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Kickstarter suspends Anonabox campaign, evidence of fraud mo

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 2:44 am
by sunsj
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Anonabox, the tiny plug-and-play Tor router that raised nearly $600,000 on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter in less than a week, may be a fraud. Kickstarter’s Trust and Safety team suspended the project on Friday after a number of Reddit members have poked holes in its creators’ story.

Kickstarter announced the suspension in an e-mail sent to backers. In it, they point out that a review of the project uncovered evidence that it broke Kickstarter rules. The team added that all funding has been stopped and backers will not be charged for their pledges.

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Questions regarding Anonabox came in nearly as quickly as donations did. In a Reddit AMA on the matter and in numerous other outlets online, people called into question Anonabox’s claim that it features custom hardware while others wondered if its open-source software was truly open-source.

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As Quartz points out, some believe the Anonabox is little more than a cheap Chinese router with an inflated price. Based on images alone, the two products appear to be virtually identical with the only difference being the Chinese branding appears to have been removed from the Anonabox image.

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The publication spoke with Anonabox developer August Germar about the matter. Germar told them he received no information on Kickstarter regarding why the project was suspended.

Given the wealth of evidence so far, do you believe Anonabox was trying to scam Kickstarter backers by simply selling hardware that already exists as their own? Let us know in the comments section below!

Re: Kickstarter suspends Anonabox campaign, evidence of frau

Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2014 5:05 pm
by TSIGames
Kickstarter is doing the right thing by making sure people don't get burned backing fraudulent projects. It gives the whole system a black eye when projects crash and burn after receiving a significant amount of funding. The last thing project creators need is Backers to become more jaded and skeptic as a result of having been burnt on a bad Kickstarter.

The alternative is having Kickstarter become a place for knockoff clones- and that's not any better.

Re: Kickstarter suspends Anonabox campaign, evidence of frau

Posted: Thu Oct 23, 2014 8:44 pm
by shacleav
I can't support a project where the creator isn't honest...

Whether it's a knockoff product is besides the point.