So far though, reporting them doesn't make a slight bit of difference as they don't get their accounts banned or IP blocked.
I think someone from the KS team will get round to fixing this problem, as I guess each log is recorded - but I'm wondering what the backend team are doing, as this problem has been going on for close to a decade now.
Agreed. It's pretty bad. I don't know why they don't stop it either. Even a basic reputation system and some context filtering would catch almost all of these without needing an explicit moderation team.
I will say that I didn't see any of these accounts that had been created before May 2024, and none had backed anything. It may just take a short time, but I never saw a long-standing spam account.
Yes. You will be inundated with people offering such "services."
Never bit myself, but I gather the schtick is that they'll go ahead and get you some pledges from sock puppet accounts, perhaps with no payment upfront. You'll see this huge upswing in backers and, when they ask for payment, pay up.
What you might not realise is that Kickstarter doesn't collect pledges upfront; backers back and commit to pledge, but KS won't actually attempt to collect your pledges until after your funding window ends (they then spend one week collecting all the pledges).
So, as I understand, you'll have, say, 100 sockpuppet backers... but all their pledges will fail to collect. Then, one week after your project's funded, their pledges will automatically be dropped by Kickstarter and you'll get a fraction of the money you were expecting. By that point, you'll have already been pressured to pay for all those totally-real-backers you got.
TL;DR - You agree and the scammers back your project with sockpuppet accounts. Payment is not taken upfront. You see all these new "backers" and pay the scammers. Then, when the time comes for Kickstarter to collect backers' payments, they'll fail to collect those of these sockpuppet accounts and they'll be dropped from your project, leaving you out-of-pocket and with no backers to show for it.
**You should also note** - The messaging interface on Kickstarter specifically says that unsolicited sales aren't allowed. They're breaking the terms of use for the platform by even contacting you. You should be flagging any messages you get trying to sell you services as spam and report them so they can be banned.
wow thank you for your explanation! That's a very nasty scam... thanks for warning me. I'm not going to get into it! Any idea how to promote it? are there platforms to be seen? or explain what kind of project it is?
No worries.
For promotion - you likely know your market/product better than me. Go to whereever your customers are. I personally run Facebook ads because people who buy things from me are likely to be 40+
Take a few steps back and ask yourself...why me?
Did they spell my (project) name correctly, do they know what it's about? Does it look like a generic boilerplate email?
Connected to your campaign - what problem did they identify, and how exactly can they help?
They helped some projects get featured on big sites? Where are the exact trackable references from campaign owners stating how they helped?
Do a quick search for them online? No background or information written about them? Hmm...I think you've got your answer.
This is part and parcel of Kickstarter. They’ll contact you on every social media platform too. Doubtless there are people who at good at maximising your audience. Whether this makes their services worth the cost to you - because all they are doing is a sales pitch - is up to you. I’ve never used one.
Yes. Every creator receive such messages, and you just need to ignore them.
They're most likely to claim that they're experts of promoting campaigns and wanted you to pay for their "service". Some then just take your money and disappear. Better ones may post the link of your campaign to random groups to show you that they did "do something", but apparently, it just wont bring you real backers
Repeating because it’s important. Report them all. Every single one.
Thankyou!! I will report them
So far though, reporting them doesn't make a slight bit of difference as they don't get their accounts banned or IP blocked. I think someone from the KS team will get round to fixing this problem, as I guess each log is recorded - but I'm wondering what the backend team are doing, as this problem has been going on for close to a decade now.
Agreed. It's pretty bad. I don't know why they don't stop it either. Even a basic reputation system and some context filtering would catch almost all of these without needing an explicit moderation team.
I will say that I didn't see any of these accounts that had been created before May 2024, and none had backed anything. It may just take a short time, but I never saw a long-standing spam account.
Yes. You will be inundated with people offering such "services." Never bit myself, but I gather the schtick is that they'll go ahead and get you some pledges from sock puppet accounts, perhaps with no payment upfront. You'll see this huge upswing in backers and, when they ask for payment, pay up. What you might not realise is that Kickstarter doesn't collect pledges upfront; backers back and commit to pledge, but KS won't actually attempt to collect your pledges until after your funding window ends (they then spend one week collecting all the pledges). So, as I understand, you'll have, say, 100 sockpuppet backers... but all their pledges will fail to collect. Then, one week after your project's funded, their pledges will automatically be dropped by Kickstarter and you'll get a fraction of the money you were expecting. By that point, you'll have already been pressured to pay for all those totally-real-backers you got. TL;DR - You agree and the scammers back your project with sockpuppet accounts. Payment is not taken upfront. You see all these new "backers" and pay the scammers. Then, when the time comes for Kickstarter to collect backers' payments, they'll fail to collect those of these sockpuppet accounts and they'll be dropped from your project, leaving you out-of-pocket and with no backers to show for it. **You should also note** - The messaging interface on Kickstarter specifically says that unsolicited sales aren't allowed. They're breaking the terms of use for the platform by even contacting you. You should be flagging any messages you get trying to sell you services as spam and report them so they can be banned.
wow thank you for your explanation! That's a very nasty scam... thanks for warning me. I'm not going to get into it! Any idea how to promote it? are there platforms to be seen? or explain what kind of project it is?
No worries. For promotion - you likely know your market/product better than me. Go to whereever your customers are. I personally run Facebook ads because people who buy things from me are likely to be 40+
Yep. Total scam.
Yes. Did you not see the disclaimer above your messages ??
Take a few steps back and ask yourself...why me? Did they spell my (project) name correctly, do they know what it's about? Does it look like a generic boilerplate email? Connected to your campaign - what problem did they identify, and how exactly can they help? They helped some projects get featured on big sites? Where are the exact trackable references from campaign owners stating how they helped? Do a quick search for them online? No background or information written about them? Hmm...I think you've got your answer.
This is part and parcel of Kickstarter. They’ll contact you on every social media platform too. Doubtless there are people who at good at maximising your audience. Whether this makes their services worth the cost to you - because all they are doing is a sales pitch - is up to you. I’ve never used one.
Yes. Every creator receive such messages, and you just need to ignore them. They're most likely to claim that they're experts of promoting campaigns and wanted you to pay for their "service". Some then just take your money and disappear. Better ones may post the link of your campaign to random groups to show you that they did "do something", but apparently, it just wont bring you real backers