Shoka Bell

Victim Location 22207

Total money lost $89

Type of a scam Investment

Myself and 1,673 people backed this project called "Shoka Bell". The idea was to make a bell that integrates with your cellphone and allows you to upload different sounds. It was also supposed to have an anti-theft alarm, lights, and directions all on the bell. The crowdsourcing website www.kickstarter.com took everybody’s money ($200,819) and gave it to the owners of Shoka Bell, which includes Daniel Falus and John Paul Mazurak. The project was moving along with updates every so often, until November 2017 when Daniel stated that he was attempting to take the money that we gave him to merge with another company in the USA to allow for more integrated shipping efforts. Prior to that the other update was in September, 2017. Not much information was provided, but November was the last communication with the owner we have had (I messaged him on facebook and got a response in Feb 2018, and he only stated "We will update once appropriate. Thanks Man.".

There have been multiple media reports from out of country technology outlets reporting on this project, as they also scammed money from a European grant fund to help with the project. See below for more media reports (Note: They are not in English, so please translate if you don’t understand the language).

<span title="http://m.hvg.hu/gazdasag/20180129_Haborognak_az_adakozok_hosszu_honapok_utan_sem_tudni_elkeszule_a_bringasoknak_szant_magyar_kutyu
http://m.hvg.hu/gazdasag/20180129_Haborognak_az_adakozok_hosszu_honapok_utan_sem…⇄ />
https://qubit.hu/2018/01/29/tombolnak-a-befektetok-a-kickstarteren-hiaba-dobtak-…⇄