There is no need to hesitate and, in fact, there are a lot of reasons not to.
A few ideas, in the order of when I found them in my notes ():
- File a complaint with the California Attorney General's office
- Donors can band together and file a class action suit, probably venued in California, so choose a lawyer with class action experience who is admitted to practice there
- Donors can act individually and bring cases in small claims court (this is most cost-effective if you have a fairly substantial amount in controversy, e. g. probably over $100 or so, and you can easily get to court in California)
- Start talking to a local crusading consumer affairs reporter (California would be best) and see if they will investigate
- Take it up with your local representative (but keep in mind it's an election year in the US, so all bets are off)
- Try to get a charge back from your credit card company or PayPal
- Complaint to Kickstarter and IndieGoGo (they will refer you to their Terms of Service, and then you get to refer them to where their TOS's state they won't take on projects where the project owner can't prove IP ownership. Hey, it's worth a shot)
And as was mentioned by oswriter a few pages ago
http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/cbs-paramount-sues-to-stop-axanar.278077/page-1092#post-11646807
the FTC has worked on similar crowdfunding fraud investigations:
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/pre...project-creator-settles-ftc-charges-deception
Notice that a staff member contact is at the bottom of the FTC page. That would be a place to start. And a very pointy stick (no sense using a banana).
Get the FTC to state they are investigating and I bet FB and IGG will take notice.
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