Obviously Kickstarter have access to more information than anyone outside the company so it's probably the case that this is fraud (comparing IP addresses and Amazon account details on backers etc) however looking through the comments on the Kickstarter there does appear to be some genuine comments.
For example there are two comments from before the project blew up from "B.B." and "tomicakes" both claiming to have tried the Jerky at one of the taste sessions these guys held, the "B.B" user registered in April 2013 and has created and backed other projects, "tomicakes" also backed another project and commented on it quite a few times.
If this is a case of fraud they went all out on it... the accounts using to shill pre-date the kickstarter. With this in mind it looks like it's possible that the problem was not the jerky did not exist but maybe they weren't using actual Kobe Beef? Maybe the fraud was the product itself, not the existence of the product?
B.B[1] posted a comment on May 18 saying, "i had kobe red jerky yesterday at the GREAT GOOGAMOOGA MUSIC AND FOOD FESTIVAL in brooklyn NYC and it was amazing!"
B.B has an account on Kickstarter registered in April 2013. The account has backed 6 projects and created 1. The project created was a "gay handbook for straight friends" (B.B identifies as a gay woman) created on April 17 that had 18 backers for a total of $501, the goal was $1700 and was not met.
Tomicakes[2] was created in May 2013, the account backed the KRJ project and another called "Natural Decadence: Gluten-free Grahams.". The account posted multiple comments on KRJ claiming to have tasted it at an event (and goes on to interact with B.B in the comments), tomicakes also commented on the "Natural Decadence: Gluten-free Grahams." project a couple of times.
There's more comments from people claiming to have tasted it with account histories. This is either people seriously committed to fraud (I guess it's possible when it's hundreds of thousands on the line... but the target was only 2k) or the fraud is the product quality. I feel that backing a wide variety of different projects and creating different projects across a wide variety of accounts is the point where this becomes more likely a misunderstanding vs. premeditated fraud.
The ways in which the project came out as a fraud are so very amateur that if this is a pre-meditated fraud (in that someone created fake projects, backed projects, created plausible accounts months in advance) I can't see how they managed to screw up so royally when it comes to whois and usernames?
edit: oh I see what you mean about the first project, impossible to find out as the account has been removed and there's no google cache. If the project previously matches the current MO (30 day) then yes, it may well match up!
Unfortunately if they follow up and read through various descriptions of their activities they will know what they did wrong and take steps to correct it making the next fraud all that harder to detect.
For example there are two comments from before the project blew up from "B.B." and "tomicakes" both claiming to have tried the Jerky at one of the taste sessions these guys held, the "B.B" user registered in April 2013 and has created and backed other projects, "tomicakes" also backed another project and commented on it quite a few times.
If this is a case of fraud they went all out on it... the accounts using to shill pre-date the kickstarter. With this in mind it looks like it's possible that the problem was not the jerky did not exist but maybe they weren't using actual Kobe Beef? Maybe the fraud was the product itself, not the existence of the product?