[vasco]

I've been wondering for a while how long it would take for mass fake projects being created on kickstarter/indiegogo once these sites got more widely known. This project uses stolen pictures, but one could easily mock up random 3D scenes, make a cool video and walk away with 100k for two days work

[lotu]

It would have taken a lot more than some 3D mock ups to make this project believable. First he'd have to fix a bunch of stupid mistakes like leaving Activation/Blizzard (they are two separate groups that are just own by the same company), and claiming to be working with Disney (what happens when someone at Disney asks who this idiot claiming to be associated with them is.) Probably, most damming though was his claim to already have funding for a AAA title but still needing an extra $80K overall the numbers just don't add up. This is a really tight spot if he asks for too much money it is more likely funding will fail or that people will investigate his claims. Too little money and he doesn't sound credible.

Second the game concept was incredibly vague about a game that was supposedly already in production. Making big vague promises should always be a warning sign of scam. Conversely when Double Fine did their campaign it was okay that gave gave no details about the game because, 1 it hadn't been started yet, 2 they actually explicitly stated that the game might suck. Coming up with a real good detailed game concept is actually pretty hard.

Next the studio and team wer never shown. Instead you see one young guy sitting at a desk in a poorly lit room with no windows, and a laptop running some stupid animation on it. In other videos we walked though real offices with real people with names, and real workstations that actually look like they are in use.

These last two are going to be very difficult to fake as they require a reputation, accomplices, and money, which scam artists tend to lack. Not to say scams are impossible but I think they are going to be harding then people think.

[rickmb]

I think you'll find the "walk away" part is not that simple, considering the fact that it would constitute a crime. The kind of crime law enforcement is quite familiar with and that leaves plenty of traceable evidence because it involves financial transactions.

I'm sure there will someday be someone clever enough to get away with it, but most people are likely to get caught very quickly.

[jonny_eh]

While I agree it would be a crime, how hard would it be to enforce? Can't the perps just claim some lame excuse for why they didn't execute on their stated plan?

[lotu]

A lame excuse isn't going to hold up in court. Imagine you raised $100K to make some cool gizmo but instead buy your self a sports car, the fact that you never had any intent to even try to make the product is going to be really obvious. If you actually spent enough of the money raised on the project to convive a judge that you weren't running a scam, then you not going to have enough left over to really be considered a scam.

[lifeisstillgood]

That rather depends on who you pay and how convincing their invoices look.

20 folks on here could create a convincing Eco system of sub contractors and out sourcers - spend 20k on equipment and rest on salaries, you can spend most of yourdays on the yc startup subsidised by the game income

or is that sounding like actual work?

[incongruity]

Anywhere there's money flowing, scammers will appear... clearly, this sort of problem is going to be a growing pain for Kickstarter and the whole crowd-funding idea. It's certainly not insurmountable, but it's an issue that isn't well handled/prevented now, as far as I see it.