The entire Ryan Trahan x Paul Dodds donation scam controversy explained

Ryan Trahan is a budding YouTube star who is getting massive traction on his social media handles, all thanks to his extreme budgeting skills and the interesting road trip he has taken to impress none other than YouTube powerhouse Jimmy "MrBeast" himself. However, things aren't as smooth and simple as they might appear to a lot of viewers out there.

The catch is that the YouTuber must start his road trip with a single penny, and the YouTuber chose a penny because it will be extinct very soon. To wrap it all up, Ryan's primary goal is to use the 30-day challenge as a fundraiser for the NGO Feeding America, which provides food to people in need with its robust network of food banks and shelters.

Paul Dodds, a fellow creator who has just started his YouTube journey on the platform by sharing a few motion pictures, was topping the donor list with his massive donations. His name would always appear at the top of the list that Ryan displayed after each of his 30-day challenge videos. Until one day, it just vanished into thin air for reasons unknown.

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Ryan Trahan x Paul Dodds donation scam explained

Ryan Trahan embarked on his road trip earlier this month and uploaded his first video titled 'I Survived On $0.01 for 30 Days,' in which he gave detailed information about his mission to end hunger in America.

With certain ground rules in place, Ryan Trahan aims to survive 30 days with a single penny for a whole month while traversing across the country. Till the 16th day of his 30-day challenge, everything seemed quite on track.

According to his donation page, Ryan was able to raise over $1.24 million USD for the noble cause. The endeavor has been an immense success due to the love and support he has been getting on his YouTube channel. Several supporters, including MrBeast himself, donated to Ryan's mission with their hard-earned money.

Holding on to the top-most position in the list of donors, Paul Dodds appeared to be one of them when he started donating massive amounts of money to the fundraiser. Surprisingly, the YouTuber donated a mind-boggling amount of $150,000 for the noble cause.

Due to Paul's dedication and generosity over the fundraiser, Ryan even got him on his YouTube channel via video call, skyrocketing the YouTuber to new heights of success.

However, everything just vanished into thin air on the 17th day of the challenge. Suddenly, Paul's name was removed from the donor list. Additionally, his name was nowhere to be found in the previously uploaded videos as well.

Paul's name was blurred from the list by editing from all the videos till the 16th day. Things took an ugly turn when Dodds deleted all of his social media handles, including his Twitter account.

Paul's name was removed from the donor list (Image via Braso/YouTube)

Viewers instantly realized that something was off and started their own investigation. As pointed out by the majority of viewers, all the donations made by Dodds till the 16th day were fraudulent.

Fans react to the entire controversy (Image via Ryan Trahan/YouTube)

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From this series of events, it seems like Dodds actually had no plans of donating such a huge amount to the fundraiser. He donated all that money just for fame and had no real intention of contributing to the fundraiser. Following these events, Dodds deleted all of his social media handles, including Twitter.