Business

A real ‘jerky’ fund fest

Kickstarter backers thought they were getting gourmet beef jerky — but all they really got was pure bologna.

Users of the New York City crowdfunding site, where projects are posted and win financing from thousands of small donors, were almost duped out of $120,000 in what is potentially the most egregious case of fraud in the platform’s history.

A recent project that promised savory jerky made from the finest Japanese beef was suspended after Kickstarter’s integrity team flagged the campaign as a possible fraud.

Kickstarter would not confirm why it suspended the campaign, but another team looking for funding on the platform outed the mouth-watering project after uncovering some inconsistencies with the presentation.

Like the funding, Kickstarter’s policing is crowdsourced, and the masses are tasked with alerting the company of possible schemes.

The beef jerky team, Magnus Fun Inc., was investigated by the people who hope to raise money to make a movie about Kickstarter.

The people researching the movie tried to reach out to the jerky makers — that kick-started their suspicion.

Among various discrepancies, Magnus Fun turned out not to be registered in California, as stated. Magnus had raised an astounding $120,309 from 3,252 backers.

There were a couple of clear signs that the beef jerky was too good to be true: Usually Kickstarter projects have a Facebook account linked to the project, and project founders often present themselves in a video describing the business plan — but Magnus had neither.

gsloane@nypost.com