Good god that is a hard headline to grok. I thought it had something to do with the actual day prior to something else.

They definitely should be treated as super sketchy, because they are, but abandoning a project that doesn’t get anywhere near goals is part of the idea of kickstarter. It’s “this idea takes some minimum investment to make happen, and you (the funder) are willing to spend $X to make that happen if the critical mass is reached”. Abandoning failed campaigns is the core concept.