In March 2023, I backed the SeeAir Tankless Dive System on Kickstarter. Compact, battery-powered underwater breathing gadget. Polished renders, a slick video, spec sheets that looked legit. $362 for the dive unit and a couple accessories. Seemed fair.
The campaign pulled in $722,178 from 2,003 backers. Estimated delivery: September 2023.
Nobody got anything. I certainly didn't.
The Campaign
SeeAir ran from February 28 to April 5, 2023. By late 2023, updates from the creator slowed to a trickle, then stopped. The domains see-air.com and seeair.net are now dead. The Facebook page (1,060 likes) has been quiet for over a year.
The most interesting moment came on October 14, 2023, in Kickstarter Update #3. The person listed as "Creator" on the campaign page, Collin Kobayashi, posted this:
I was contracted to assist with their campaign development... I have no ownership or equity in SeeAir... I am no longer involved.
He named Jian Wei as the actual Founder and CEO. So Kickstarter's verified creator was a contractor who says he never had ownership or control. The real operator was someone the platform never properly surfaced to backers.
Except Kobayashi's story has a problem. He's not some random freelancer. He's the CEO of 3D Innovations, LLC, a product design and prototyping firm in Honolulu. During the campaign's active funding period, he was on LinkedIn telling people to back it. "Check out SeeAir with their newest Tankless Dive System on Kickstarter" (March 8, 2023). "Time is running out. Get your SeeAir Tankless Dive System on Kickstarter now!" (March 20, 2023). Then seven months later he says he was never really involved.
Kickstarter verified a campaign where the listed creator either wasn't the person running it, or was, depending on which month you ask him.
The Upsell Funnel
SeeAir didn't just collect pledge money through Kickstarter. They built a chain to route backers off-platform for more purchases.
On March 15, 2023, backers got a Kickstarter message: "Please click on the link below to complete your order." The link went to pledge-tools286.com/SeeAir.html. That domain belongs to Jellop, a self-described "launch marketing machine" for Kickstarter campaigns. Real company, real clients. They registered the domain through GoDaddy in November 2021. Their own site calls themselves "The $1 Billion Launch Marketing Machine." The pledge-tools286.com subdomain has a scam-detector trust score of 15.6 out of 100.
So a professional marketing agency bolted a payment page onto the campaign that looked like part of the Kickstarter flow but wasn't. Money spent there sat outside Kickstarter's already-thin buyer protections.
Then in June and July 2023, PledgeBox (pledgebox.com) sent survey emails on behalf of SeeAir. "Response needed to deliver your reward." Backers confirmed shipping addresses and bought add-ons through PledgeBox's system. Another middleman, another layer between the backer and whoever actually holds the cash.
Kickbooster ran a referral program at seeair-tankless-dive-system.kickbooster.me, paying commissions to anyone who drove new backers to the campaign.
The campaign page also listed a remarkable stack of promotional partners: NewBacker, BackerCrew, BackerMany, BackerNow, BackersOnly, BackerRock, FundingInsiderNY, BackerSpaces, iGadgetsHub, Kickstartech. At least eleven marketing agencies pushing this thing. Eleven companies paid to amplify a project that delivered nothing.
This was an operation, not a hobbyist who got in over his head.
Kickstarter's Cut
Kickstarter collected roughly $36,000 in fees from this campaign. Standard 5% on $722,178.
When I reported the fraud to Kickstarter support on November 2, 2023 (ticket #1905811), the response was what you'd expect from a company that already pocketed its cut. A support agent named Corentin J. escalated to Trust & Safety and told me to use the "Report this project" button. I already had. Two months later, January 3, 2024, I followed up. A different agent, Tasha, sent boilerplate about "monitoring creators." No specific action, no refund, no escalation to law enforcement.
Kickstarter restricted the SeeAir account at some point. That's the full extent of it. They took $36,000 in fees from a campaign whose listed creator wasn't the actual operator, whose real founder is a name most backers had never seen, and whose domains are now dead. Their response was to ban the account and move on.
Kickstarter's terms of service say they're "not a store." That phrase carries a lot of weight. It means they collect fees from transactions they facilitate but accept no responsibility when those transactions turn out to be fraudulent. Clean structure: you get the revenue without the obligation.
The Payment Trail
I paid $362 via Mastercard. The chargeback window closed long before it became clear this was fraud. That's part of the design. Crowdfunding campaigns run on long delivery timelines. By the time you realize you've been had, your card issuer can't help.
The creator is based in Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Companies Registry (ICRIS) is accessible through a clunky government portal that timed out when I tried searching it. Finding the actual corporate entity behind SeeAir, if one exists, requires manual digging that most individual backers won't do for $362.
That's the math working in the scammer's favor. 2,003 backers, average pledge around $360. Nobody's flying to Hong Kong to chase $360. Multiply by 2,003 and you get $722,178. Enough to be worth stealing. Not enough for any individual victim to pursue.
Who's Accountable
SeeAir (Hong Kong) / Jian Wei: Identified by Kobayashi as the Founder and CEO in Kickstarter Update #3. The company took $722,178, delivered nothing, and disappeared.
Kickstarter: Collected ~$36,000 in fees. Verified a campaign where the listed creator disclaims involvement. Restricted the account after the money was gone. Offered no remedy to 2,003 backers.
Jellop: Operated the external pledge page at pledge-tools286.com that funneled backers off Kickstarter for additional purchases. A professional marketing agency that apparently performed no meaningful diligence on the client whose money they were processing.
PledgeBox: Handled surveys and add-on management. Another intermediary in the chain, another company that took a fee from a fraudulent campaign.
Collin Kobayashi: Listed as Creator on Kickstarter. Says he was just a contractor. He may be telling the truth. Either way, his name was on the campaign page for months while 2,003 people made purchasing decisions.
The Pattern
The SeeAir story isn't unique. Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and similar platforms have hosted hundreds of campaigns that raised significant money and never delivered. The shape is always the same: polished campaign page, aggressive marketing, long delivery timeline, gradual silence, eventual disappearance.
What sets SeeAir apart is the machinery around it. Marketing agencies, pledge managers, referral programs, at least eleven promotional partners. Multiple companies took their cut along the way. None of them returned their cut.
When a platform collects fees from every transaction, limits its involvement to "we're not a store," and then shrugs when 2,003 people lose $722,178, the platform is part of the problem. Not the main problem. But not an innocent bystander either.
What You Can Do
If you backed SeeAir or a similar fraudulent campaign:
- File a report with your local consumer protection authority. In the US, that's the FTC. In Europe, your national consumer protection agency. Mention the $722K scope and the 2,003 victims.
- Report to Hong Kong Police through their e-Report Centre. The Commercial Crime Bureau handles international fraud cases.
- Contact your card issuer's fraud department, even if the chargeback window has passed. Ask about fraud exceptions. Some banks have extended dispute windows for documented scams.
- Complain to the intermediaries. Jellop (jellop.com), PledgeBox (pledgebox.com), and GoDaddy (which hosted pledge-tools286.com) all facilitated this operation. They should hear from the people they helped separate from their money.
- Search the Hong Kong Companies Registry at ICRIS for "SeeAir" or "Jian Wei." Slow and finicky, but it's the only way to find the actual corporate entity.
Kickstarter won't help you. The creator is gone. The intermediaries will point at each other. The only leverage 2,003 people have is collective action and public record.
Which is why I'm writing this.
This is a factual account of my personal experience as a backer. Individuals named are identified based on public Kickstarter records and their own public statements.
$362. Gone. No product, no refund, no accountability. Yet.