I was also a victim of this "Encik Farhan" criminal. My first and LAST (I will explain why) Kickstarter project was pledged $1,300.00 from this person(s). Considering my highest pledge level was $28.00, the amount pledged raised some flags for me right away. They pledged just enough to make me reach my funding goal during the last 24hrs.
I emailed him multiple times over the next few days, first to thank him for his "generosity" and ask him what he expected for such an over pledge with no reward level. He never once responded to me; Red flag number two. I had many backers' pledges not process for various reasons including his. Finally 4 days after contacting backers "Encik Farhan" adjusted his pledge, and processed $1,300.00 "successfully" under the name Murray A. Long. At this point, with no response from "Encik Farhan" I highly suspected it was fraud and would eventually be charged back. I contacted Amazon about him and they could not get a hold of him either. Here is the weird part, I authorized Amazon Payments to refund his $1,300.00 pledge, so I would be safe from "chargeback fees", and they could not get it to process. Amazon's rep told me he tried 6 times and many times to get a hold of him with no results. This absolutely confirmed my suspicions.
I then spent the next few weeks worried that I would not be able to complete my project without his monstrous pledge amount, along with other deadbeat backers who did not fulfill their pledges. Overall I was down about 1/3 of my funding goal. My funding goal was set at the MINIMUM I needed to complete my project as advised by Kickstarter when launching. A bit off topic here, but I would not recommend that to anyone because of all the other deadbeat "backers" that shorted me as well. I decided to refund as I found I would lose much more money if I went into production.
I contacted kickstarter and explained the situation that I was not truly "successfully" funded as I did not receive my funding goal from backers and fraud. Kickstarter could not have cared less and told me I must refund backers and they, Kickstarter, will be keeping the fees they charged me. THIS is why I will never do another Kickstarter project or use Kickstarer to back anyone else. Kickstarter did not care in anyway about their customer being a victim of fraud or changing their system to prevent it from happening to anyone else as he backed another 100+ projects after me. But why would they care, since Kickstarter profits from fraud by keeping the fees charged for being "successfully" funded. Never again Kickstarter, never again. Hope you enjoy my money for "website development".
I am happy with my decision not to trust or use his pledge to proceed with production. I would have lost much much more if I had gone through with production and then have been charged back. I am sorry to hear that happen to many of you
. There are some terrible people out there who ruin things that are meant to be positive and bring people together.
If anyone get's their money back from Kickstarter for "fees", please let myself and others know. Or maybe we should try as a group...