I think a lot of people who invest in Kickstarter overlook the fact they are not buying a product but providing financial backing to set up or grow a company that is developing a product. Like any investment it's an inherently risky business and you can expect to lose money occasionally. I knew this from the start so giving them my money and getting nothing back was somewhat unsurprising.The real problem and my justification for a one star review is the fact that Kickstarter have no credible mechanisms for preventing fraud or verifying businesses are credible. Just about anyone can advertise themselves on Kickstarter as a business, take backers money, spend it and disappear. Kickstarter are utterly ineffective at a) recognising fraudulent companies in the first place; and b) doing anything about them once they've been identified. So when you back someone you have literally no way of knowing whether they are a crook or a proper business.I backed a company that I'd already purchased products from on their website and I was a happy customer. I wasn't aware that when I backed them on Kickstarter they had filed for bankruptcy. Unsurprisingly they spent all the backers money paying off debtors and never produced the product. It's unbelievably inept of Kickstarter not to have noticed that the company was bankrupt. And completely lacking in moral integrity of them to offer no assistance whatsoever afterwards. They protect their 'customer' who is the fraudster. It's frankly unbelievable that a company like this is able to operate in the 21st century. Their business practices bring in the dark ages.
