It&#x27;s unclear to me also.  I don&#x27;t think I&#x27;ve actually been scammed, but it&#x27;s possible and I&#x27;m kind of still waiting to find out.<p>There&#x27;s a trick to it:  asking for the money in stages, because if you make it to a stage then you don&#x27;t have to give everything back.<p>So if you truly need $100K, you first set your goal to $15K, then $40K, then $75K, then $100K. That way if you fail to raise your $100K, you still get to keep your $75K or whatever your max was.  It seems that it&#x27;s against the spirit of the sites, but it works.<p>On the books it&#x27;s a failure, but the folks walk away with the money.  Is it a scam?  I&#x27;m not sure.