A group claiming to be technology innovators with Ukrainian roots is facing a backlash on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo where some 70 backers have asked for a refund for a projector watch, according to the comments section of the product.
A number of technology websites such as, thenextweb, connectedly,
smartwatchforum and techgeekforever, have questioned whether the proposed
product – a watch fitted with a tiny projector that beams time and
notifications about calls, emails and text messages when connected to a
smartphone via Bluetooth – is the real deal.
The naysayers are so far in the minority among over 4,660
funders, and the group, Ritot, has raised nearly $760,000 out of a modestly
initial goal of $50,000. Started on July 7, the group can collect the money
once the campaign ends on Aug. 21, according to Indiegogo’s terms of use.
Still, online detractors say there are a number of red
flags that give rise to the campaign’s alleged fraud. For starters, the
company’s officers have changed since the campaign kicked off in July, but some
of their pictures have not.
Particularly, the founder initially was named Ivan Powell,
but changed to Michael Medvid, yet the accompanying picture is still the same.
The company manufacturing and fulfillment officer went from being George Moore
to Oleg Polovin, yet the corresponding picture for that position is
identical.
Responsible for “project management, communication and
marketing,” Medvid is allegedly from Ukraine as is the company, which claims to
have an office in San Francisco, according to its product
description page on
Indiegogo. Ritot’s website doesn’t list an address for its Californian or Ukrainian office.
The domain name of its website is registered to a Scottsdale, Arizona address,
according to Godaddy.
When the Kyiv Post emailed Ritot’s press service, a person
calling himself Michael replied: “We know that we have [a] media war with our
competitors.” He failed to respond to questions about the product’s technical
specifications and to address the identification issues of the company’s
officers.
Efforts to meet with and verify the identity of Michael in
person failed. “This person has not yet verified their account with any social
networks,” reads an Indiegogo description of the Ritot company founder claimant.
Another alarm bell is that a prototype hasn’t been made
available on Ritot’s website or in the crowd-funding platform. Backers and
technology websites complain that only stock photos, computer images and
pictures that appear to be corrected on Photoshop of the product have only been
posted. Some have questioned whether the product is technically possible to
build based on the product description and at such a cheap price of $120. It is
nevertheless scheduled for release to funders by February 2015.
When asked to address allegations of fraud concerning Ritot,
John Eddy, writing on behalf of Indiegogo as senior media strategist for Goldin
Solutions, said that “Indiegogo’s Trust and Safety procedures include a
three-pronged approach: a dedicated team of experts, algorithms to
automatically monitor campaign data and the crowd.
“In regards to the Ritot campaign, the team has been
responsive to our inquiries and their campaign is in compliance with our Terms
of Use.”
Indiegogo stands to make 4 percent of the total amount
raised for the Ritot watch, or more than $30,000 if the campaign would end on
Aug. 5. It so far has raised more than $56.5 million since being founded in
2008. Its most recent funding round was in January when it raised $40 million to
expand globally.
Not first or last ‘scampaign’
This is not the first questionable product to get
crowd-funded and taint the innovative fundraising platforms. Moscow-based
Healbe Gobe, which claimed to non-invasively read blood glucose, turned out to
be fictional. Kobe Red, a project that promised to make beef jerky out of
organic, beer-fed and massaged Japanese beef was pulled from a crowd-funding
campaign. A food scanner to count calories also was nothing more than
fantasy.
Kyiv Post editor Mark Rachkevych can be reached at [email protected].
