Erik Bergman, founder of online gambling lead-generating giant Catena Media, hit for $1.25m in obvious MrBeast impersonation scam

[Dan Druff]

Sometimes I'm shocked by smart people falling for really dumb scams, especially those who are already internet/social media savvy.

Erik Bergman founded Catena Media. You may not have heard of them, but they specialize in "lead generation" for online gambling. Basically they create content about online gambling, then harvest the data on the users consuming it, and sell it to the gambling sites in order to directly market to these people. Bergman and a friend started it in 2010, and it has grown huge. Some poker media figures such as Jess Welman eventually went on to work for Catena (but I don't believe she's there anymore).

Anyway, Bergman just confessed on X that he was scammed for $1,250,000 in a complex-yet-simple impersonation scheme, where foreign scammers pretended to be MrBeast and other huge social media names, and convinced him to "invest" in a supposed new coin started by Coinbase.

Embedded Tweet

https://twitter.com/smilingerik/status/1961439631653617983

I just got scammed for $1.25 million.

I feel ashamed and stupid.

This story starts with me getting a phone call from @MrBeast and @MarkRober.

They ask me to donate money @teamwater. To build wells in Africa and help people get clean water.

I'm surprised by their call. We've met before but haven't spoken in years.

I take a few days to think. I focus on learning more about the water crisis in the world.

I decide to donate $1 million.

MrBeast gets excited about this and tweets to the world about the donation.

I'm proud and excited to be a part of this amazing campaign!

About a week later I get a message from Team Water on WhatsApp on my personal phone number. They are excited about the donation. They invite me on a trip with the top donors to Africa. To see the wells being built and then stay for a few days for a wildlife safari.

To go to Africa and see wells like this being built is long time a dream of mine.

I'm excited to go! I immediately say yes.

Then they add me to a WhatsApp-group with some of the other top donors.

Jimmy (MrBeast that is) is in group, so is Mark Rober and then some well known billionaires like @StakeEddie and @tobi and streamer super stars like @adinross.

I can't believe I'm in this group.

I feel like a 13 year old boy wanting to fit in.

They are all chatting and have a good banter going on.

I find myself writing a message... then deleting what I wrote because it didn't feel cool enough.

I write it again... then delete it.

I can't believe I will be travelling with these people to Africa!

Jimmy tells the group about another charity project he wants to start. Everyone is eager to help out more.

This conversation goes on for about a week.

It's Friday. I'm heading away for a weekend trip with a bunch of my friends. I've been looking forward to this for months. We have a packed schedule and I'm very excited.

On Saturday, Jimmy writes in the chat and tells us about this other opportunity. He has just signed a deal with @coinbase, one of the largest crypto exchanges that will launch their own crypto coin.

As a part of a marketing collaboration Jimmy has gotten the chance to buy in early on this coin.

As a thank you he wants to extend this offer to anyone who donated over $1 million.

Everything is secretive and it's important to act fast.

This is where I should have stopped. When someone needs you to act fast - it's often to get you to do something without thinking.

But I didn't...

Everyone in the chat gets excited about this.

I know some of them are real crypto experts and they jump on this opportunity.

I don't know much about crypto. But the 13 year old boy in me wants to belong. If they are excited. I want to be excited.

I also don't want to be the only one on this trip to Africa that didn't join in on the investment.

I find myself calling a crypto friend telling him about this. And he says that if Coinbase is launching a coin, and we can get early access to it, it's a sure win!

I get even more excited!

I'm also very distracted. I don't want to be in my head right now. I want to join my friends for this workshop they are doing. I'm finally at this event, I want to get the most of it.

I go to the workshop but I'm all in my head. I keep thinking about this investment and it frustrates me. I don't want to make business decisions now but I also don't want to miss out.

The workshop ends and I call my friend again. We are both excited and we don't want to miss out.

We say fuck it, lets go!

Within a few hours we have sent $500 000 in crypto to the wallet we were given.

The chat is going strong and people are even more excited.

@StakeEddie wants in, but he is too slow.

When he asks if it can get solved after the deadline, he is told that it's unfortunately too late.

I read it and I can't believe a guy like that gets rejected.

The next day Jimmy writes again and says that there is a new chance to invest. However the price has now gone up, from $0.15 per coin to $0.30.

The maximum investment in this round is $750 000. I call my friend again.

I tell him about the billionaire that got rejected and how everyone else is buying in again.

I'm still att the event. I'm still super distracted by other things - and we end up falling for it again, sending another $750 000.

It's now Monday.

The retreat has ended and I'm heading home.

I still have a good feeling about all of this and I'm excited. I'm also exhausted after the weekend. Lots of experiences to process and far too little sleep.

On Tuesday, Jimmy writes one more time in the chat. Saying that this is the final chance to get it. The price is now $0.45 and everything up until now has been taken.

Once again I call my friend and we say let's go.

We are about to send the money.

But this time something makes me stop for a second.

Something in my belly says to look closer at the details.

For the first time in these 72 hours I actually stop to properly think.

And I see some details that are off. I know one of the @adinross is American, but his phone number is British, why is that?

For the first time since this chat started, I call Jimmy just to confirm everything.

And he says "What are you talking about?"

And that's a punch to my stomach.

I say "Please say that you are fucking kidding me?!" and I send him a print screen of the chat.

He looks at is and says: "Wow, I don't know what to say... please tell me you didn't send them any money..."

And I reply "1.25 million..."

The realisation sinks in. Oh fuck...

The first phone call from a few weeks ago was Jimmy. The real Jimmy. The fundraiser for clean water was Jimmy. The real Jimmy.

But the person reaching out from his team, wasn't from his team. It was a scammer.

The Jimmy in the chat, wasn't Jimmy. It was a scammer.

It was all very skilfully orchestrated.

All the people in the chat were fake. All the banter was fake. The trip to Africa was fake.

I feel the shame inside of me. The regret. The sadness. The anger.

I've been fooled.

I so deeply wanted to belong in this group that I acted way out of character. I trusted "Jimmy" and I followed the peer pressure of the "billionaires" and "super stars".

I broke so many of my own principles of how to make decisions.

But at least there is a silver lining...

I've been scammed before. The first time, I was scammed for about $3000 when I was 20.

A fortune to me back then.

That time I felt so ashamed that I didn't tell anyone about it for many years.

The shame kept haunting me.

This time, the first thing I did was to tell my wife.

Later I wrote to tell my parents and my brother.

Then a group chat with many of my closest friends.

I've gotten so much support.

My brother wrote me a message that moved me to tears. I've read it over and over. (I'm adding it below if you want to read it)

I've also cried. I've screamed. I've punched.

Then done it all over again.

I'm sharing this story partly to integrate it more.

Change the emotional experience from shame and anger - to - something else.

I'm not sure yet what that is.

But pretty much every feeling is better than shame.

I already feel a lot less shame...

-

The next time you fuck up. Think of this story.

Remember that we all fuck up sometimes.

-

The next time you feel shame. Think of this story.

Remember that shame can only live in the shadows. Tell people about your shame, and I promise that the feeling will change.

-

On a final note.

Even after this has happened. I'm still very proud to be a part of Team Water.

I still believe Jimmy and Mark are amazing! I struggle to find words to describe the positive impact they have on the world.

Thanks you for reading <3

[Dan Druff]

Cliffs:

- Bergman got a call from the actual MrBeast and Mark Rober, regarding donating to "Team Water", which is a charity bringing clean water to Africa

- Bergman donated $1,000,000 to it, and MrBeast publicly thanked him

- Scammers then seize upon this opportunity, and set up accounts on WhatsApp impersonating MrBeast and various top social media names. They invite Bergman to the chat, and he isthe only one in the entire chat not in on the scam.

- The scammers, impersonating MrBeast and the others, convince Bergman that he is being invited on a special African trip where the top donors for Team Water would see the new wells being built. Believing he will be rubbing elbows with MrBeast and these other famous influencers, Bergman gets excited and loses all ability to reason.

- Eventually, after it's clear Bergman has fallen for the ruse hook line and sinker, fake MrBeast claims he signed a deal with Coinbase, and thus has the opportunity to buy into their new (not yet announced) coin.

- MrBeast then says that everyone in the chat has the ability to buy into the coin, but only for a limited time. All the influencers there feign excitement (remember, they're all phony accounts and in on the scam), and Bergman is completely fooled.

- Bergman calls a "crypto friend" for advice. The idiot friend doesn't smell scam and tells him it sounds like a great opportunity (lol).

- He sends $500,000 to the wallet provided by fake MrBeast in order to reserve $500k of the new coin. To make the ruse look even more realistic, one of the fake influencers is "too late" and misses the deadline, and they won't let him buy in.

- 3 days later, MrBeast says that there's one more chance to buy in, and the coin has already gone up from $0.15 to $0.45. Bergman sends $750,000 to the same address.

- Shortly after sending, he realizes that one of the influencers, Adin Ross, has a +44 phone number listed despite being American. He starts to suspect he might have been scammed. He calls the real MrBeast who of course knows nothing about this.

The end.



Pretty amazing that this worked. While it was clever for the scammers to build a scam around MrBeast's announcement that Bergman had donated $1m to Team Water, the scam also had a lot of really big potential fail points.

1) At any time, Bergman could have called or texted MrBeast about this, even if he didn't suspect anything yet, and then learned the truth

2) Bergman could have easily contacted one of the other influencers being impersonated, and again learned the truth that way

3) While some of the phony accounts (like Adin Ross) wrote in believable English, the person behind the MrBeast account made a ton of obvious grammatical mistakes, to where it should have been obvious that it wasn't the real MrBeast. See the screen shot.

4) Bergman could have googled about this supposed Coinbase coin (which didn't exist), and then gotten suspicious.

5) Bergman actually did consult a crypto friend -- twice! The scammers were just fortunate that the crypto friend was a complete moron and didn't see this as scammy.



Very dumb.

[BetCheckBet]

So guy tried to get in the start of a pyramid scheme (which he has no doubt done numerous times)? And this time turned out he was actually at the end of the pyramid scheme.... Zero sympathy.

[Dan Druff]

So guy tried to get in the start of a pyramid scheme (which he has no doubt done numerous times)? And this time turned out he was actually at the end of the pyramid scheme.... Zero sympathy.

Not really a pyramid scheme.

It was a (fake) Coinbase coin, similar to Binance's BNB.

So this was presented more as a ICO type of deal, where MrBeast was supposedly giving his buddies the opportunity to buy into the Coinbase coin before it was released to the general public. You could say he was engaging in a nepotism-enabled opportunity, but not a scam.