Encik Farhan is a scammer. He backs projects, pledging hundreds or thousands of dollars at the highest tier, and then disputes the credit card charges 1-3 months later, often after his rewards have been shipped.
He pledged $1000 to my campaign, and a few days after I posted an update that backer rewards were being shipped, he filed a charge dispute with his credit card company. I’m still waiting for the outcome of my appeal, but if I lose $1000, it will ruin me.
Another project creator got in touch with me this week, asking about Encik Farhan, and dozens of creators have been affected by this asshole, but there is no built-in way to report individual backers or profiles on Kickstarter.
His profile: http://www.kickstarter.com/profile/61606350
His email address registered with Kickstarter is akusukaiphone@gmail.com, and the contact email he gave me in his survey response is wadepakf@gmail.com.
If you are starting a project, WATCH OUT FOR THIS GUY. If he backs your project, assume that those funds will be disputed after your campaign is over. He’s screwing over creators, and meanwhile, he still gets to look good with all these “backed” projects showing up on his profile.
UPDATES:
I posted an update earlier today, but in summation:
Kickstarter has deleted Farhan’s account and banned him from the site. They issued an official statement regarding the incident, as well as a personal response to me letting me know the above, and that they will be working with all the project creators and Amazon Payments to get this resolved.
I’m happy with Kickstarter’s response so far, and I’m hopeful that we’ll see a positive outcome not only for me, but for all the creators that were affected.
