Swedish gambling philanthropist Erik Bergman loses $1.25 million in sophisticated MrBeast impersonation scam

• Catena Media co-founder and Great.com founder falls victim to elaborate fraud after legitimate charity donation
• Scammers exploited WhatsApp group chat impersonating MrBeast and other celebrities to build trust and promote fake investment opportunity
• Bergman publicly shares detailed account of fraud to warn others whilst MrBeast offers $100,000 reward for scammer arrests

Swedish entrepreneur Erik Bergman, co-founder of publicly traded gambling affiliate Catena Media and founder of charitable platform Great.com, has lost $1.25 million to sophisticated fraudsters who impersonated YouTube star MrBeast and other people including Stake.com owner Ed Craven and Shopify’s CEO Tobi Lutke.

The elaborate cryptocurrency scam began after Bergman made a genuine $1 million donation to MrBeast’s Team Water charity initiative.

Who is Erik Bergman

Bergman, born in Jönköping, Sweden in 1988, built his fortune in the online gambling industry after moving to Malta in 2010 with childhood friend Emil Thidell.

The pair co-founded Catena Media in 2012, which became one of the world’s largest gambling affiliates. The company went public on the Swedish stock exchange on the 11th of February 2026, Bergman’s 28th birthday, with a valuation of approximately $200 million.

Describing his early years in a 2018 cover story written by DN Journal, Bergman reveals:

“At 17 I started playing online poker and at 18 I got really good at it,” Bergman said. “I made up to $10,000 per month. The poor kid was now the rich kid – and I wanted everyone to know! I spent all my money on things that could be seen – expensive clothes, champagne, a car, a fancy TV – and I was the first one of my friends to get my own apartment.”  

After leaving Catena Media in 2017, Bergman launched Great.com, purchasing the premium domain for $900,000 with the mission of donating 100% of profits to charity.

The platform has contributed over $325,000 to climate-focused organisations including Clean Air Task Force and Coalition for Rainforest Nations.

“I knew the gambling industry inside and out after almost a decade of building Catena Media, a leader in the iGaming world. I thought, why not create another one,” Bergman said in a 2021 article by Founders Pledge titled Why I don’t want to gamble with giving.

“So, I purchased Great.com and decided to start a new gambling affiliate brand that would donate all its profits to vetted charities designed to help mitigate the global climate crisis (which we determined to be one of the most impactful and pressing global issues).

Sophisticated scam

The scam unfolded after Bergman’s legitimate donation to Team Water, MrBeast’s campaign to build wells across Africa. Fraudsters posing as Team Water representatives contacted him via WhatsApp, inviting him to join what appeared to be an exclusive group chat with high-profile donors.

“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,” Bergman explained in a detailed public account of the fraud.

The fake chat included impersonators of MrBeast, fellow YouTuber Mark Rober, billionaire entrepreneurs Tobi Lutke (Shopify) and Ed Craven (Stake.com), and streaming personality Adin Ross.

Scammers carefully built trust through casual conversation before introducing what they claimed was an exclusive cryptocurrency investment partnership between MrBeast and Coinbase.

The scammers wrote on the group that they’ve signed a deal with Coinbase.

The message continued by saying that, as a benefit to their donors, anyone who donated more than 1 million dollars to Team Water, MrBeast’s project, would be allowed to take advantage of the opportunity.

The fake ‘Ed Craven’ then jumped in, giving credibility to the project.

Watch Eric Bergman’s newly released video where he explains how it happened.

$1.25 million gone in a second

Believing he was participating in an elite donor investment circle, Bergman transferred $500,000 initially, followed by another $750,000 when presented with a second opportunity. The fraudsters created urgency by claiming limited availability and price increases with fake participants expressing excitement about returns.

“I just got scammed for $1.25 million. I feel ashamed and stupid,” Bergman confessed publicly, sharing comprehensive documentation including screenshots, chat logs, and wallet addresses on his website.

The deception unravelled when Bergman noticed inconsistencies, including a British phone number for American streamer Adin Ross. When he contacted MrBeast directly to verify the investment opportunity, the YouTuber confirmed no such partnership existed.

100,000 reward for information leading to arrest

MrBeast has publicly condemned the scheme and offered a $100,000 reward for credible information leading to the scammers’ arrests. The reward can be claimed through Bergman’s Great.com platform, which features an online submission form for evidence.

“I made over $50 million before I turned 30. Since then, my top priority has been to contribute to a better world,” Bergman states on his LinkedIn profile, where he describes himself as a “gambling philanthropist” with lifetime donations exceeding $6.2 million.

Cybersecurity experts classify this as a “pig butchering” scam, where fraudsters build long-term trust before promoting fraudulent investments. The sophisticated approach included multiple parallel conversations and social engineering tactics designed to exploit philanthropic enthusiasm.

Bergman’s detailed public account serves as a cautionary tale for other potential victims and demonstrates his continued commitment to transparency and public service despite personal financial loss.

See the entire conversations on Great.com.