Alchemy Playing Cards Scam - now TWICE beaten on KS

[vasta41]

Since it seems like this deck might fund before KS does anything about it, do you think the title of this thread should be changed from "live" to "live but shouldn't be"?

[volantangel]

Since it seems like this deck might fund before KS does anything about it, do you think the title of this thread should be changed from "live" to "live but shouldn't be"?

Haha i edited the title

[nECr0MaNCeD]

How long does it take for them to read dozens of reports reports, saying the same thing, and finally do something about it.

Since this is so easily and quickly confirmed as a scan my thinking is that they are trying to trace or track to guilty party/parties. I am certain that this is not a scam as much as it is a joke or trolling attempt.

I have to disagree. I think this is simply someone trying to take advantage of the card collecting community. Either that or someone trying to show how incompetent KS has become.

It looks like they did everything possible to make it stand out as a scam and sure to fail. Founders was what I'd expect from a scam. We may never know, I just can't see someone being this stupid. Nigerian e-mail scams are better run than this.

[Lotrek]

What is most annoying is the fact that this scam (if it's not shut down) will open the appetite to other scammers. I mean, if it's SOOO easy to fool so many people with such an incredibly stupid campaign, what shall happen with a more sophisticated fraud?

However, I hope that even if KS does nothing, backers will come back to check the "project" after some days and they'll see the comments. I hope...

[Cbkimble]

How long does it take for them to read dozens of reports reports, saying the same thing, and finally do something about it.

Since this is so easily and quickly confirmed as a scan my thinking is that they are trying to trace or track to guilty party/parties. I am certain that this is not a scam as much as it is a joke or trolling attempt.

I have to disagree. I think this is simply someone trying to take advantage of the card collecting community. Either that or someone trying to show how incompetent KS has become.

It looks like they did everything possible to make it stand out as a scam and sure to fail. Founders was what I'd expect from a scam. We may never know, I just can't see someone being this stupid. Nigerian e-mail scams are better run than this.

I can see your point. We here know it's a scam but for those that only pick up decks on KS and don't pay attention to the communities wouldn't have a clue.

Either way, it definitely makes KS look bad.

[Yashi]

If it was a joke, I don't think the creator would have bothered to change the account picture. And misrepresenting LPCC is taking it too far.

[Lotrek]

Funding suspended just now!

[jerichoholic]

Suspended, suspended, ya you just got suspended! lol

[Eoghann]

[Cbkimble]

And only took 4 days.

[badpete69]

Where's the moron now.. I suspect he was using a fake account to start the project and maybe that's why he wasn't afraid of being caught. let's see if he resurfaces with another scam project

[jerichoholic]

Hopefully they hunt him down!

[Cbkimble]

Hopefully they hunt him down!

I seriously doubt they'll do anything at all. Delete the account and block the IP is about all.

[badpete69]

Looks like the only reason the project got suspended is because Lawrence filed a copyright infringement not because the moron was defrauding folks. Kickstarter is so clueless

[sprouts1115]

We must celebrate. We won. I think you can warm a potato in that guy's belly button.

[nECr0MaNCeD]

We must celebrate. We won. I think you can warm a potato in that guy's belly button.

Thanks dude.... Now that image is burned into my retina for all eternity.....

[Eoghann]

Looks like the only reason the project got suspended is because Lawrence filed a copyright infringement not because the moron was defrauding folks. Kickstarter is so clueless

That's pretty scary.

[Cbkimble]

Looks like the only reason the project got suspended is because Lawrence filed a copyright infringement not because the moron was defrauding folks. Kickstarter is so clueless

Anyone thinking maybe it's about time to give cardlauncher, or something similar, another go?

[jerichoholic]

We already know that won't work. Even Deckstarter is always struggling.

[nECr0MaNCeD]

We already know that won't work. Even Deckstarter is always struggling.

Maybe, but as my very wise mother is fond of saying... there's more than one way to skin a cat.... Gamelauncher™ perhaps?

[badpete69]

Looks like the fraud is back on. let's jump on this one hehe and report it

[Ballist1z]

Thing is though, how many decks of cards do we really need?

What ideas will they churn out next, kitchen utensil deck? Quilt covers? Wallpaper cards?

Does anyone think that the card market is becoming over saturated with generic decks to the detriment not the benefit of the community?

[Justin O.]

Thing is though, how many decks of cards do we really need?

What ideas will they churn out next, kitchen utensil deck? Quilt covers? Wallpaper cards?

Does anyone think that the card market is becoming over saturated with generic decks to the detriment not the benefit of the community?

More crappy decks really makes the worthwhile ones shine. I think print on demand printers is a bigger detriment than crappy designers...

[hawk199]

Wow no effort to at least choose another deck

[cherrynukacola]

Oh geez. Last time they were at least smart enough to do this over the Easter weekend, when there was no staff on. Let's see how long it takes Kickstarter to shut this one down.

[badpete69]

Kickstarter is so dumb that they removed John's message with the link to the real product. Damn they are clueless

[Justin O.]

Kickstarter is so dumb that they removed John's message with the link to the real product. Damn they are clueless

I don't think they are clueless, I just think they tackle little things that are quick and easy to fix, like deleting a link, first, and spend more time on the bigger things like researching validity claims. They must get 10,000 reports of faulty projects every day and they have to investigate every one, they probably have a team of less than 10 people on their accountability team that has to go through every claim and check it. I would imagine they get inundated with false reports as well, and likely don't even prioritize situations like this where were are clearly doing a good enough job making sure it doesn't fun without them intervening.

[badpete69]

Justin you are way too nice. The main problem with the KS machine is they are immune to liability on most of these projects. The only way a moderator would know about that link is if the creator aka piece of trash had reported it.
Now if that said moderator took 1 minute to read the 5 posts there and check k the link he would quickly realized that yes indeed this smells funny. But why use logic? Why take an extra 5 minutes to prevent 30 backers from getting defrauded? Right they are not liable.....

Ok I take it back They are very smart.. They found a business model that enables people to defraud honest backers, make money in the process and have zero liability. ..Damn genius

[Justin O.]

Justin you are way too nice. The main problem with the KS machine is they are immune to liability on most of these projects. The only way a moderator would know about that link is if the creator aka piece of trash had reported it.
Now if that said moderator took 1 minute to read the 5 posts there and check k the link he would quickly realized that yes indeed this smells funny. But why use logic? Why take an extra 5 minutes to prevent 30 backers from getting defrauded? Right they are not liable.....

Ok I take it back They are very smart.. They found a business model that enables people to defraud honest backers, make money in the process and have zero liability. ..Damn genius

I think you're being a little unfair.
A) Kickstarter advises time and time again when you are backing that they aren't liable, I don't think they are in the wrong there, or that they should be liable. They make note after note after confirmation to backers to make sure we know where our money is going and that we back at our own discretion.
B) Most fraud departments use automated systems that comb through the service and auto flag violations like links in comments, then likely use a cross reference system that pairs flagged violations to user complaints, and marks violations+complaints and presents those with 'x' priority to the tech, then the team probably rotates assignment on those little tasks and someone sits there for 2 hours or a day or whatever and hammers them out in what must be the most mind numbing part of their job. That is pretty standard policy for social profile policing; A program that will take automatically found 'possible violations' and run them across all incoming user reports, weighted against the user based on reporting history and IP history and then prioritize them for the techs to review accordingly.
For bigger issues that take research it likely works off a first in first out priority based on number of reports, frequency of reports, how the reporting user is valued based on past reporting behavior and then the techs work those in priority from highest (oldest, user report level (number of reports x frequencing of reporting x quality of the incoming reports based on the reporting users 'report value' (history of user reports and history of IP reports) and type of violation being reported) to oldest. It's a ton of work even with all of the automation that is set up to help them and they often skip non-issue, non-relevent or non-impacting reports to prioritize more important things. 30 backers getting conned on a project that is pretty clearly not going to succeed is probably not even worth their time. Odds are they flag it for trending, and if it starts to pick up or reach goal they can go in and shut it down then, and go worry about more important things.

So keep that in mind from someone that works on the inside of a team that reviews user reports/complaints: The more your report things, the less valuable your reports become. Chronic reporters get flagged by the system for review, and can be set to have their reports ignored. They are never told this.

This stopped being funny once I realized they had reached goal and people are about to lose money on this...

[badpete69]

Justin you bring valid points. But in the end, I am a little mad that this can easily happen. Most likely they will shut that project before it ends but still.

But I still maintain that if you are an enabler of fraud, no matter how many times you warn people that they may get defrauded, you should still be held responsible.