Creston wrote on May 1, 2012, 15:51:

Beamer wrote on May 1, 2012, 14:40:

Creston wrote on May 1, 2012, 14:18:

Beamer wrote on May 1, 2012, 13:08:
I don't even get why these guys did this much of a scam.

Just discuss an awesome idea, show some concept art, put the figure low by saying you have some personal financing, and get $10k-$20k of free money.
Then say the project fell through. No one can really do anything to prove otherwise, and I don't believe there's any accountability.

It's still fraud, and thus you can still get criminal charges filed against you. So yay for running from the FBI for 20K?

Creston

It isn't entirely fraud. There's no provision in kickstarter that says your product has to come out. The risk is that a product won't come out.
It doesn't sound like a hard system to game. These guys clearly committed fraud by making lots of untrue claims. But if you were to not make those claims, how is it fraud? Let's say you get the $20k and use it to buy some computers and ipads to develop, then the money is gone and you fold the company. What are you accountable for, bad planning? How is it any different from any of the other companies that have had kickstarters, taken the cash and are no longer moving forward with the project?

There's a huge difference between trying to do a project and failing, and obviously from day one never actually intending to do anything and just taking the money and running. Even legally.

The FBI does not take kindly to that latter one. Now whether they'd investigate when the total damages would have been < 5K is doubtful, but risking becoming the target of an investigation for that kind of chump change would be really stupid.

Creston