Tagged: fraud

March 20, 2014 @ 10:08 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Steve Swink is an Arizona-based game developer and the man behind Scale, a video game that raised over $100,000 on Kickstarter in a round that closed late in 2013. The game looks incredible, by the way. It elicits thoughts of Portal with a bit of… Read More

March 12, 2014 @ 12:22 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

If you want a case study in how a Kickstarter can go horribly wrong, look no further than the campaign for SOAP, a touchscreen home automation router. The campaign is fully funded despite bleeding almost $4,000 since we caught wind of scam allegations surrounding the campaign… Read More

March 9, 2014 @ 12:38 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

The above comment sums up the general tenor surrounding a currently-running Kickstarter campaign for the Soap home automation router. The device’s campaign promises to deliver an Android-based home automation unit that allows the user to control all of his or her at-home digital devices. The… Read More

February 20, 2014 @ 11:38 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Back on February 11th, Lending Club posted an article to the company’s blog discussing online scams. The post is entitled “How to Protect Yourself from Online Scams and Swindles.” In it, Lending Club points out that there are individuals out there using the Lending Club… Read More

December 28, 2013 @ 1:09 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

AARP The Magazine recently ran an article on crowdfunding dealing with the possibilities (and perils) of the evolving means of capital formation. Kickstarter, RocketHub and EarlyShares all get mention in the piece alongside Sherwood Neiss of Crowdfund Capital Advisors. Rockethub’s Alon Hillel-Tuch and EarlyShares’s Heather Schwarz-Lopes… Read More

December 12, 2013 @ 11:42 am By Charles Luzar  |  

The Rock smartwatch was able to garner almost $40,000 in pledges from crowdfunding backers before Kickstarter finally had to pull the plug on the campaign. The run-up to how that happened should strike fear into anyone looking to pull a fast one on the crowd…. Read More

November 30, 2013 @ 1:11 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

The competent operation of the crowdfunding platform or portal is essential for the prevention of fraud in equity crowdfunding. Based on my experience with the ASSOB platform we have learned that it is very unlikely that fraudsters would be bothered jumping through all the hoops… Read More

November 16, 2013 @ 12:41 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

CrowdCheck Blog | Due Diligence: It doesn’t just protect investors Brian Knight of due diligence service provider CrowdCheck built upon a recent Crowdfund Insider article that explored the circumstances surrounding the Luci project on Kickstarter. Here he explains how due diligence can protect issuers and investors in crowdfunded… Read More

November 13, 2013 @ 11:03 am By Charles Luzar  |  

The same individual backed over 150 projects. We have been in communication with a number of project owners, all of whom have been duped out of money by this scammer. This scam has been going on for months; one project backer lost over $5000, and… Read More

November 12, 2013 @ 10:05 am By JD Alois  |  

With only a few days left to go in this crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter, LUCI, Advanced Lucid Dream Inducer was cancelled after having raised $363,302 on a goal of just $40,000.  Funds raised had reportedly broken the $400,000 mark but as allegations of fraud started… Read More

November 9, 2013 @ 12:38 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Pledge a huge amount of money. Secure the promise of an awesome reward. Wait for the rewards to ship. File a dispute with Amazon Payments. Get your money back. It is a simple scam, and it may have worked for one “Encik Farhan” to the… Read More

October 17, 2013 @ 4:01 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Under the direction of Ohio Division of Securities Commissioner Andrea Seidt, the NASAA has recently released an updated list of their top investor threats for 2013. Among them: “unregulated third party service providers,” a category that would include crowdfunding portals. Seidt explained the reason for… Read More

October 17, 2013 @ 3:47 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

SoMoLend and the Ohio Division of Securities have been on a crash course since a notice of intent to issue a cease and desist was filed back in August of 2013. The hearing, originally scheduled for this week, has been postponed until January according to… Read More

October 9, 2013 @ 9:50 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

In the wake of legalized general solicitation under Rule 506(c), some media outlets, individuals and pundits have shared information that is not accurate. See this infographic as an example, which appeared on Forbes. That isn’t to pick on Forbes or the creators of that infographic…. Read More

September 10, 2013 @ 9:36 am By Brian Knight  |  

With the recent confirmation of Mary Jo White as Chairman of the SEC and Kara Stein, and Michael Piwowar as SEC Commissioners, the leadership of the SEC is undergoing significant changes that will affect public policy for years to come. It has been argued that… Read More

August 19, 2013 @ 9:35 am By Charles Luzar  |  

A small, albeit interesting, Monday morning blurb: Neil Singh is now an Assistant Attorney General for the State of Arizona, defending the state against civil lawsuits in state and federal courts. Who is Neil Singh? He took the crowdfunding world by storm after pursuing legal… Read More

August 18, 2013 @ 7:28 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Cincinnati, Ohio ABC affiliate WCPO recently did a report on Candace Klein and SoMoLend. Included in the report was an interview with Ian Edwards, who identified himself as an investor in SoMoLend and a former VP at Proctor & Gamble. He says that Klein may… Read More

August 16, 2013 @ 11:03 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Candace Klein has stepped down as CEO of SoMoLend. Klein was recently the subject of a notice from the Ohio Division of Securities in relation to fundraising efforts and business dealings on behalf of lending-based crowdfunding platform SoMoLend. Klein says that her decision was made because… Read More

August 15, 2013 @ 1:49 pm By Charles Luzar  |  

Massachusetts Secretary of State William Galvin has taken a public stance on general solicitation, citing it as a risk to potential investors. This is at least in part the reason behind his launching a task force aimed at policing crowdfunding platforms, offerings and their issuers…. Read More

August 14, 2013 @ 9:33 am By Charles Luzar  |  

Allegations by the Ohio Division of Securities reverberate through the entrepreneurial class & the crowdfunding industry Candace Klein has been an extremely visible figure in the world of crowdfunding. Beyond her role as CEO of lending-based platform SoMoLend, she is also the former chair and… Read More