Crowdfunding: addictive and regulatory
Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2025 5:24 am
Kickstarter is full of fun, exciting, complicated, creative and unachievable projects. The crowd backs it with money and trusts in the integrity of the creators and the passion for their projects. In mid-June, this almost went wrong. Scammers who tried to kickstart their beef came within a hair’s breadth of stealing $120,000. Proper intervention by Kickstarter after a number of alarming reports from backers ensured that the plug was pulled just an hour before the project was supposed to be funded.
The scam
'KOBE RED – 100% JAPANESE BEER FED KOBE BEEF JERKY' looked as appealing as the Japanese beer meat in reality as a Kickstarter project. The story seemed plausible and it was only the unappealing idea of receiving meat in the mail that kept me from backing the project. The project was otherwise well put together. The goal was simple: “a better refrigerator for the company”.
The rewards were even simpler if possible: a nice piece of meat. The background information was a bit sketchy and the video not entirely professional, but hey, meat farmers are also allowed to have a chance on Kickstarter. All in all, a great set-up and with a low target amount of only $2,374 also feasible. The simple and sympathetic goal and a reward that makes your mouth water, turned out to be a mega success, the goal was reached within a day and would grow to more than 5000% of the original amount in the weeks that followed.
Kickstarted: The Documentary
This image is no longer available.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on Kickstarter, three producers had started their project to make a documentary about the crowdfunding phenomenon. They had already done a number of interviews with people behind successful projects, when they noticed the immense success of Kobe Red Beef. They approached the creators for an interview and that was the start of a mega unmasking in the form of a thriller, with an even bigger thriller in its wake.
The collaboration
Although the makers of the documentary were only interested in the story behind Kobe Red, the scammers had conceived the plan to appear 'big' in the film and had already sent reports about this to their own supporters. They would have hired a filmmaker to document their success story. This resulted in a further increase in support for the fraudulent project. The producers thought differently and made it clear that there was no certainty about Kobe Red's ultimate contribution to the film.
Kobe Red
The unmasking
Over time, there was increasing uncertainty about Kobe Red's good intentions. Critical questions from backers were met with fierce responses from so-called independent supporters. These independent accounts turned out to be fake and directly linked to the Kobe Red scammers. Kickstarter got wind of the fraud and after repeated requests from concerned users and the attention given to it by the producers of the documentary, Kickstarter decided to kill the Kobe Red project, just an hour before the deadline had passed.
Accept cookies
The story has a tail
The filmmakers had come up with their own rewards for their supporters to help them reach their $85,000 goal. In addition to the usual digital downloads and behind-the-scenes goodies for the lower tiers and extra special goodies for the middle group, these included “be in the movie,” co-executive producer credits, and executive producer credits for those willing to put in amounts between $1,500 and $10,000.
This is how it happened that three Kobe Red scammers all got in at the highest level, causing the film project to suddenly go over its target the day before the deadline. But scammers are scammers and they backed out of their pledges , leaving the film almost $30,000 short with just over 24 hours to go (it is not possible to back out or reduce your pledge in the last 24 hours).
A real thriller
The final funding round for the film was extremely exciting, it is thailand mobile phone number list almost inevitable that the project will get a spot in the documentary. Only in the very last minutes did they pass the $85,000 mark, thanks to the 839 'backers' who gave the maximum of their own financial support. Or as someone says in a comment:
Best kickstarter ever. “A kickstarter to make a film about kickstarters funded by kickstarters, sabotaged by evil kickstarters only to be saved in the last hour by super kickstarters.” Who writes this stuff!
CrowdfundingCrowdfunding is fun: helping each other, giving each other something and creating beautiful things together. Crowdfunding is scary: What happens to my money? Will the promises be kept? Supporting a project via Kickstarter is easy and, in all honesty, quite addictive. In the short time that I have been familiar with this crowdfunding website, my enthusiasm has increased by leaps and bounds. The discovery of the aforementioned fraud is proof to me that the crowd is quite capable of regulating itself.
I have already supported quite a few projects and have also contributed to the funding success of Kickstarted: Documenting the Crowdfunding Revolution. I hope that the documentary is a great success and that it makes an important contribution to the worldwide acceptance of crowdfunding as a model for investing in creativity and collaboration. But I can’t help but have a little voice in my head saying: “what if this is also a scam?”
The scam
'KOBE RED – 100% JAPANESE BEER FED KOBE BEEF JERKY' looked as appealing as the Japanese beer meat in reality as a Kickstarter project. The story seemed plausible and it was only the unappealing idea of receiving meat in the mail that kept me from backing the project. The project was otherwise well put together. The goal was simple: “a better refrigerator for the company”.
The rewards were even simpler if possible: a nice piece of meat. The background information was a bit sketchy and the video not entirely professional, but hey, meat farmers are also allowed to have a chance on Kickstarter. All in all, a great set-up and with a low target amount of only $2,374 also feasible. The simple and sympathetic goal and a reward that makes your mouth water, turned out to be a mega success, the goal was reached within a day and would grow to more than 5000% of the original amount in the weeks that followed.
Kickstarted: The Documentary
This image is no longer available.
Meanwhile, elsewhere on Kickstarter, three producers had started their project to make a documentary about the crowdfunding phenomenon. They had already done a number of interviews with people behind successful projects, when they noticed the immense success of Kobe Red Beef. They approached the creators for an interview and that was the start of a mega unmasking in the form of a thriller, with an even bigger thriller in its wake.
The collaboration
Although the makers of the documentary were only interested in the story behind Kobe Red, the scammers had conceived the plan to appear 'big' in the film and had already sent reports about this to their own supporters. They would have hired a filmmaker to document their success story. This resulted in a further increase in support for the fraudulent project. The producers thought differently and made it clear that there was no certainty about Kobe Red's ultimate contribution to the film.
Kobe Red
The unmasking
Over time, there was increasing uncertainty about Kobe Red's good intentions. Critical questions from backers were met with fierce responses from so-called independent supporters. These independent accounts turned out to be fake and directly linked to the Kobe Red scammers. Kickstarter got wind of the fraud and after repeated requests from concerned users and the attention given to it by the producers of the documentary, Kickstarter decided to kill the Kobe Red project, just an hour before the deadline had passed.
Accept cookies
The story has a tail
The filmmakers had come up with their own rewards for their supporters to help them reach their $85,000 goal. In addition to the usual digital downloads and behind-the-scenes goodies for the lower tiers and extra special goodies for the middle group, these included “be in the movie,” co-executive producer credits, and executive producer credits for those willing to put in amounts between $1,500 and $10,000.
This is how it happened that three Kobe Red scammers all got in at the highest level, causing the film project to suddenly go over its target the day before the deadline. But scammers are scammers and they backed out of their pledges , leaving the film almost $30,000 short with just over 24 hours to go (it is not possible to back out or reduce your pledge in the last 24 hours).
A real thriller
The final funding round for the film was extremely exciting, it is thailand mobile phone number list almost inevitable that the project will get a spot in the documentary. Only in the very last minutes did they pass the $85,000 mark, thanks to the 839 'backers' who gave the maximum of their own financial support. Or as someone says in a comment:
Best kickstarter ever. “A kickstarter to make a film about kickstarters funded by kickstarters, sabotaged by evil kickstarters only to be saved in the last hour by super kickstarters.” Who writes this stuff!
CrowdfundingCrowdfunding is fun: helping each other, giving each other something and creating beautiful things together. Crowdfunding is scary: What happens to my money? Will the promises be kept? Supporting a project via Kickstarter is easy and, in all honesty, quite addictive. In the short time that I have been familiar with this crowdfunding website, my enthusiasm has increased by leaps and bounds. The discovery of the aforementioned fraud is proof to me that the crowd is quite capable of regulating itself.
I have already supported quite a few projects and have also contributed to the funding success of Kickstarted: Documenting the Crowdfunding Revolution. I hope that the documentary is a great success and that it makes an important contribution to the worldwide acceptance of crowdfunding as a model for investing in creativity and collaboration. But I can’t help but have a little voice in my head saying: “what if this is also a scam?”