on hb-sama.com and not a lookalike like h-b-sama.com.com or an IDN homoglyph.

  • Use a password manager

    Password managers only auto-fill on the exact domain they were saved for — they refuse to fill lookalike domains, which is the single best phishing defence.

  • Discuss this site on the forum

    If you have first-hand experience with this site — good or bad — share it with the MalwareTips community.

    Open

Reputation Sources

How this domain rates across independent threat-intelligence and blocklist providers.

Google Safe Browsing
Not listedCheck ↗
VirusTotal
Not listedCheck ↗
AbuseIPDB
Not listedCheck ↗

Referenced Domains

Outbound domains this page links to or loads resources from. Each links to its own security scan.

Safety FAQ

Common questions about this site, answered directly from the scan data above — so the answers always reflect the latest verdict on this page.

  • Our automated security review found no threat indicators on hb-sama.com. The site appears legitimate based on the signals we checked, but always stay alert for phishing emails that spoof real domains.
  • hb-sama.com passed our automated security checks with a trust score of 94/100. No antivirus engines or major blacklists flagged the site at the time of the last scan.
  • Yes. hb-sama.com presents a valid TLSv1.3 certificate issued by Japan Registry Services Co., Ltd. · JPRS Domain Validation Authority - G4, expiring in 42 days. Note that SSL only encrypts the connection — it does not guarantee that the site itself is trustworthy.
  • hb-sama.com is 21.6 years old, registered on 11/15/2004 through GMO Internet Group, Inc. d/b/a Onamae.com. Scam domains are often freshly registered — a site under 6 months old warrants extra caution.
  • No. All 92 antivirus engines in our malware network report hb-sama.com as clean.
  • No. hb-sama.com is not currently listed on the major browser blocklist feeds that modern browsers use.
  • hb-sama.com resolves to an IP operated by SAKURA Internet Inc. in JP (usage type: Data Center/Web Hosting/Transit). Hosting location alone doesn't make a site good or bad, but unusual geography for a brand's claimed country is one of many signals we weigh.
  • This is a permanent record of the scan run on July 2, 2026. The verdict and evidence above reflect that scan and do not change on their own. If circumstances around hb-sama.com have changed, MalwareTips staff can run a fresh scan, which re-runs every check from scratch and publishes an updated report.

Final Verdict

0
Trust / 100
Final Verdict·hb-sama.com
SAFE

This is the official website for Curry&Cafe SAMA, a well-established Japanese restaurant chain specializing in Hokkaido-style soup curry. With over 20 years of history and numerous physical locations across Japan, it is a legitimate business site.

This site is safe to use. You can browse store locations or visit their linked online shop with confidence.

AV engines
92
MT passes
2
Net signals
0
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This report is generated automatically by combining threat intelligence, domain signals, and an AI security analyst. It is informational, not legal advice. Always use your own judgement before sharing personal information or money online.