A YouTube creator with millions of followers says a highly sophisticated impersonation scam led multiple companies to ship $50,000 in e-bikes to a fraudster posing as him.
In an update shared with his 2.73 million YouTube subscribers, Berm Peak’s Seth Alvo says the scammer successfully pretended to be him in detailed business negotiations, exploiting trust and familiarity built over years of public content.
“Someone pretended to be me, and they successfully defrauded multiple bike companies, convincing them by email to ship tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of costly e-bikes to an address in North Carolina.”
Alvo says impersonation attempts are not new, but this case was different in its level of sophistication.
“In my 10 years as a YouTube creator, I’ve been impersonated many times unsuccessfully, but this scammer mimicked my style, created formal business proposals, forged my analytics, lied about my strategies and engaged in long, detailed email threads demonstrating the kind of knowledge that only a longtime viewer might possess. And he did this using a very convincing fake email address and a convincing Google Voice number with an 828 area code. He even provided a mailing address in North Carolina, which is where I live.”
Alvo says the fraud first came to light when one company questioned the legitimacy of the outreach.
“We first discovered the scammer when a company called Superhuman Bikes emailed us with a screenshot asking if it was really me. That’s usually not a good sign.”
He says a closer look at the communications revealed red flags that most people would miss.
“The scammer also used Photoshop to create a convincing snapshot of my internal YouTube data. A YouTube creator would know it’s fake, but 99% of people wouldn’t.”
Alvo believes the scale and polish of the operation strongly suggest the use of AI tools.
“This is a pretty clever scammer, but it’s unlikely he did this without the help of ChatGPT.”
He urges anyone who suspects fraud to report it to authorities, noting that individual reports help identify broader patterns.
“If you’ve been scammed or even suspect fraud, file a complaint with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Include screenshots, the fake username and any other evidence.”
Alvo says he has not publicly named the suspect, stressing due process.
“I still haven’t mentioned this guy’s name because for now, he’s innocent until proven guilty.”
According to Alvo, law enforcement has since become involved, and the alleged scammer may now face serious consequences.
“[Thanks to the] Greensboro police, and a little help from the FBI, this guy is potentially facing a lot of fraud charges, many of them felonies.”
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