--- title: A gang stole £14,244 to buy AI chatbot credits. His bank... description: A UK businessman lost £14,244 after fraudsters used his saved debit card to buy Claude AI credits through his Anthropic account. Metro Bank flagged the first... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-gang-stole-14-244-to-buy-ai-chatbot-credits-his-bank-spotted-the-first-charge-and-let-the-rest-h-ahrduksgs twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A gang stole £14,244 to buy AI chatbot credits. His bank spotted the first charge and let the rest happen. | daily.dev og:description: A UK businessman lost £14,244 after fraudsters used his saved debit card to buy Claude AI credits through his Anthropic account. Metro Bank flagged the first... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-gang-stole-14-244-to-buy-ai-chatbot-credits-his-bank-spotted-the-first-charge-and-let-the-rest-h-ahrduksgs og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ahRDuksgs.png og:image:alt: A gang stole £14,244 to buy AI chatbot credits. His bank spotted the first charge and let the rest happen. og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A gang stole £14,244 to buy AI chatbot credits. His bank spotted the first charge and let the rest happen. **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 3 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A UK businessman lost £14,244 after fraudsters used his saved debit card to buy Claude AI credits through his Anthropic account. Metro Bank flagged the first suspicious charge of £90.90, asked the customer to confirm it was fraudulent, then failed to block the account — allowing over £14,000 more in charges to go through before freezing the card. Anthropic confirmed the fraud and banned the responsible user, eventually refunding the victim directly. The case highlights a growing trend of AI credit platforms being exploited as cash-out targets for stolen card details, with similar incidents reported in the US. Both banks and AI platforms are struggling to keep fraud safeguards current as more users store payment details for AI subscriptions. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How did fraudsters steal money using someone's Claude account? A gang used a Sussex businessman's stolen Metro Bank debit card details, linked to his Anthropic account, to buy Claude credits in repeated charges of between £90 and £200, totaling £14,244. Metro Bank flagged and blocked the first £90.90 charge but failed to freeze the card fully until the next day, letting the rest through. _Anyone relying on saved cards for AI subscriptions can follow daily.dev coverage of AI-related fraud and payment security risks._ ### What did Anthropic do after fraudsters used stolen cards to buy Claude credits? Anthropic said it found no evidence the stolen card details came from its own systems, banned the user behind the fraudulent purchases, and refunded the affected customer directly after being contacted. It also stated that anyone wrongly charged for Claude credits should contact its support for a refund. _Developers weighing AI vendor trust and support responsiveness can track incidents like this via daily.dev._ ### Why did Metro Bank fail to block over £14,000 in fraudulent charges after spotting the first one? Metro Bank detected a suspicious £90.90 transaction and texted the customer to confirm it, then told him it would freeze his account, but in practice only blocked that single transaction rather than the account itself. The bank blamed the 'complex nature of the fraud' for processing further payments before it could fully block the card, only freezing it the following day after more than £14,000 had gone through. _People evaluating how banks handle real-time fraud alerts can follow daily.dev for reporting on payment security failures._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [AI fraud is outrunning South African banking defences](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-fraud-is-outrunning-south-african-banking-defences-dcdy1czqj) · TechCentral · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [AI-driven fraud far more profitable, Interpol warns](https://daily.dev/posts/ai-driven-fraud-far-more-profitable-interpol-warns-tmri6xhox) · The Register · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [The global scam economy hit $442 billion in 2025, and AI is making it worse](https://daily.dev/posts/the-global-scam-economy-hit-442-billion-in-2025-and-ai-is-making-it-worse-ikjvphiwv) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#claude](https://daily.dev/tags/claude), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-gang-stole-14-244-to-buy-ai-chatbot-credits-his-bank-spotted-the-first-charge-and-let-the-rest-h-ahrduksgs) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A gang stole £14,244 to buy AI chatbot credits. 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