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Millionaire tries to get $829 via kickstarter to send daughter to RPG maker camp?

This women while successful, is absolutely terrible lol. Grew up with a silver spoon, but will tell people to bootstrap in an instant...unless taking the other side makes her money. No ethics.
 

whitehawk

Banned
She's a real gem this one.

1364168115669gafg5.png
Oh wow. I predict she will get shut down fairly soon.

Also look at her other kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/susanwilson/the-cape-project?ref=users

The "cape" is just a red towel.

8hFfHDO.jpg
 

Aylinato

Member
O wow this mother should go to jail for fraud. Not just that kick starter but it sounds like her whole life has been to trick people and steal their money.
 
Does Kickstarter shut down projects that are already funded? I mean, these suckers' money is theirs as well. They are probably discussing it internally right now -- is the bad press more or less valuable than the money they stand to make?
 
Does Kickstarter shut down projects that are already funded? I mean, these suckers' money is theirs as well. They are probably discussing it internally right now -- is the bad press more or less valuable than the money they stand to make?

It does not get funded until the deadline is hit.
 

Midou

Member
Does Kickstarter shut down projects that are already funded? I mean, these suckers' money is theirs as well. They are probably discussing it internally right now -- is the bad press more or less valuable than the money they stand to make?

Well they can let this one slide then be more strict in the future, but they are more likely to open the floodgates of stupid bullshit kickstarters if they let it go. I think they should handle it professionally and simply shut it down for breaking the rules and leave it at that. I don't think it deserves anything more.
 
Does Kickstarter shut down projects that are already funded? I mean, these suckers' money is theirs as well. They are probably discussing it internally right now -- is the bad press more or less valuable than the money they stand to make?

I would wager this will get shut down start of business tomorrow. I really can't see how such a scam would be allowed to continue other than "all the staff are away for the weekend".
 

njr

Member
I love how dragon age was hilighted as a red flag on that pic lol. What an insane track record of unethical business...
 

bsej87

Member
I like this bit:

My goal is to raise $829 to cover the cost of RPG Camp. But my Mom just told me about the Veronica Mars campaign so now I'm secretly hoping to raise more. My Mom said I can put any extra toward a laptop. I asked her if I raised even more than that, would she let me spend another week away at RPG camp. She said if I raised the money, she'd send me to RPG Camp all summer (which would be amazing because my friends at home are great but they're not really gamers like me so it'll awesome to hang out with hardcore gamers like me that are my age).

Which would be great if the camp was offered as more than a single, week-long session.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
I sure fucking hope this gets shut down tomorrow. This lady's a real piece of work, exploiting her kids for profit and scamming people out of cash by co-opting feminist causes. You've gotta be really self-deluded in order to do this shit day-in and day-out as a career and not hate yourself.
 

MBison

Member
I really doubt the girl has any clue about any of this. If I was doing a similar kickstarter with my 9 year old daughter, my video presentation would be her talking about her love for video games, her desire to make a video game, etc. this one though? No proof.

I mean there is zero proof a child is involved at all. And no one in the comments section seems to be making that point. Everyone is just taking this woman at her word. She has offered zero proof that her 9 year old is involved. Instead you're just taking the word of someone who has done the following:

- violated kickstarter TOS with twitter spam
- made her money by cyber squatting
- bragged about $1500 shoes

And we're trusting her proof unseen?

People be crazy.
 
I really doubt the girl has any clue about any of this. If I was doing a similar kickstarter with my 9 year old daughter, my video presentation would be her talking about her love for video games, her desire to make a video game, etc. this one though? No proof.

I was thinking the same thing. Outside of the preview picture with the sister and the two brothers, she isn't shown at all. And that video is some professional level editing, probably cost more than the $829 they were asking for.

This woman is a genius.
 

LordCanti

Member
Well they can let this one slide then be more strict in the future, but they are more likely to open the floodgates of stupid bullshit kickstarters if they let it go. I think they should handle it professionally and simply shut it down for breaking the rules and leave it at that. I don't think it deserves anything more.

I don't know what else they can do. They should ban her account, and get her kicked out of Amazon Payments so that she can't do this again. An investigation should be launched into her website for sure. The IRS would probably want to know how much money she's brought in and where it has gone.

I really doubt the girl has any clue about any of this. If I was doing a similar kickstarter with my 9 year old daughter, my video presentation would be her talking about her love for video games, her desire to make a video game, etc. this one though? No proof.

They'll probably never know unless they google Mom at some point in the future. She's going to have some explaining to do.
 

Vamphuntr

Member

Oh wow. I predict she will get shut down fairly soon.

Also look at her other kickstarter: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/susanwilson/the-cape-project?ref=users

The "cape" is just a red towel.

8hFfHDO.jpg

Wow, this lady is really something. I guess she knew the right people to get rich quickly and that she has no issues lying and tricking people because this is fairly embarassing.

How can you sell a company for 100 million and come up with a Kickstarter for a cape (a red towel) and a 829$ trip to a RPG programming camp.

Either she's a scammer or has some kind of issues with money that makes her thing she's poor while having millions in the bank.
 
I'm surprised I haven't seen any feminist types come out against this yet. You would think they would be offended to see someone co-opt their work for this.
 

DrSlek

Member
Wow, this lady is really something. I guess she knew the right people to get rich quickly and that she has no issues lying and tricking people because this is fairly embarassing.

How can you sell a company for 100 million and come up with a Kickstarter for a cape (a red towel) and a 829$ trip to a RPG programming camp.

Either she's a scammer or has some kind of issues with money that makes her thing she's poor while having millions in the bank.

Well...is she actually a millionaire? I mean, all of this questionable stuff popping up...the "Judgement Group" looks like a scam in itself. The only thing I can find pointing to wealth is a picture with Warren Buffett....and being rich isn't exactly a requirement for photos with rich people.
 
Here's a good summary of the issue on Reddit:

http://www.reddit.com/r/MensRights/comments/1awr1n/millionaire_using_kickstarter_to_send_her/c91h629

I've been following this story on 4chan, this is a hell of a lot shadier then it seems.
1) She has her own female only crowd funding website so why is she using kickstarter?

Link: http://www.fundher.com/

2) She has tried scamming kickstarter with a previous "project" which is pretty much the stupidest thing I've ever seen. She was asking for $20k . And I still haven't figured out what the "project" is about. Something about wearing towels as capes?
Here's a link to it http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/susanwilson/the-cape-project
Nonsense regarding the failed Kickstarter scam
Who hasn't wished they could fly? CUSTOM SUPERHERO CAPES! Personalized. Exquisitely crafted. Handmade by U.S. veteran family business.
OUR STORY
Our capes aren't quite bulletproof or indestructible, but they do withstand the harshest, unimaginative, closed minds on earth. No, your personalized cape won't allow you to jump tall buildings nor will it give you night vision. But it will allow you to defeat boring days and capture the imagination inside you. And what's more powerful than that?

3) She's breaking the Kickstarter Spamming rule
Rule in question: http://i.imgur.com/yefoxge.png
Evidence of Spam: http://i.imgur.com/b4l2fI2.png
She's spamming celebrities like Lady Gaga & The Ellen DeGeneres show. Why is she spamming celebrities and popular media just to raise $829?

3a) Also evidence of breach of the "Fund my life" rule being broken:
Rule: http://i.imgur.com/6008aOd.png
Evidence: http://i.imgur.com/eUIagWv.png

4) As stated by the O.P she's exploiting gender issues (feminism) such as the debate on women in STEM fields. She keeps referring to the RPG training camp as RPG STEM training camp. (Clearly milking the buzzword STEM)
http://i.imgur.com/di4Vrja.png

More exploitation of gender issues:
http://i.imgur.com/Y0yH2OK.png
http://i.imgur.com/F03oG3e.png

5) The company that is running the RPG training camp, has an article on this Kickstarter. (Only trying to raise $829??)
http://i.imgur.com/djPAIKp.png
http://i.imgur.com/PiZT0yo.png

6) If she only wanted to raise $829, why is she offering rewards for donating $10k ??
http://i.imgur.com/05CeXyu.png

7) Portraying her sons as mean oppressors and throwing them under the bus to make a quick buck (Appeal to misandry)
http://i.imgur.com/ce2TENp.png
http://i.imgur.com/7xXuRbV.png

8) Evidence of her questionable business ethics (Cybersquatting)
Evidence: http://i.imgur.com/jIduN8G.png

9) Relevant articles from her blog, she seems to think mixing gender issues with crowd funding is a good way to make money, which explains her kickstarter, exploiting her children & gender issues.
http://i.imgur.com/RmGlRn6.png
http://i.imgur.com/G25TKZN.png

Conclusion:
She's a scumbag, clearly has no ethics, is a cyber suqatter and a spammer, exploits her children, exploits gender issues & appeals to misandry to make a few bucks.
Articles in the media about this, they obviously just printed the press release she gave them, without doing any investigating.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105...s-kickstarter-for-coding-camp-is-crushing-it/
http://www.examiner.com/article/9-year-old-rpg-developer-launches-kickstarter
http://au.businessinsider.com/a-9-year-olds-kickstarter-project-2013-3
http://pulse2.com/2013/03/22/nine-y...rom-kickstarter-for-video-game-project-82800/
 
I really doubt the girl has any clue about any of this. If I was doing a similar kickstarter with my 9 year old daughter, my video presentation would be her talking about her love for video games, her desire to make a video game, etc. this one though? No proof.

I mean there is zero proof a child is involved at all. And no one in the comments section seems to be making that point. Everyone is just taking this woman at her word. She has offered zero proof that her 9 year old is involved. Instead you're just taking the word of someone who has done the following:

- violated kickstarter TOS with twitter spam
- made her money by cyber squatting
- bragged about $1500 shoes

And we're trusting her proof unseen?

People be crazy.

So you're saying that Makenzie and Lennay Kekua are twins?

51W-njBV2NL._SL500_SS500_.jpg

Pictured Kenzie, hard at work on her RPG
 

bernardobri

Steve, the dog with no powers that we let hang out with us all for some reason
Not trying to be dramatic about this, but I'm expecting a great backfire on many aspects if this scam covered in some pseudo awareness campaign piece of shit is not stopped. It will very likely damage a good share of the website's credibility in plausible ventures and projects, and loads of people are going to be ripped off. (And the worse part is that its defenders are getting into the "won't somebody please think of the children?" territory which obviously fogs the true nature of the project).

Anyway, I hope gaming sites don't give this a blind eye due the GDC week, and I'm expecting Kickstarter doing the right thing with all the faults of the project.
 

statham

Member
Julie Brown just now

Someone can be successful without becoming a millionaire. Being successful isn’t always judged by how much money you’ve made. With any company you have partners, officers, board members, shareholders and investors that must be paid first. Does anyone have inside information on Kinkos.com’s liabilities before Fed Ex purchased Kinkos.com? How can anyone calculate how much profit the company made if you don’t now the numbers? Are all CEO’s, VP’s owners of the companies they’re running?
BTW, mentioning Warren Buffett I would like to point out that his son, Peter, had to earn his own wealth. At age 19, Peter was left a farm by his grandfather worth $ 90,000, not his father the millionaire. Peter even asked for a loan from his millionaire father and his father said “No”. Warren was adamant about not feeding his children with silver spoons. Which brings me to Susan and Mackenzie, Susan is teaching Mackenzie that she needs to work towards her own success, like Peter Buffett did. I think it’s great that Susan is supporting her daughter in her future endeavors. I don’t care how old Mackenzie is.
Everyone assumes Susan is capable of paying for camp, maybe she can, maybe she can’t, who knows, who should care. That’s not the issue here with Mackenzie. The issue is to support Mackenzie!! I did notice there are at least 97% awesome people giving a 9 year old a head start and 3% of jealous haters.
Corey, Andrew other negative commenters,
Were you taught that if you didn’t have anything nice to say don’t say it at all? If you guys spent as much time, effort and energy you’ve spent on this page commenting, stalking, and even designing a fake nasty Kickstarter page. Maybe you should have spent that time volunteering to make a difference within your community or learning how to spell. If I had a picture on my Facebook with Oprah Winfrey, would you assume I paid a large amount of money to attend Oprah’s speaking event? Or that I had connections?
BTW, Andrew and Corey thanks to your comments Susan and Mackenzie are receiving lots of attention from the media. So keep up your trash talk because in the end Mackenzie will succeed. The more you haters run your mouths Mackenzie’s pledges increase. If someone pledges the $ 10,000 Rock Star Reward I’ll take you guys to lunch from making it happen. Maybe Susan’s friend Warren will pledge the $ 10,000 Rock Star Level.
Oh, let’s not forget the $ 1500 shoes Susan purchased, comment. If you read her comment correctly she won money at the casino and bought her shoes with her unexpected winnings, which was about 5 years ago. I won $ 500 on a scratch off last week so I purchased a purse I’ve wanted for a long time. I wouldn’t have bought the expensive purse otherwise. When you’re a mother and father sometimes we need to think of ourselves. We spend so much money on our kids we forget to treat ourselves. If I won $ 2000 on a $ 10 bet I would have bought the shoes too. If Susan were a millionaire I can’t imagine a millionaire playing at a $ 10 table.
Andrew, maybe you can give Corey your email so you no longer need to use this page to talk to each other. Corey, if Andrew refuses to give you his personal information let me know I can give it to you.
But then again Andrew and Corey have it all figured out, NOT!! Karma….
To all of Mackenzie backers lets prove the haters wrong and continue to back Mackenzie. Mackenzie you rock!! In fact, I’m pledging additional money.
ya.
 

jcm

Member
I'm surprised I haven't seen any feminist types come out against this yet. You would think they would be offended to see someone co-opt their work for this.

I'm a feminist and I'm against it. I didn't realize I needed to self-identify before discussing this.
 

Dan

No longer boycotting the Wolfenstein franchise
This is a fun gem.

Are girls afraid of money?

Guest Post by Susan Wilson, CEO of The Judgment Group and FundHer

I'm mentoring a group of 15 female undergrads at Georgetown, my alma mater. Given that my sons are now 14 and 13, I brought them with me a few weeks ago so they could experience the inimitable beauty of a room full of smart, empowered young women.

Before the session began, I placed five $20 bills on random desks throughout the classroom--based on where people typically sit when a room is half-filled. I could see my boys eyeballing the money. Sensing an imminent attack, I scooped up my boys and escorted them to their NEW seats in the back of the room.

Far from thrilled, my 13-year-old son asked, "What's to stop one of the girls from just taking the money, Mom?"

I laughed, "Absolutely nothing," I told him. " Can you JUST sit here and watch?"

It was as if they were going against nature, but they complied.

Over the next ten minutes, the girls trickled in. My sons and I watched. Did one girl scoop up the entire $100, as my son feared? Nope.

Did the girls fight over the twenties? Not exactly.

What happened was even worse--and my sons are still dumbfounded.

Without saying a word, the girls somehow agreed that they should ignore the money. Not only did they NOT take the $20 bills. They sat anywhere but NEAR the money!

It took some convincing, but I did manage to get a few of the girls to pick up the bills--finally. But they immediately declared they were donating the money. Why? Because no one wanted "to be greedy," they told me.

I wasn't shocked, but I decided to revisit the issue when I met with the girls a week later. I held up a $20 bill and asked who wanted it. No one moved. A good 30 seconds later, one of the girls raised her hand and said, "We should make a rule about who gets it."

Another girl raised her hand and declared, "It should go to the girl that got here first."

Everyone looked around, and they all nodded in agreement.

We spent the next hour discussing how girls think about money and make decisions. Even when rules weren't necessary, the girls refused to act and instead focused their energy on creating rules about who got the money.

Clearly, if men had been in the room, the women wouldn't have stood a chance.

I asked, "Why?" The group preferred rules because rules establish a system of norms. "Then," one astute girl laughed, "we can play within established parameters and still manipulate the rules to get our way."

Instinctively, I responded, "And still be considered good girls?"

Without missing a beat, the group nodded in agreement.

Does any of this surprise you? I've thought about it from every angle and I'm embarrassed that a part of me feels slightly relieved that it's not just me who feels this way about money. Even these bright young women--without the grown-up baggage of experience, responsibility, compromise and failure--have a dysfunctional relationship with money.

Which makes me feel guilty in a whole other way…argh! But this begs the question: How are women ever going to excel in business? And what can I do to help these girls--and myself?
 

Emerson

May contain jokes =>
They've had multiple days to do so and hundreds or thousands of reports so far so I don't think they have any intention of removing it.
 

statham

Member
its making a difference, this thread started at $21,801 it got up to $23,600 and now its at $21,720 and thats with people pledging and up the pledge and people backing out. two of the $100 pledge backed out.
 

bennyc12

Member
Well...is she actually a millionaire? I mean, all of this questionable stuff popping up...the "Judgement Group" looks like a scam in itself. The only thing I can find pointing to wealth is a picture with Warren Buffett....and being rich isn't exactly a requirement for photos with rich people.

She's listed by Forbes as one of the ten "most powerful women entrepreneurs," so I assume she must be.
 

At first this seemed like it would be a lame "women > men at money management" anecdote. Then I got to the end and....what? I don't get it. Her takeaway seems to be that women prefer to work together and compromise on how to make the optimal use of money instead of greedily hoarding it themselves...except she's saying this is a bad thing.
 

Muku

Member
This just gets crazier. This is the biggest load of crap. Playing the girl card is just ugh. It makes the rest of us look bad because a few pull this.

I hope it is them on another account trying to weasel out of it, because I don't want to believe that begging for money on Kickstarter counts as "working for it" in that persons mind.

Actually, for well off folks, depending on how they came across their wealth it just might be. I mean look, you have to think about this. Come up with a good exploitative angle. Word it just right. (Though to be fair, her writing for her "9yo" was pretty horrendous.) And then hit the submit button. That's a lot of work you know.
 

LordCanti

Member
This just gets crazier. This is the biggest load of crap. Playing the girl card is just ugh. It makes the rest of us look bad because a few pull this.



Actually, for well off folks, depending on how they came across their wealth it just might be. I mean look, you have to think about this. Come up with a good exploitative angle. Word it just right. (Though to be fair, her writing for her "9yo" was pretty horrendous.) And then hit the submit button. That's a lot of work you know.

It's like the write-ups they give dogs on adoption websites. "I'm a friendly little guy that just wants a loving family and a place to call home. I'm not quite house broken yet, but I'm working on it!"

Just saying that it might be a PR disaster if they do that, even if it's what they should do.

Letting someone use their service to scam twenty grand is a worse PR disaster.
 

Muku

Member
It's like the write-ups they give dogs on adoption websites. "I'm a friendly little guy that just wants a loving family and a place to call home. I'm not quite house broken yet, but I'm working on it!"

I hate those too. I wish they'd just straight up write about the animal. Ugh. But at least with the animals they're doing it to try to be cute to find them a home. With this the mom is doing it to teach her daughter how to support herself in life. Just beg strangers (without standing on a corner).
 

border

Member
Kickstarter needs to take down her page, and institute a new "No Kids" policy.

It's way to easy to prey on people's sympathy if you allow projects that have children as the beneficiaries.
 
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