<story><title>FTC goes after board game campaign gone wrong in first crowdfunding case</title><url>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/06/11/the-ftcs-first-crowdfunding-enforcement-is-over-a-failed-board-game-on-kickstarter/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sageabilly</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m curious why the FTC went after this particular Kickstarter. Was it seen as an &amp;quot;easy win&amp;quot; so the FTC could test the waters of going after other Kickstarter scammers? Will this expand outwards to include other crowdfunding sites as well?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m always amazed by how quickly some of the popular Kickstarters are overfunded- like the one recently that was basically a complete rip off of Google&amp;#x27;s Project Ara. Why would someone invest in that? Why would anyone even begin to think that a small no-name company could possibly pull off something like that? &lt;i&gt;Why would someone give them money?&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aaggarwal</author><text>These projects on Kickstarter or Indiegogo platforms quickly gets overfunded because of the huge amounts coming to the projects from shady sources. If you would look at the backers of some of these projects, you will see a lot of big anonymous backings. I have even come across some agencies who will take money from the owners of these projects and put them back with multiple fake accounts to make it seem legit. This is why, even some of the hardware projects asks for a little money like 10,000$, when it is clear that hardware production involves high costs. After quickly getting overfunded, these companies takes advantage of PR and tech articles on popular blogs such as techcrunch, wired, and finally end up attracting a few good-natured tech enthusiasts who get deceived. Some of the projects on these platforms are extremely vague with no prototypes, but still are made to be successfully funded. It is great that finally they will be accountable.</text></comment>
<story><title>FTC goes after board game campaign gone wrong in first crowdfunding case</title><url>http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-switch/wp/2015/06/11/the-ftcs-first-crowdfunding-enforcement-is-over-a-failed-board-game-on-kickstarter/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>sageabilly</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m curious why the FTC went after this particular Kickstarter. Was it seen as an &amp;quot;easy win&amp;quot; so the FTC could test the waters of going after other Kickstarter scammers? Will this expand outwards to include other crowdfunding sites as well?&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m always amazed by how quickly some of the popular Kickstarters are overfunded- like the one recently that was basically a complete rip off of Google&amp;#x27;s Project Ara. Why would someone invest in that? Why would anyone even begin to think that a small no-name company could possibly pull off something like that? &lt;i&gt;Why would someone give them money?&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>smackfu</author><text>It seems like there was actual fraud in this case, where he wasn&amp;#x27;t spending the money from the Kickstarter on the project.</text></comment>