Awoman has said that after winning a car in a giveaway competition run by the YouTube star MrBeast, she was later disqualified.
MrBeast’s videos—many of which involve viral stunts and challenges or massive giveaways—cost millions to produce, Rolling Stone reported in 2022. One of his most popular, and most expensive, videos to produce was a real-life recreation of Netflix’s Squid Game. It has over 625 million views on YouTube and cost $3.5 million.
At 26 years old, MrBeast—real name Jimmy Donaldson—holds the record for the most subscribers on YouTube, with 290 million followers at the time of writing. According to Forbes, in 2022 he was earning $54 million a year, mostly from ads on his YouTube videos. He has also become known for giving back to his followers, often uploading videos of his charitable acts.
On Wednesday, thousands of fans turned out to watch MrBeast give away 10 cars, including a Lamborghini, in Sydney. In an interview with 9news.com.au, a woman named Isabella Wilson said she was one of the lucky few who had won a car in the YouTuber’s competition. However, she said that after receiving multiple confirmations that she had won, MrBeast’s team deemed the receipt she used to enter the competition fraudulent.
“It’s absolutely not a fraudulent receipt,” Wilson told 9news.com.au. “That’s what’s upset me is they’re trying to tell me that I’ve scammed them, when I just bought $25 of chocolate bars and uploaded them as instructed.”
Newsweek has contacted a spokesperson for MrBeast for comment via email.
To enter the competition, Australian fans had to buy a chocolate bar from MrBeast’s Feastables chocolate bar range, with each bar considered one entry.
Wilson told the publication she purchased 10 of the chocolate bars and, as the competition instructions directed, uploaded her receipts to the official website.
Each chocolate bar purchased allowed contestants to spin an online wheel, which would tell them if they had won. Wilson said that on her last spin, she managed to get three Lamborghinis in a row, indicating that she won.
Wilson said a message popped up on the screen, notifying her that she had won a car and should soon expect a call. The notification was followed by a video of MrBeast confirming her win.
Wilson said she emailed the Feastables’ team on Monday to confirm the win. She said she received a call from a U.S. number that evening, and a man told her he was calling on behalf of MrBeast to confirm she had won. According to Wilson, the man instructed her to come to the Opera House on Wednesday to receive her car.
“I was phoning my mum, saying, ‘Oh my God. I’ve at least won a car that is worth $20 grand and possibly even $440 grand if it’s the Lamborghini,'” she told 9news.com.au.
She added: “It was a life-changing opportunity, and I almost couldn’t believe it. But I thought that that phone call confirmed it.”
However, when Wilson checked her email on Tuesday, there was a message in her inbox from the Feastables team, telling her that it had deemed her receipt uploads fraudulent and that she was disqualified.
According to 9news.com.au, a representative for MrBeast’s Feastables said they stood by their decision, adding that it was within the competition’s terms and conditions.
