Fake MrBeast and “Stake Owner” Scam Major iGaming Entrepreneur Out of $1.25 Million

^{Photo: Erik Bergman, co-founder of Catena Media}

Erik Bergman, co-founder of Catena Media — a company that runs websites helping users navigate the online gambling industry — revealed on social media that he lost $1.25 million to fraudsters.

It all began when he received a call from popular YouTuber MrBeast (Jimmy Donaldson), who invited him to take part in a charity initiative called Team Water.

Background from Gambling Park: Team Water was co-founded by Jimmy Donaldson with the goal of raising funds to provide millions of people around the world with access to clean drinking water. By the end of August 2025, the project had reached its target of $40 million.

MrBeast at the launch of the Team Water charity project in Africa

Over the past few years, Bergman has been heavily involved in philanthropy, particularly supporting projects in Africa through his platform Great.com. The invitation from MrBeast immediately caught his attention. After a few days of consideration, Bergman agreed to join the cause and donated $1 million.

About a week later, he received a message from Team Water thanking him for his contribution and inviting him to visit Africa alongside other major donors to see the progress of well construction. This, however, turned out to be the start of the scam.

Bergman eagerly accepted, and soon after a group chat was created, supposedly including several high-profile figures: the aforementioned MrBeast, Stake.com co-founder Ed Craven, Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, streamer Adin Ross, and others.

The group was allegedly planning a joint trip to Africa, but as it later became clear, the participants were impostors. Unfortunately, Bergman realized this far too late.

As conversations in the group progressed, a fake MrBeast introduced the idea of investing in a new cryptocurrency allegedly backed by MrBeast and Coinbase, which was “set to skyrocket in value.” He urged the group to act quickly.

Not being deeply familiar with crypto, Bergman fell for the scheme and agreed, along with the supposed partners, to transfer funds to the designated account:

• His first transfer: $500,000 at $0.15 per token.
• His second transfer: $750,000 at $0.30 per token.

Only afterward did Bergman begin to suspect something was wrong. The first red flag was that Adin Ross’s phone number in the chat was British, despite the streamer being American.

To confirm his doubts, Bergman called the real MrBeast directly. The YouTuber was shocked and could only respond: “Please tell me you didn’t send them any money.”

Bergman’s reply was brief: “1.25 million dollars.”