Crowdfunding scams

[Anaxagoras]

If some awesome new technology sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And if they have a crowdfunding page, well, caveat emptor.

Latest case in point:
Underwater Breathing Device Has $820,000 Of Funding Despite Being Scientifically Impossible

Would be cool if real, but appears to be nothing more than a scam or extremely wishful thinking.

Triton not. Dive, or dive not, there is no Triton.

It does look a lot like the devices the Jedis used on Naboo to breathe underwater.

[Anaxagoras]

Actually, it looks like they have less funding now than before. I did notice some comments from people asking for refunds.

It is possible to get your money back from indiegogo if the money hasn't been transferred yet:
https://support.indiegogo.com/hc/en-us/ ... oney-back-

[Anaxagoras]

More suckers:

Crowdfunding disaster: Silicon Valley startup takes customers’ money, shuts down

Kanoa won’t ship its $300 earphones to customers who pre-ordered them

First of all, $300 for ear buds? Wireless ear buds, but still. 300 beans.

A Bay Area startup that promised to give music lovers state-of-the-art wireless earphones is instead closing its doors, becoming the latest in a string of crowd-funded companies to take customers’ money and shut down without shipping a product.

San Francisco-based Kanoa ran out of capital and shut down this week, leaving in the lurch scores of customers who paid $150 or more to pre-order high-tech earphones they never received. The company emailed customers on Wednesday to break the bad news, directing them to a letter posted on the Kanoa website.

“This is not the outcome we had foreseen, and with the quick turn of events, we are emotionally overwhelmed,” the company’s website stated. “We know you are disappointed, and can only ask that you understand that we genuinely tried.”

Well, as long as they "genuinely tried." :roll:

[Nyarlathotep]

I must be lucky in that I participate in a lot of Kickstarters (usually for gaming stuff), and have been ripped off exactly zero times. Had a couple of things very late but never had it not come through. In one case the guy running the kickstarter actually died in mid development and the guy's estate refunded everyone's money.

Of course, I suppose the difference is that games are different than some of these gadgets is that games rarely make promises that are scientifically impossible. You can deliver with a crappy game and still legitimately say you kept up your end of things. Because 'Crappy game' is subjective. When you promise more than you can deliver with technology, its a lot more cut and dry.

[Pyrrho]

So apparently some kid's mom recorded a video of him crying about being bullied at school by black kids, posted it on Facebook, somehow it "went viral," tons of folks and celebrities jumped on the bandwagon to befriend him and offer him goodies and trips, a couple of crowdfunding efforts have netted about $60k, and now it turns out that allegedly the kid's family is racist, complete with Confederate flags, and supposedly the black kids had been challenging him for using the "N" word, and now hilarity is ensuing on Twitter.

I would link to it but what for? Just another day on the Internet.

[Doctor X]

That is so awesome.

--J.D.

[Doctor X]

Not Read by Any of the People

--J.D.