A Korean developer named REMY experienced a billing error from Anthropic, resulting in alarming emails claiming he owed $16.62 million. Initially thinking it was a phishing scam, he dismissed the emails, but his bank confirmed the transactions were legitimate. Despite no funds being withdrawn due to insufficient credit, the charges led to his bank freezing his credit card and complicating his financial situation.
REMY found no evidence of a security breach on his part, and Anthropic later admitted that a system glitch caused the erroneous billing attempts. Although they corrected the situation and disabled the auto-recharge feature, they did not offer any compensation for the developer's troubles, leading him to seek restitution.