Credit: Smarty Ring/IndieGoGo
Crowd funding has had some spectacular sucesses, but it has a darker side too.
A device called Smarty Ring, for which funding ended in December 2013, was still attracting vitriolic comments from unhappy backers on IndieGoGo, just days ago:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smarty-ring--3/x/9010251#/story
Reddit too:
https://www.reddit.com/r/smartyscam/comments/3fu76v/the_smarty_ring_scam/
Well, if you had the good fortune to miss out on throwing your money away on that thing, you may also have missed out again on an essentially identical campaign which ended in March 2014. Nothing appears to have changed, including the promises, & the IndieGoGo page address differs by only one character. Only good news: less than half as much funding raised the second time:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smarty-ring--4/x/9010251#/story
What can we learn from this?
1. When you back a crowd-funded project on Kickstarter, IndieGoGo or anywhere else, you are not purchasing a product. Typically, you are funding its development &/or production. This is why you are referred to as a "backer", or "supporter", & anything you receive for your "support" is called a "perk", or a "reward", rather than a "purchase".
2. Any rights you would normally have as a consumer purchasing a product online are probably not applicable.
3. Even if consumer rights, or other means of legal recourse, are applicable where you live, they may not be applicable, or practical to enforce, if the project creator lives in another country.
4. Projects which have gone bad have caused crowd funding sites to recognise that they are not able to guarantee the safety of supporter's funds & any undertakings they may have given in the past have been removed from their websites.
5. When you back a crowd funded project you are taking a gamble on the honesty & competence of the project creator. Although there have been some spectacular successes, such as the Pebble smart watches, there have also been a range off lesser successes down to non-delivery of product.
How can you protect yourself?
1. If it's too good to be true, it probably is.
2. If you are interested in a project, check for:
● similar products on group funding sites — sometimes a failed project will re-appear on a different crowd-funder, or even the same one, with, or without, a name change — plus some projects have many competitors, some of which may suit you better — just check the number of wallets & watches
● other projects by the same project creator — were they successful?
● projects which are identical down to name, branding, & project description as in the Smarty Ring projects
● reviews of a prototype on recognized tech websites
3. Don't allow yourself be influenced by, "it will be $x more expensive after the project ends". Much better to pay 10% more for a product after all of the bugs have been worked out & it enters conventional production, than to lose 100% of a contribution as a backer. / crowdfunding finance crowd funding crowdfunding research development design designer develop engineer engineering fraud scam con lie lies scamming funding campaign Kobe Red Japanese beer fed jerky creator creator’s names sloppy sideshow generic stock images photos footage project founders didn’t sound right sounded weird fraud scam criminal /
