A nine-year-old boy allegedly ran up a $118,000 bill on his father’s company credit card by launching YouTube ad campaigns for his own gaming channel, believing that spending more money would bring in more viewers.
The boy, known online as Mike, runs a channel called Mighty Mike Plays, where he posts Minecraft and Roblox gameplay. The channel launched on August 7 this year. Like most new creators, Mike grew frustrated that barely anyone was watching his videos.
His father, Dave Sarkisyan, who works in marketing, decided to show him how YouTube advertising works. He sat Mike down and walked him through a small $20 ad campaign, explaining how to set a budget, choose an audience, and launch a promotion.
Mike picked up the lesson quickly. Just not the part about sticking to a budget.
Over the next three weeks, he returned to the ad tools on his own and kept launching new campaigns. Since his father’s company card was already saved to the family’s Google account, every campaign Mike launched charged straight to his employer without anyone noticing.
“The logic was simple, I guess. More money, more views,” Dave said, explaining the situation in a video he posted to Mike’s channel titled “Message from Dad…Mighty Mike Plays is Over.”
By the time it was discovered, the bill had reached roughly $118,000 (around three crore Pakistani rupees).
Dave said that he found out only when he was called into a meeting with his manager, corporate staff, and the finance team, who placed a three-week breakdown of advertising charges in front of him and asked him to explain it. He said he still doesn’t know whether he will be asked to repay the amount or whether his job is at risk.
The spending did have an effect. Some of Mike’s videos reached around 200,000 views, and users across YouTube began noticing unusually long Minecraft and Roblox clips showing up in their ad slots, which is exactly what a six-figure ad budget can buy.
One separate video from Minecraft YouTuber NeverMyFault, who has 2.1 million subscribers, showed one of these ads appearing in the wild, lending some outside support to the story.
When Dave finished explaining what happened and asked Mike if he had anything to add, his son simply said, “I’m definitely cooked.”
The family says they may pause the channel while they sort things out. Spending limits, parental controls, and removing saved payment details from shared accounts are all changes they plan to make going forward.
It’s worth noting that every detail of this story comes from Dave’s own video, posted to his son’s channel. There has been no confirmation from the employer, no proof of the actual charges, and no independent verification of the events described.
