I don't think a patent would have helped here. Patents take years to be granted (if they are granted), around $7-$10k to file unless you're experienced in writi

I don't think a patent would have helped here. Patents take years to be granted (if they are granted), around $7-$10k to file unless you're experienced in writing them, and then you would be attempting to sue internationally against a country which doesn't recognize your patent. Kickstarter might be able to do better with user risk education, I'm not familiar with their onboarding enough to know what they do. In this specific case, I think it's mostly on the entrepreneur to recognize the tradeoffs when using a low cost service in a country where the rule of law is weaker or enforced in ways you don't understand. Sometimes, despite that research, you still get ripped off. What happened, if true, is unfortunate. Hopefully publicized cases like these will lead prototypers to make better decisions.