Kickstarter is a crowd-funding website that allows businesses with new products to crowd-fund (obtain financing from many different independent investors rather than a single investing source) the start-up costs associated with designing and distributing new items. Some of the more popular Kickstarter campaigns are for innovative technology products with flashy marketing campaigns. In some cases, the projects are funded and products are promised to investors but never fulfilled.

Companies that engage in such practices, by collecting the money and never providing a product in return, could be accused of...

		posing.
		pretexting.
		skimming.
		phishing.