For the last year I have been mentoring and consulting a new start-up out of Dallas called KAMMOK™ International, a revolutionary outdoor recreational gear and equipment brand.

On July 12th we launched the brand and its first product via Kickstarter, the incredible crowd-sourcing platform that has blown me away (that’s another story). KAMMOK’s goal was to raise $15,000 for production of their Kammok ROO™, a camping hammock, and in less than a week they brought in more than $30,000.  

Now with 27 days left in the campaign, KAMMOCK has raised over $95,000 and has been covered in Wired, WSJ, Uncrate, Werd, WFAA Dallas local news and other design and tech blogs around the world, including a partnership with MiiR Water Bottles, which provides clean water solutions through the sales of its products.

With quick success and media attention come a lot of interesting invitations, marketing pitches, phone calls, emails and, as you’ll see, scams. In our third week of the campaign I received a phone call from the Biography Channel, by a producer who was interested in our story. 

They had come across KAMMOK™ on the web, and one of their producers fell in love with the brand’s story, the innovative product and the giving strategy of the company (20% of profits), and how KAMMOK™ had come up with a solution to providing an alternative source of bedding (and mosquito netting) for children in third world countries who are affected by disease because of sleeping on the ground, insect bites and other illnesses. I talked with the producer for a good 20 minutes before setting up a call between the CEO of KAMMOK™ and the head producer of Biography to talk details.

The following day, Greg McEvilly, the CEO of KAMMOK™, spoke on the phone with the producer for between one and two hours, discussing the story. The producer was more than excited — he stated how amazed he was by the giving structure and product itself. They went over KAMMOK’s vision for investing in children with need, future product innovation, the viral aspect of their Kickstarter campaign and breadth of reach for a story like this.

Here’s the deal Biography laid out: KAMMOK would get a three- to five-minute spot for one year; a one minute “educational” piece aired on MSNBC, CNBC, Discovery, The Outdoor Channel and many others; plus a “narrowcasting” promotion “laser-targeted” for specific outdoor, camping, design, and humanitarian broadcasts and media. The spot would hit numerous affiliates, blogs, and national TV markets, and it would reach on the low end 60 million people, bringing over 200,000 people to the KAMMOK™ web site in the first few days of the story alone.  

But there was a cost, and because of KAMMOK’s heart and giving strategy, Biography would drop the normal $25,000 cost to $17,000 for the filming and production of the piece. Shortly after the call, Greg and I got on the phone and began to talk numbers, financial numbers. Could KAMMOK handle that many people on the website ordering? Could we raise the capital to have enough inventory by the time the piece aired in 6-8 months? This opportunity could be absolutely amazing for a brand that is already in discussions with other large print media and outdoor retailers. The exposure. The coverage. Could this really be happening?!

The contract came through from Biography, and Greg sent it over to KAMMOK’s lawyer to look over carefully. While the lawyer was looking over the contract, Greg and I continued to discuss finances and the possibilities wrapped up around making a down payment of that size when the company is still raising capital. We landed on a lot of positives, and a lot of negatives, but we couldn’t come to an final answer. We decided to see what the lawyer came back with, and I would send out emails to friends in the media world to seek their wisdom. We had to give Biography an answer that day.

Greg phoned me a few hours later with news from the lawyer — he was very skeptical about the opportunity. The company had a short operating history, and a quick Google search found several complaints about the company running a scam. The KAMMOK team had also uncovered numerous reports about companies being scammed by someone claiming to be the Biography network.  

KAMMOK also called some of the media affiliates the producer mentioned would be picking up the story, and those people had never dealt with or used media from Biography. I also began to receive a number of emails back from my network:“Be careful sounds a bit odd,” “Journalists don’t usually charge fees for stories, do some research,” “ I have never heard of anything working this way.” We obviously decided to not go forward with the project and are now better equipped to think things through and research the hell out of them before making a decision.

I have been through a number of attempted scams over the past year, all dealing with sales of my artwork. The one thing that has saved my ass from selling a $5,000 piece of artwork to a con artist was a lot of research, digging and asking questions. Sad to say that there are many people in this world trying to cheat, steal and lie their way to success, wealth and status at others expense. 

So do your research, think things through, discuss it with your close friends/family, and ask for help from those with some knowledge and wisdom. It could save you $20,000! If you are contacted by any type of media for your company, idea or story, and they are asking for money upfront, be leery, because if your story or company is amazing someone will share it for free. Someone like me who loves supporting individuals and ideas that are trying to change the world!

Feel free to visit the KAMMOK™ International Kickstarter campaign here.

Ty Clark is the CEO of Veritas Fashion. He likes to think that he is an Artist, Fashion Designer, Writer, Social Entrepreneur, Activist, non-media mogul and vagabond traveler.

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