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A Swede who created a $400K Indiegogo-scam
- tapland 8y agoSSE Student? One of the two SSE-programs is arguably the hardest program to get into in Sweden. Sometimes the Karolinska medical school has a higher entry requirement. Graduating from there usually means you are set and don't need to scam anyone for a _very_ comfortable life.
- janesvilleseo 8y agoSometimes people don’t steal because they need to, but because they want to. It’s a puzzle, it’s a rush, it’s fun, and for some it’s their hobby.
- gahahaha 8y agoMaybe he cheated to get in?
- draugadrotten 8y ago> Graduating Yeah, that.
- duxup 8y agoVery comfortable might be nice.... but it sounds like this person got away without having to work and pulling in 400k and 800k in what were possibly laundered money. That seems like what might be a more attractive thing to do / better pay off, without a lot of work.
- danso 8y agoOne could say similar things about Stanford, and yet Theranos was created by a Stanford dropout.
- reviseddamage 8y agoOpportunity, Rationalization and Motivation, but never explicitly Profit.
- abc-xyz 8y agohttps://outline.com/xxPp9N https://outline.com/xxPp9N
- raesene9 8y agoAnother one in the long line of either over-promised or outright scams on Kickstarter/Indiegogo. The oldest one I saw got almost this much funding and that was back in 2012! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zioneyez/eyeztm-by-zioneyez-hd-video-recording-glasses-for https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/zioneyez/eyeztm-by-zion... Every time one of these projects fails to deliver, I'd guess that another set of people get put off crowdfunding. Personally my approach has been never to back a project by a first time creator, unless I already know their work from elsewhere, doubly so if it's for a physical product.
- estomagordo 8y agoWaiting to pay for a product until it actually exists won't kill you.
- whatshisface 8y agoIt will, metaphorically, if a lack of funding will kill the product (or prevent it from ever being made). Crowdfunding is a financing option, complete with the part where the financiers are exposed to risk.
- estomagordo 8y agoIt's a rubbish financing option. The financers on average don't seem very good at comparing their little upside to the risk they're taking.
- jacobush 8y agoThe ones I hear talking about their sponsoring, is that they know full well. I hear phrasing such as "shooting some money their way in case they succeed" and "it's an interesting project, let's hope for the best".
- estomagordo 8y agoIt's pretty damn stupid, know it or not.
- Mtinie 8y agoWhy? It’s effectively a patronage; a model which has been used to bankroll artists, pet projects, and a number of risky ideas throughout history.
- estomagordo 8y agoIt's effectively investment, but without any of the benefits.
- jaggs 8y agoI wonder if he's the same Swede behind this attempted scam - http://www.redferret.net/?p=55945 http://www.redferret.net/?p=55945
- andrewjrhill 8y ago> and raised in total $800.000 million from approximately 5,000 backers from around the world. I assume this is a typo? Or did a blanket raise almost a billion dollars?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- homarp 8y agohttps://www.kickstarter.com/projects/322231573/zen-blanket-the-blanket-for-better-sleep https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/322231573/zen-blanket-t... ==> SEK 4,149,969 or $460,4330 USD https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zen-blanket-the-blanket-for-better-sleep#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/zen-blanket-the-blanket-f... ==>$806,268 so in total $1,266,728
- juanuys 8y agoYou might have a typo: 460,4330?
- erikb 8y agoIf it was "moved" then that might mean the $460k are included in the $806k. Don't ask me how that "moving" could be done, but they explicitely said "move" and explicitely said that it collected $800k altogether. That would be surprising if it actually made the sum of both.
- benrapscallion 8y agoAn article this long, and no mention of who it is? Feels strange to read this detailed investigation into the identity of “he who must not be named”, when the whole point of the article is the identity of the person.
- lb1lf 8y ago-Norwegian here - the Scandinavian countries in general have _very_ strong laws protecting the privacy of all citizens. A consequence of this is that defendants in criminal cases are very rarely named by the media until convicted, if even then.
- estomagordo 8y agoIn Sweden, this is not a consequence of any law, but by common journalistic practices. Media are protected by constitutional writings that extend very far in terms of the sender's rights to publish. However, Swedish media also has a long tradition of keeping themselves to de facto standards when it comes to things such as identifying individuals. It would have been _very_ weird to see this person named on Breakit.
- pnongrata 8y agoEspecially since no real link has been made between both companies and the student. You can't even affirm that the IGG campaign was indeed a scam or just an utter failure.
- TazeTSchnitzel 8y agoAt the same time, the law means that everyone's address in Sweden is public and published by various private companies online. The Scandinavian concept of privacy is… interesting.
- estomagordo 8y agoYeah. It's pretty useful sometimes to know how to find people and things.
- m_eiman 8y agoIf you find the concept interesting, the same type of thing is available today at a lower price from e.g. https://curaofsweden.com/produkt/cura-pearl/ https://curaofsweden.com/produkt/cura-pearl/ - no need to risk a Kickstarter order and delays.
- stef25 8y agoAren't these platforms meant to protect against this kind of scam?
- michaelt 8y agoAccording to the FAQ question "Can Kickstarter refund the money if a project is unable to fulfill?" the answer is no. [1] https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005048173-Can-Kickstarter-refund-the-money-if-a-project-is-unable-to-fulfill- https://help.kickstarter.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005048173-...
- erikb 8y agoHow can you protect against such kind of scam on such kind of platform? An airplane can reduce the risk of falling down, but if you want to be protected(!) against falling down from the sky you shouldn't enter a big piece of metal that lifts off from the ground.
- w1nst0nsm1th 8y agoEntering a piece of metal that can uplift you is a calculated and well-known statistical risk you can evaluate if it worth being taken for the service it provide. Indiegogo seems to not have such statistical intelligence.
- number_six 8y agosending cash, to someone who can't at this time provide you the product you want to buy, and who makes no bones about not providing you with any assurances that they ever will is a calculated (and easily avoided) risk. You can evaluate if it is worth being taken for the product you may or may-not ever receive. The fact that a house-fly already has the statistical intelligence for funding Indiegogo projects doesn't mean that there isn't any
- Grue3 8y agoAlmost everything on indiegogo is a scam. Kickstarter is slightly better.
- baybal2 8y agoIndiegogo and Kickstarter are doing a very bad job at screening applicants. At least something obviously physically impossible should've been cancelled. They are burning their credit of trust.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- 1024core 8y agoIndieGoGo is a haven for scammers. They have absolutely no interest in protecting you. Even if you point out that the scammer is actively scamming currently, they won't do anything.
- interesthrow2 8y ago> IndieGoGo is a haven for scammers. They have absolutely no interest in protecting you. Even if you point out that the scammer is actively scamming currently, they won't do anything. They actually do protect their backers better than Kickstarter sometimes: this ongoing scam on Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stillalive/polygons-the-flat-4-in-1-measuring-spoon/comments https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/stillalive/polygons-the... the same project was actually closed by Indiegogo as the creator is a notorious scammer: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/polygons-the-flat-4-in-1-measuring-spoon-cool-design--3#/ https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/polygons-the-flat-4-in-1-... Kickstater doesn't protect anybody at all. Kickstarter doesn't get involved in anyway after funds change hands and they take their cut.
- squidbot 8y agoIt's a shame that's a scam, it's actually kind of a cool idea.
- izzydata 8y agoCrowd-funding is a scammers dream come true in general. Never "donate" money unless you are ok with the possibility of never getting anything in return.
- CosmicShadow 8y agoIndiegogo in particular is super sketchy, I did a campaign with them and they had an employee there contacting me and telling me all the shady stuff they can do to help me be successful and if that I can guarantee I'll raise x amount they'll do all these extra things like put it on the front page and in the newsletter and whatnot. They let you extend campaigns forever if you arne't about to hit your goal so you can keep saying "ending soon", then if you do hit your goal, instead of ending, they will let you keep it open to ride the momentum of that, or they will then let you up (or down) the goal and change the date so you can keep catching people who want to just be able to get it, or who want to pile on to a super successful project whose goal is now 1/10 of the original so it looks even more legit. You can also back your own stuff anonymously for as high as you want, so often you'll see campaigns with like $1MM and only like 20 backers and most are anonymous or not listed and you know obviously 20 people couldn't have legitimately backed for that much. I can't recall a lot of the other stuff you could get away with, including have no proof of concepts and just using renders and being fully funded already and such, but I had to unsubscribe from their emails it was so disgusting. You can tell if you look at their site overtime which kinds of things just stay up forever or how they instantly are over the goal and whatnot. One item stayed up for like 8 months, constantly over the goal.
- talltimtom 8y ago“all the shady stuff ... things like put it on the front page and in the newsletter and whatnot.” I really don’t get how you could consider them helping to promote popular campaigns shady. I mean it’s the very point of the entire platform, and how both they and their users and the backers of projects gain value.
- joshstrange 8y agoNever pledge on indiegogo, it's for scammers only. Kickstarter (for all it's warts) requires a working prototype to post on their site. IGG requires no such proof that you aren't selling vaporware. Also IGG shows total pledge numbers from IGG PLUS Kickstarter (and potentially other crowdfunding sites you might post to) so that their numbers look bigger. Stop, Drop, & Retro has some really good YouTube videos calling out IGG/KS campaigns (focused on the retro gaming scene) and he does a decent job breaking it all down.
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- gnicholas 8y ago> Kickstarter (for all it's warts) requires a working prototype to post on their site What do you mean by "working prototype"? I ran a successful software Kickstarter last year and all we had going in was a mockup (created in Keynote) of what the app would look like. I expected that it would take hours/days after I "submitted for review" for the campaign to be approved, but it was instantaneously approved and went live.
- joshstrange 8y agoI'm sorry, it apparently only applies to when the project is going to ship a physical item. https://www.kickstarter.com/rules/prototypes https://www.kickstarter.com/rules/prototypes
- FullyFunctional 8y agoClaiming either is great, but I have been scammed more on KS than Indigogo. Today I super weary of both, but I have and will back projects by people who I know or whose reputation I know though other channels. (OLKB, TinyFPGA, etc).
- interesthrow2 8y agoThese campaign would never be successful without the copywriters on popular digital media promoting them because they are content farms looking for cheap "news". Wired, CNET, and all these prominent outlets, when was the last time they issued a follow up when something turned out to be a scam? when did they ever put a disclaimer about the risk of crowdfunding in their article? and let's not even talk about the fact that they don't even state clearly that the product doesn't exist and they never even tried it. Without shills, scams can't be successful, they are the shills, literally by the definition of that word.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 8y agoWhat I've gathered from my own and others experiences: Just avoid Indiegogo and Kickstarter and buy the inevitable Chinese knockoffs if the item is successful. With this possibly unethical method, you might even get the item before the pledgees.
- Pica_soO 8y agoStupid-tax, it exists. If you demand protection by the law against being taken advantage of, the law should strip you on a gradient of your rights & obligations as a adult for the return of your "investments". Somebody who is not capable to evaluate a product and believes in magic, shouldn't have the guardians right to decide against vaccination for their kids.
- snowplay 8y agoUnfortunately, back in 2014, I contributed to an Indiegogo campaign for DreamQii PlexiDrone 8 blade drone. Still not shipping. Almost shipping for the last two years. A costly lesson.
- snowplay 8y agoUnfortunately, back in 2014, I contributed to an Indiegogo campaign for DreamQii PlexiDrone 8 blade drone. It has not shipped, though they've been in a state of almost shipping for about two years. Lesson learned. DreamQii raised over US$2.2 million.
- robertpohl 8y agoHelp me understand why the consumer protection is not used here? In order to do card payments the merchant (IGG) need to be able to refund. It they cannot, the acquirer must do so. Anyways, one of the purposes of Visa and MasterCard is protection from these scams. If you don't get 100% of what you bought, you can get refunded by the card issuer, which will collect acquirer/merchant.
- chenster 8y agoMaybe because the consumers are investing in a future product. It is not the same as buying directly online from ECommerce store like Amazon. Investing implies risk. The consumers can probably still get a refund for fraudulent charges from CC.
- Supersaiyan_IV 8y agoBut when Canonical's Ubuntu Phone didn't meet its pledge people goal on Indiegogo people got their money back? How did this even happen? Not that this individual isn't to blame.
- AnnoyingSwede 8y agoI bought a product from Aliexpress (12 euro IoT wifi relay) which i later found in the exact same name and package on kickstarter for around 20 euros. I contacted kickstarter, who quite abruptly removed the kickstarter. If their only intentions were faul they would have let it be, but they actually did the right thing in this case. Just offering another perspective of their work.
- huxflux 8y agoBig Mike, we are coming for you.