Alright so what is happening with this one. The only way to properly explain is to litterally start from the begining of this channel. So Mighty Mike Plays was a Youtube channel run by a 9 year old. This was when a reported $118,000 was spent on Youtube ads after the child spent money to have his channel used as ads. The father seems to have already admitted to either accidentally or purposely used his corporate card to buy $20 of ads for the channel to get views and said he wasn’t looking to how close Mike was watching and Mike spent $118,000 on the channel using the corporate card something his father didn’t know till the purchases were traced back. Things got scetchier when he refused to set up a Go Fund Me donation account and decided to run an AI merch store and his job wanted the money back in 30 days.

So the possible scam here is that initial $118,000 is an oddly specific number, but could be the result of some rounding up. Also while people can accidentally use a corporate card for something most of the time people notice within a few hours or a day as all of that is logged and sometimes they do get confused and quickly get the money back. For a total like that most corporations are willing to work out a payment plan. Pay some here little by little they are aware most people cannot pay large amounts in one lump sum so the 30 days thing seems to be something either AI made up or the parents made themselves because there are laws against that. As Mujin and Scott Shafer pointed out it actually is hard to buy ads for a channel and them being Youtubers makes me trust they know over anyone. It seems like this was more an attempt to launch an overpriced AI merch store than actually return the money as people were willing to help as this wouldn’t be the first time a child got money and went on a spending spree if that child even actually exists to begin with. Some people pointed out a lot of what Mike says seems AI generated either during videos and the whole story in general could also be generated from AI even the 30 days thing.The advoidance of Go Fund Me stregthens that argument it means if it is proven to be a lie would mean no one gets jail or fines for accepting funds as it would be a crime otherwise. Accepting funds under false pretense is the specific law, however, that only has to do with charity donations. If a good or service is done in exchange for funds that falls under the sale of a good or product so wouldn’t technically be illegal (scummy, yes, but not illegal.) the things that really makes me think this is a scam: the father never mentions what company he worked for, defends AI over accepting donations, the large amont of money in general, the fact that at times he seems so calm over the situation. Now don’t get me wrong we all deal with things differently, but if someone needed to gather $118,000 I think some of us would be less picky about where the money came from and would certainly never think of creating an AI merch store, but I can guess where he got the idea. A couple years ago Coffeezilla was exposing Logan Pauls scams since he already makes a lot on Patreon and had insurance against frivilous lawsuits he didn’t want to ask more from his audience so instead created a merch store. Cool merch and the ability to support him in that lawsuit and future ones. The difference no AI is used in his merch and Coffeezilla is very upfront and genuine about where the money goes, further, his merch is resonably priced and simply intended to protcet himself from people who never seem to think their actions have consequences and all three combined are high enough to pay lawyers fees and legal costs (up until he was scammed by his insurance company, but still is able to pay). I believe this is where Mike’s father got the idea to get out of refunding money if he was caught lying there is some way to deny everything.and claim he simply sold merchandise with no real consequenses. People say he isn’t blaming his child for what happened which is reasonable, but I think dragging the child into an AI scam whether he exists or not is just as terrible.