A man faces multiple felony charges after investigators say he used a cycling YouTuber’s identity to steal thousands of dollars’ worth of bicycles.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — A Greensboro man has been charged after police say he spent more than a year impersonating a well-known North Carolina cyclist and YouTube creator, scamming bike companies out of tens of thousands of dollars in high-end bicycles.

According to arrest records, 30-year-old Jeffrey Holden of Greensboro is charged with seven counts of felony obtaining property under false pretenses and six counts of felony identity theft. The records list the value of the stolen bikes at more than $24,000.

Investigators say Holden posed as Seth Alvo, a North Carolina-based cyclist and YouTuber of Berm Peak with nearly three million subscribers, contacting bike companies across the United States and internationally. Authorities say Holden used fake email addresses, stolen branding and forged analytics data to convince companies he was Alvo and persuade them to ship bicycles for supposed reviews and promotions.

The scheme came to light after companies began contacting Alvo and his communications manager, Daniel Sapp, to verify whether the requests were legitimate.

“Companies were reaching out saying, ‘Hey, is this really you?’” Alvo said. “That’s usually not a very good sign.”

Sapp said the scam escalated over time, with emails becoming more sophisticated and frequent. He said some companies had already shipped bikes or were in the process of doing so before realizing they had been deceived.

“People say, oh, it’s a victimless crime, it’s just bikes and so on and so forth. It’s not. I mean, it impacted real people,” Sapp said. “We lost a lot of sleep over this, and we didn’t take it lightly.”

Police say multiple bicycles were shipped to a Greensboro address tied to Holden. When officers searched the property, they recovered approximately a dozen bikes, some still in their original packaging.

The investigation involved the Greensboro Police Department and federal authorities due to the number of companies affected and the interstate nature of the shipments.

Sapp and Alvo said the decision to pursue the case was about more than recovering stolen property.

They added they waited to speak publicly about the case until investigators advised it would no longer interfere with the prosecution.

Holden’s next court date is scheduled for January 26 in Guilford County court.