Crowdfunding or crowdfrauding?

Fraud Spotlight: Analyses of lesser-known frauds

Red Ferrari. Designer clothes. Steve Tan appeared to be living the American Dream. In less than two months in the summer of 2013, Tan had raised more than $1.5 million in a crowdfunding campaign on the popular website, Indiegogo, to produce a new smartwatch. However, this apparent overnight success ended in a debacle when more than 11,000 investors lost thousands of dollars.

According to PCWorld (Kreyos smartwatch: We're not a scam, just a trainwreck, by Jared Newman), Tan's Kreyos Meteor smartwatch was supposed to be waterproof with voice and gesture control, and a seven-day battery. He said it would monitor the wearer's heart rate and sleep cycles and would seamlessly connect to mobile devices.