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AffPapa Exclusive: Erik Bergman reflects on $1.25M MrBeast fake crypto scam
In this AffPapa exclusive, Erik Bergman, the founder of Catena Media and co-founder of Great.com, shares new details about the $1.25M cryptocurrency scam that impersonated some of the internet’s biggest names like MrBeast and Mark Rober.
Having first revealed the news on social media, Bergman now opens up in detail on the red flags he overlooked, the challenge of explaining the ordeal to family and friends, and what drove the difficult decision to go public.
Erik, you shared a broad overview of what happened with us in your YouTube video, and you said that when you got the call from MrBeast and Mark Rober you “felt like a 13-year-old boy wanting to fit in with the cool kids.” It’s clear that the feeling affected your decision at the time, but were there any small details or a gut feeling that you ignored, but now you can see clearly as a red flag?
That’s a good question. I feels a bit embarrassed to say yes, but looking back I think I had several immediate feelings that something was off but that I ignored. I felt that the first message I got felt a bit off, and I was surprised that MrBeast was using “MrBeast” as a screen name and not “Jimmy”.
Both of these feelings I unfortunately ignored, and I think the key here was that I really wanted everything to be true. I was so excited about being invited on a trip to Africa with these guys that it shut off my usual alarm bells.
Financially, this was, of course, a massive hit. But on the emotional side of it, how did you explain it to your close circle? Your family, your brother, or even your friend Bobby who was also involved?
The first thing I did was to say that I felt “ashamed and stupid”, and after that things went pretty easy. I think that sentence is key, to start by admitting shame and stupidity makes people less likely to judge, since I’ve already mentioned that I feel stupid.
To my friends and family I didn’t explain much in the beginning. I just gave them very vague details and told them about the scam in general.
Bobby had been involved so much during the scam that it was pretty easy to explain to him. He has talked a lot to them as well and had seen how realistic it was. I also immediately said that I would cover his losses. He would never have fallen for this if I didn’t say it was MrBeast so it felt important to me to take full responsibility.
You could have chosen to stay silent and handle this privately, but you went public. You’ve been very transparent, even publishing wallet addresses and chat logs. Did you hesitate before making that decision?
Yes, I hesitated a lot. It feels scary to go public with something like this. Both in relationship to my friends, but also in relationship to MrBeast and Mark Rober. We know each other as well, and admitting openly how star struck I was and how stupidly I acted felt very embarrassing in relationship to them.
I was also afraid that this story would somehow taint the brand of Team Water and MrBeast and that it would somehow backfire on them.
Have other entrepreneurs, influencers, or non-public figures reached out to you privately, regarding them having been scammed too?
Yes, lots of them. Almost everyone I’ve talked to have their own stories of scams. Both large and small.
One woman had been scammed on her first day in her new job. Someone had reached out to her from an email address very similar to her new boss’s, asked her to buy gift cards for the team, and then send the gift cards over to “the boss”.
Another one had ended up in a very similar crypto scheme like the one that happened to me, with a group chat of high status igaming people. All people were fake in that chat too, but they invited my friend into a crypto deal, he sent the money, and then everyone vanished.
Your case really shows us how sophisticated scams have become. There’s no more random emails, these are highly personalized manipulations. The scammers even used Coinbase’s name to legitimize themselves. After this came to light, did anyone from Coinbase reach out or comment, or maybe you contacted them about the impersonation?
Yes, I’ve been in contact with Coinbase and they have been very helpful and supportive. They saw my tweet about it and reached out to me.
What responsibility do you think crypto platforms and major companies have to prevent their brands from being hijacked like this? Do you think they could be doing more?
I think it would be almost impossible for the brands to do anything about it unfortunately.
I used to have a large following on social media myself and everyday people just copied all my images, set up a username very similar to me, and then started reaching out to my followers pretending to be me.
As soon as I got one account shut down, they opened two new ones, like a hydra.
If anyone can do something about it its the big platforms like Instagram or WhatsApp. Have built in systems that analyze what is written – but then comes other privacy concerns.
You went to the police, but as you’ve said, progress has been slow. Can you walk us through that process from the moment you reported it? How is the law enforcement handling it? What are the limits you have noticed about how these kinds of crimes are dealt with?
The police have unfortunately done barely nothing so far. I reported everything, they came back with a few clarifying questions, and since then it has been silent.
Unfortunately I think they are very understaffed and not able to deal with all scams coming in.
Since this whole thing piggybacked on a real donation you made to Team Water, has it changed how you view influencer-led charity drives in general? And on a more personal level, did you change your perspective on online investments?
It hasn’t changed my view on influencer-led charities. I will keep supporting them and hope they do more. I think it’s fantastic when influencers put anything about doing good in front of us and are role models in that way rather than by bragging about their houses and cars.
On a personal level I’m usually very strict with how I invest. I’ve taken a lot of hits when I go outside my normal structure, and this was unfortunately another evidence that I should stick to what I know. So I think I will be even stricter in the future sticking with my well established long term strategy of index fund investment.
Your experience with this scam highlights how easily trust can be manipulated online. In many ways, the same dynamics show up in the iGaming industry. With that in mind, do you see similarities between how scammers manipulate trust in crypto and in iGaming? Would you ever consider using your experience to help iGaming or crypto companies better protect their users?
My guess is that scams a lot of the time are very similar in various industries. It’s all about building fake trust, adding urgency and creating an offer that you really want to be true. My assumption is that the similarities in igaming or crypto are a lot more than the differences.
When it comes to helping others, I’m happy to tell my story, and hopefully that will help many. I don’t think I’m the guy to be a consultant or go into details of scams in general though. I don’t know much outside my experience with this scam.
You’ve said your brother reminded you that “shame only survives in silence.” Did you coming out publicly with the story change how you’ve been dealing with it? What do you hope people will take away from your openness?
If the only thing that someone takes with them from seeing this is that sentence – “shame only survives in silence”, I’m happy. I think that is key. If we spoke more openly in general about the things we felt ashamed of, I think we would have a much better world.
Already before this scam happened it was a deep conviction in me that transparency is how I want to live. This experience has just made that conviction stronger seeing how many people have felt supported by hearing me share.
Finally, you’ve shared all chat logs, phone numbers and wallet transactions on Great.com. What do you hope to accomplish with this?
I hope we can get more eyes on this. The more people that see the evidence, the more likely it is that someone knows something. There is a $100 000 reward set by MrBeast himself for anyone that gives information that leads to an arrest. I still have hopes for justice and being able to recover my money.
I also want to set an example for other people getting scammed. If more people shared their experience, and the evidence, it would be a lot harder for other scammers to succeed.
Even with significant losses, Bergman sees the experience as a lesson in resilience and in being alert without losing trust entirely. With this exclusive on Bergman’s story, AffPapa aims to provide a clear reminder of how easily trust can be manipulated online why sharing the full story matters.
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