Kickstarter user Encick Farhan was banned after he made false contributions to claim backer rewards.
In some ways, Kickstarter could be seen as one of the niftiest developments in altruism to occur in recent years. Just think about it, the entire site operates on the idea of people giving their money to strangers out of the hope that said person they’ve (probably) never met will be able to complete some fantasy project. There’s no guarantee of success and, unless you count backer rewards, no profit for contributors. Even so, people still show up in droves to help fund the dreams of others. It’s a surefire recipe for the warm-and-fuzzies.
Alas, as with all good things, the ever-present jerky nature of people just had to go and rear its ugly head. More specifically, a Kickstarter user going by the moniker of Encick Farhan, has apparently been scamming projects by donating large sums of money and then cancelling the charges through his credit company once he’d received a receipt guaranteeing his backer rewards. His swindling has left many in a funding shortfall that has been difficult for tightly budgeted projects to recover from. “Losing $1,000 will ruin me if the credit card company sides with Encik Farhan,” said Alex Heberling, a cartoonist that fell victim to Farhan’s scam.
While this kind of deception isn’t new on the internet, its occurrence on Kickstarter could raise some issues for the website, in no small part because its users arguably need to be able to trust that their contributions and projects won’t be derailed by con artists. Recognizing this, the website has taken the Encick Farhan incident quite seriously, banning his account and working with Amazon Payments to investigate the situation. “We won’t let a single bad apple harm the integrity or goodwill of our incredible community,” said the site.
Source: The Verge
Published: Nov 11, 2013 01:40 pm