KickTraq

“You know,” someone said to me in 2010, “my husband and his buddies are thinking of setting up a fake project on that website, Kickstarter, get the money and just never make the product”. No way, I thought. They can’t just do that. Kickstarter would go out of business if people could do that. (Read More)

Jason Cooper of Kickstarted: Documenting the Crowdfunding Revolution shares his thoughts on documentaries, crowdfunding, the Kobe Red scandal and more. (Read More)

Rarely does a crowdfunding platform pull the plug on one of its projects. But on Thursday, June 13, Kickstarter suspended all funding to a campaign called Kobe Red — just hours before the month-long endeavor was scheduled to close. (Read More)

They were almost taken for fools. But one almost-unlucky group of Kickstarter users managed to uncover a $120,309 scam on the site, helping to kill the campaign less than an hour before it was set to end—and their money was whisked out of their bank accounts. (Read More)

Luckily for the 3,300 backers, Kickstarter suspended the Kobe Red campaign just minutes before it ended -- so no money changed hands. (Read More)

CNN Money reports that policing the large amount of Kickstarter campaigns is an overwhelming task, and the crowdfunding site turns to its users to raise red flags. If there's enough evidence of foul play, the site will quickly shut down funding — hopefully before the money is deposited into the company's bank accounts. (Read More)

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. (Read More)

Kickstarter just narrowly averted what would have been the biggest definitive fraud in the crowdfunding site’s history. It shut down the Kobe Red project, which promised to deliver mouthwatering beef jerky made from Japanese cows fed on 100% organic feed and treated to beer and massages (we’re not making this up)—just an hour before scammers would have successfully made off with $120,309 from the project’s 3,239 backers. (Read More)

Where's the beef? Not on Kickstarter. (Read More)

For the last couple days, my business partner and I (both producers and directors on a crowdfunding documentary called Kickstarted) have been looking into a project called Kobe Red Beef Jerky. Soon after, a number of concerned backers messaged us about Kobe's potential illegitimacy - so we investigated even further. Here are some of our findings...

(Editors Note: At the time of cancellation, the "Kobe Red" project had $120,309 in pledges, over 5000% of it's original $2,374 goal)
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A couple of weeks ago, we reached out to the project creators behind Kobe Red, a company that was raising funds to make 100% Japanese beer fed Kobe beef jerky. Their product sounded delicious and we were intrigued to hear more about their crowdfunding story for our documentary film, Kickstarted. We thought these guys would make for a great interview. Plus, their project had massively exceeded it’s modest $2,374 goal, eventually reaching over $120,000 in pledges from 3,000 backers. However, after emailing back and forth with these guys, we started to get very suspicious about the legitimacy of Kobe Red. We decided to look more deeply into their operations and as a result helped to uncover what would have been the biggest fraud in Kickstarter’s history. (Read More)

Hi everybody, as we said in an update last week, as a thank you to our amazing backers, every single one of you starting at the $7 pledge all the way to the top would be getting extra jerky. We have been working on several new flavors since March and... (Read More)

Hi everyone, we were asked a few weeks ago to take part in a documentary about Kickstarter. The documentary is called "KICKSTARTED" and it is right here on Kickstarter, please look it up. There are interviews from Zach Braff and a bunch of other... (Read More)

Hi everybody, join us for a free jerky taste test tomorrow (june 8th) at the Ink-N-Iron Festival in Long Beach CA. at 6pm. We will have sample bites of all three mouth watering flavors and we would love for you to come by. We will be wearing our Kobe... (Read More)

Hi guys, here is a quick correction to our earlier post, everyone at the $7 pledge level all the way up to the top level gets the extra jerky reward, everyone. So even at the $7 level there will be a beefy reward. Sorry if we didn't make that clear.... (Read More)

Good morning, we think stretch goals can be fun. We like them too, they help a project grow and the amazing backers get extra stuff. We previously posted how you guys had blown right past our stretch goals before we even got a chance to post them,... (Read More)

Good morning, we wanted you to know that we have finished the new artwork for the bags of our (1)oz juicy jerky and it looks pretty cool. We will post the new look on Friday along with some other cool info. Thank you KRJ  (Read More)

Good morning, this is just an update, yesterday we started a second batch of jerky to stay ahead of our orders. Once again, if we access the need to start another batch to satisfy demand we have supply on hand to accommodate. Also, we wanted to say... (Read More)

Hi everybody, we're having two free jerky taste tests of all 3 mouth watering flavors of Kobe Red Jerky. Please join us on May 25th at 12 noon outside of the Boston Calling Music Festival in Boston Ma.  On May 26th at 12 noon we will be outside of... (Read More)

Hi everybody, we have a free jerky taste test coming up this weekend and we would love to see you so please check back tomorrow for location and time. Thank you.  (Read More)

It's official, you guys have now made Kobe Red Jerky the most successful beef jerky project in Kickstarter history! This milestone belongs to you, our awesome backers. You made this happen and we are so proud to be a part of this community populated... (Read More)

Before we get to the good stuff you have to hear this quick backstory. Last week we made plans to set a stretch goal, we contacted a company about producing some really cool stuff specifically for you, our awesome backers. The company told us that... (Read More)

Today you have accomplished in making this project a part of Kickstarter history! Today Kobe Red Jerky has more amazing backers than any other beef jerky project ever! And although this is not a competition there is no dishonor in acknowledging your... (Read More)

Good morning Kickstarters,  here's a few things we wanted to share with you. First, we have been preparing for our project launch since January and although we were completely surprised by all of the amazing support we've been shown, early on we... (Read More)

We are leaving NY and heading home after two days of spreading the word and sharing sample bites of the best jerky in the world. We met a bunch of people in the Big Apple that tasted our Kobe Red jerky and they told us that they were hopping on... (Read More)

Tomorrow we will be giving away free sample bites of all 3 mouth watering flavors of Kobe Red for anyone that will text us a review of our jerky. We will be outside of the Great GoogaMooga Brooklyn Prospect Park music festival. We will be there from... (Read More)

In less than a day and a half we reached our project goal and it's all because of you. It was our goal but your accomplishment. We are so excited to bring you the worlds best jerky and just as proud to be the recipient of your trust. Thank you so... (Read More)

Thank you so much for supporting our dream of bringing you the best jerky in the world. On our first day we have reached a third of our project goal and it's all because of you.  (Read More)

thank you for being the first of hopefully many Kickstarters to try our jerky, you're going to love it.  (Read More)