May 20, 2013 @ 8:13 am By Charles Luzar  |  

A report released last month entitled Equity Crowdfunding and Venture Capital included some interesting revelations regarding what US venture capitalists and lawyers expect from equity crowdfunding. The report surveyed VCs and lawyers based in the states. Questions sought to gauge expectations about the JOBS Act’s trajectory and future effect. Overall, most view equity crowdfunding in a positive… Read More

Read more in: Featured Headlines, General News  |  Tagged fraud, jobs act, pretail, sec, sharewave, vc, venture capital, venture capitalists

May 7, 2013 @ 8:17 am By The Daily Dot  |  

Two indie comic artists received a valuable lesson on the fine art of crowdfunding when a scammer copied their Kickstarter campaign word-for-word to a rival site. And the scammer was a real public relations hustler. “It was actually kind of educational,” Ken Lowery, one of the artists, told Comic Alliance. Lowery and his partner, Robert Wilson… Read More

Read more in: Crowdfunding Portals, Offerings  |  Tagged fraud, indiegogo, kickstarter, scams

April 26, 2013 @ 8:54 pm By BusinessWeeek  |  

The SEC announced a lawsuit on Thursday against a business in Spokane Valley, Wash., accused of defrauding 21 investors of about $400,000. The agency’s news release leads with charges that the company fooled investors “with claims to raise billions of investment capital under the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (JOBS) Act.” The SEC has been criticized… Read More

Read more in: General News, Politics  |  Tagged crowdcheck, fraud, jobs act, sara hanks, sec, usa real estate 1

April 26, 2013 @ 7:25 am By MiBiz  |  

Crowdfunding has the potential to revolutionize how small businesses raise capital, but it generates an old worry: the possibility for fraud. But crowdfunding advocates say not to worry. The public nature of the investing model should help investors quickly identify and put a stop to bad behavior. The social networking aspects of crowdfunding portals enable… Read More

Read more in: General News  |  Tagged crowdsourcing, fraud, transparency

April 25, 2013 @ 3:44 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Alleged promises of huge returns plus access to boats, private jets and more…

Read more in: Featured Headlines, General News  |  Tagged fraud, jobs act, sec

April 24, 2013 @ 5:18 pm By CrowdCheck  |  

The New Year has come and gone and we are done with the first quarter of 2013, and yet we are still without SEC rules to implement crowdfunding as authorized by the JOBS Act.  While some commenters on the SEC JOBS Act comment section have resorted to unproductive heckling of the SEC to get a… Read More

Read more in: General News  |  Tagged crowdcheck, due diligence, fraud, jobs act, sec

April 10, 2013 @ 7:00 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Monday’s conference on crowdfunding fraud and regulation in Washington, DC was an event I had been looking forward to for some time. It didn’t disappoint. Organized by Virginia-based CrowdCheck, the speaking roster of this conference was distinctly and obviously set up to put all sides of the argument around crowdfund investing on stage together. What… Read More

Read more in: Featured Headlines, General News  |  Tagged crowdcheck, debt, equity, fraud, jobs act, lending, sec, washington dc

April 5, 2013 @ 11:54 am By Staff Reports  |  

Crowdfunding due diligence platform Crowdcheck has scheduled a gathering in Washington DC to discuss the possible risks to securities Crowdfunding. The event is featuring keynote speaker US Senator Mark Warner (D – Virginia). Entitled Fraud and Red Tape: Risks to the Potential of Securities Crowdfunding will also include two panel discussions bringing together many of… Read More

Read more in: General News, Strategy  |  Tagged brian knight, crowdcheck, fraud, sara hanks, sec

April 2, 2013 @ 10:51 am By Engadget  |  

The power of crowdfunding is that, by aggregating relatively modest donations from what is often hundreds or even thousands of backers, consumers can help artists and inventors turn ideas or concepts into reality. The Pebble smartwatch that set the record for funds raised on Kickstarter was noteworthy for breaking the $10 million barrier. That money, though, came… Read More

Read more in: General News  |  Tagged fraud, kickstarter, pebble

March 30, 2013 @ 9:52 am By Business Insider  |  

From the original article… In July 2012, Equiso was living the Kickstarter dream. Now it’s in a Kickstarter nightmare. It has legions of unhappy customers, alleged threats from hacking group Anonymous, and a forgotten co-founder who claims to have been unfairly ousted. It’s also being accused of selling a product that is just a rebranded version of something… Read More

Read more in: Offerings  |  Tagged anonymous, equiso, fraud, kickstarter, TV

March 25, 2013 @ 9:00 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Now that the dust has settled regarding the Kickstarter campaign to send a 9 year old girl to “RPG Camp,” I think it is extremely important to reflect on what happened, digest the events and see if there is anything to learn. To allow something like this to pass while writing it off as “just… Read More

Read more in: Featured Headlines, Offerings  |  Tagged crowd justice, crowdsourcing, fraud, kickstarter, susan wilson

March 25, 2013 @ 4:14 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Here is the entirety of the response posted today by Susan Wilson, the woman who launched the project to fund her 9 year old daughter’s trip to RPG STEM camp. Check back tomorrow for our take on the matter. 1. The campaign launched late Thursday evening. Please note AGAIN this campaign was approved by Kickstarter…. Read More

Read more in: Featured Headlines, General News  |  Tagged fraud, fundher, kickstarter, susan wilson

March 25, 2013 @ 5:00 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Yesterday the crowd came up with some of the most compelling due diligence in the short history of crowdfunding. In turn, they surfaced possibilities that may have been overlooked by publications like Business Insider, CNET, The Next Web and more. The story I am referring to is the recent story of a little girl whose… Read More

Read more in: Featured Headlines, Offerings  |  Tagged fraud, fundher, kickstarter, susan wilson

March 1, 2013 @ 5:41 pm By Melissa Canone  |  

With the advent of the internet and social media, a completely new way to invest in business has arisen. Crowdfunding is a method of raising capital in small amounts from a large group of people using the World Wide Web. Unlike funds from venture capitalists or angel investors (also known as a business angel or… Read More

Read more in: General News  |  Tagged fraud, risk

March 1, 2013 @ 5:37 pm By Jennifer Napier-Pearce  |  

Crowdfunding has come to the rescue for hundreds of thousands of startups looking for capital in a tight credit market. Soon, a new dimension to online fundraising, known as equity crowdfunding, will be available to investors, and that has regulators and consumer advocates on edge. Regulations to be released by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) sometime this year… Read More

Read more in: General News  |  Tagged fraud, regulation, sec