Is the MELLO charger a scam (Kickstarter)?

• Posted by pcwrt
• in News, Technology
• on June 3, 2024
• No Comments.

Kickstarter is no stranger to scammers. Projects surpassed their goals spectacularly and yet fail to deliver. Did the projects fail despite of honest efforts or were there no intention to fulfill the promises on the outset? It’s hard to tell.

WeTag made extravagant claims for their iTag battery free item locating tag without a prototype or any other evidence. Kickstarter suspended the campaign as it looked like a scam.

Luminook, on the other hand, successfully funded with $141,646 pledged of a $20,000 goal. With a delivery date of Oct. 2020, it still has nothing to show as of today. The founders basically disappeared.

Now on to the MELLO charger. As of this writing, the project raised $328,281 and has 24 days to go. It is claimed to be “The World’s Sleekest High-Speed Charger that fits on Your Keyring”. Naturally, one backer asked how the circuitry could fit into such a small size and requested the project owner to show some proof. The project owner responded that they have an “amazing” patent that solves all of the problems and everything will just work “perfectly”. However, the project owner failed to provide any patent number(s) upon repeated requests.

The backer, Paul Kim, created a detailed write-up about why he thinks the MELLO charger is a scam.

I grabbed a couple of pictures from his post. Does it look like the circuit board fits in the cases?

Is the MELLO charger legit or is it a scam? What do you think?

Update 6/7/2024: After monitoring the comments on the project further, I’ve come to the conclusion that it is a scam. I’m putting this comment here just for the record. Backers, how they divert the questions now is how they will divert your requests for your rewards and refunds later!