MrBeast offers $100K reward for information on scam that targeted Catena co-founder

• MrBeast is offering $100,000 for information that can help identify the culprits behind a pig-butchering scheme that got Catena Media’s co-founder
• Such information can be submitted through Erik Bergman’s website, Great dot com, using an online form
• Bergman has been adamant about sharing his story with others to prevent them from becoming victims themselves

MrBeast is no stranger to becoming a victim of fraudulent attacks himself. The man’s name has been used to try to dupe millions of people worldwide, whether through cleverly orchestrated cryptocurrency schemes or the infamous MrBeast gambling app, instances of which continue to crop up.

MrBeast is committed to finding out who perpetrated the scam

The latest case involving the streamer and celebrity concerns a malicious scheme that claimed to be raising funds for clean water projects but was, in fact, nothing of the sort, and it caught a "big fish" in its net through clever engineering.

Erik Bergman, the co-founder of Catena Media, announced in August that he had donated $1m to MrBeast’s "Team Water" campaign, which sought to raise $40m for such projects across Africa. The only issue with this was that MrBeast had never launched such a project in the first place, and the campaign was completely unknown to him.

This is when Bergman realized that he had been duped. The scheme used the image and likeness of figures such as Mark Rober, MrBeast, Ed Craven, and Adin Ross. Bergman acknowledged the incident and said that he felt "stupid" and "ashamed," but he insisted on sharing the story to prevent others from getting into harm’s way.

However, MrBeast is not satisfied with simply gaining publicity for the story, and he wants to go after the culprits themselves. Bergman has already provided details about the case, disclosing screenshots of chat logs and phone numbers, as well as the crypto transaction details.

MrBeast is now offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who can produce relevant information about the scam. Details can be shared through Bergman’s Great dot com website and a dedicated online form.

Bergman won’t let the culprits exploit his shame for their gain

As to Bergman himself, his social media post got more than 5m views, with some people ridiculing the businessman while others expressed support. In Bergman’s view, the scammers often target high-profile people and use clever "pig-butchering" schemes to convince them to donate large amounts.

Then, they exploit the fact that such prominent people would feel disinclined to share their details about their encounter with others and expose themselves to ridicule. However, Bergman also believes that this is why such schemes continue to succeed, and was adamant that sharing the story was the right thing to do.

Overall, Bergman has donated more than $6.2m to various charities since his time since leaving Catena Media. He is not working in the traditional sense anymore, other than on his Great dot com website, where he is not taking a salary. In his own words, he has enough money and doesn’t want anything else, other than help.

Image credit: Unsplash.com