MrBeast Giveaway Scam: How to identify it?

Scammers impersonate Mr. Beast and try to lure people with fake giveaways

Mr. Beast has recently surpassed the Youtube’s most subscribed creator PewDiePie and became the most followed individual Youtuber. Known for creating entertaining videos that keep viewers hooked, MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) career really took off thanks to his philantrophy work. Videos focusing on various expensive stunts, such as cash giveaways and prizes as well as charity work have gained the Youtuber the 112-millionth subscriber this month.

While many people are wondering whether MrBeast giveaways are real of fake, the facts show that the Youtuber actually does what he says, however, it is important to point out that there are many scammers trying to take advantage of Jimmy Donaldson fame and create fake giveaways using his name for popularity. Therefore, in this article we will discuss MrBeast Giveaway Scam examples and explain how to identify them.

It is important to remember that Mr. Beast himself isn’t related to these scams in any way. If you have been scammed and are wondering how to message Mr. Beast, remember that he is not responsible for scammers using his name. Instead, contact local law enforcement agency responsible for handling cyber crime cases.

Example no. 1: Fake Youtube ads promoting MrBeast Giveaway scam page

One of the most widespread Mr Beast Giveaway scams is pushed via fake Youtube ads (examples shown in the image provided above). Unfortunately, it seems that the video sharing platform hasn’t figured out a way to ban these ads, and people see lots of these ads featuring an image of Mr. Beast, claiming that the Youtuber is giving away money for every person who visits the advertised page or watches a video.

After clicking on the deceptive ad, the user will be taken to a website (mb1kinfo[.]com, 1000-mbest[.]com or many others). The scam site falsely claims there is a promotion and Mr Beast money giveaway for every visitor who completes the required tasks. The scam also deceptively states there are only a number of quantities available and it will stop accepting new visitors within 30 minutes, giving the user a false impression that he/she should hurry in order to claim the “prize.”

According to three-step instructions provided on the page, the user has to click on the “Claim reward” button, download sponsor applications and then provide PayPal email address to receive money in a few minutes. However, you should never do as instructed, as you will not receive money, but instead, you will download a set of probably unwanted or even dangerous software and reveal your email address to scammers. As a consequence, you might start receiving spam on a regular basis.

The page also includes a totally made-up list of Youtube comments that praise the page and say the rewards have been claimed by them. However, keep in mind that this list is entirely fake and you shouldn’t believe what these comments state – they are created by the fake page owners. At the end of this deceptive page, we can see a false statement stating that the site was created by Mr. Beast and also a list of sponsors.

It is important to repeat that the sponsors listed on the deceptive website, or Mr. Beast himself, are NOT affiliated with the page in any way.

We decided to proceed on the page for research purposes so that you wouldn’t need to do so. In the next page, which is verifyyou[.]net, the user is asked to download some applications (in this case, Opera GX browser) and complete a survey to claim the promised reward.

The first link actually opens Opera download website, while the second takes us to another page, asking to complete a survey in order to get a $100 Roblox Game Card. The site also falsely claims that the user has to complete 25 deals to claim $1000 reward, or complete fewer to claim lower value rewards. However, keep in mind that the majority of those “deals” require user to sign up for various services, often paid ones. We suspect that the scam website generates revenue

Finally, the page asks the user to provide email address. However, you should never provide your contact information, including email address, to such shady pages as you might simply sign up for email spam.

The famous Youtuber has addressed the scam ads, stating “I’ve gotten fake ads of me giving away money at least a thousand times and feel bad for the hundreds of thousands of people that have been scammed :/ I’ve been screaming at them for forever to figure this out” in a tweet reply to Elon Musk’s meme about Youtube ignoring the fake ads on the video sharing platform.

In another tweet, he warned his followers, stating “If it doesn’t come from a verified MrBeast, it’s not me.”

Example no. 2: Fake MrBeast Giveaway Scam on Facebook

Scammers are also using the name of the famous Youtuber to spread MrBeast Giveaway scam on social media platforms like Facebook. There are many fake pages claiming to be affiliated with the famous philanthropist, and all of them function in a similar way. Here is a screenshot of the fake pages we found via FB search:

Many of these pages have low like count and continuously publish deceptive posts about MrBeast Giveaways. Aside from them, what these also regularly do is re-share individual people profile photos and add a caption stating the person was chosen during the giveaway and has to claim a massive award via provided link.

The link added to such fake post is shortened, usually via bit.ly or another URL shortening service, and leads to a deceptive page asking to provide personal information. The deceptive URLs we discovered during our research led us to a rather poorly designed Google forms questionnaire, clearly created by a sloppy scammer. The page includes “USA Government Approved stamp” and claims the giveaway isn’t a “scam,” which kind of obviously proves it IS a scam. What’s interesting is that the link promoted via these fake pages lead to a survey supposedly meant to grant a prize from another Youtuber, ThatWasEpic.

It could be that scammers are reusing the same URL and create different Google Forms designs, pretending to be different famous people in each case.

Threat Summary

Name	Mr Beast Giveaway Scam
Type	Pop-up Scam, Phishing, Youtube Ads Scam
Deceptive statement	The scam claims the user has been selected as the lucky winner in Mr. Beast Giveaway, and invites one to visit a deceptive website in order to “claim” the reward. The URL leads to a scam website asking the user to provide personal information or download “partner applications” in order to participate in the giveaway.
Websites associated with scam	1000-mbest[.]com, mb1kinfo[.]com, bit[.]ly/ClaimGiveawayNow
Potential damage	If the victim clicks on a malicious URL or attachment added to the email, one might be taken to a phishing website that asks to re-login to email account. Unfortunately, after providing the login credentials, these will be sent to cybercriminals. Additionally, these emails might contain deceptive attachments containing malware.
Distribution	Email spam campaigns
Removal	If you suspect that you have downloaded malware to your PC, remove it from your PC using trustworthy software like INTEGO Antivirus. To repair virus damage on Windows OS files, consider scanning with RESTORO (secure download link).
Recovery	Change the login credentials you provided via phishing link AS SOON AS possible.

What to do if you have been scammed?

If you suspect that you have been scammed, or have been convinced to download some potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) to you computer, then you should take action to protect yourself from further risks and report the scam to your Europol, IC3, NCSC or an institution responsible for handling cyber crime reports in your country.

In order to remove potentially unwanted programs that you may have installed, we strongly suggest that you use a trustworthy antivirus solution. Our team strongly relies on INTEGO Antivirus (Windows) or its version for Mac – INTEGO.

If you have provided sensitive information through deceptive MrBeast Giveaway scam pages, then you need to protect it. For example, if you have provided your bank details, then you need to contact your bank and let them know that you’ve been scammed. In addition, you should monitor your transactions regularly.

If you have provided your social security number to fraudsters, then you need to check your credit card score to notice any unsolicited transactions that may be initiated by scammers. It is essential to place a temporary fraud alert to let credit bureaus know that you’ve been affected by scammers. This alert usually expires after 1 year, but you can extend it as well. You can also request a copy of your credit report. Furthermore, if you notice some unrecognized bank transactions or fraudulent activity on your credit report, you should report such instances to police immediately.

In case you have revealed your passwords, you should visit the legitimate version of the website and change your password immediately. Create a unique, lengthy password that contains letters, numbers (uppercase and lowercase) as well as symbols.

Remove malware and potentially unwanted programs from your computer

Users who have fallen for Mr. Beast Giveaway scam and installed some unwanted programs unknowingly should remove unwanted software from their systems immediately. For this task, we recommend using a trustworthy antivirus software of your choice.

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