Metro Bank customer loses £14,000 in AI chatbot-linked fraud despite bank notification

Fraudulent Activity Unfolds

Zoli Rutter, a Metro Bank customer, had £14,244 taken from his account in a scam where fraudsters bought credits for the AI chatbot Claude. The fraudulent activity began on June 19 when Metro Bank flagged a suspicious £90.90 transaction and messaged Rutter. He replied "no" to authorizing it, but the bank only blocked that specific transaction, not his entire account.

Bank's Response and Continued Losses

Despite Rutter's notification, fraudsters continued to make multiple transactions ranging from £90 to £200. Metro Bank stated that while some payments were blocked, many were not due to the "complex nature of the fraud." The bank eventually froze his card the day after the scam started, but by then, over £14,000 had already been processed.

Context of AI-Linked Fraud

This incident is part of a pattern of fraud linked to Anthropic, the company behind Claude. In May, another Claude user reported gift cards being bought with their financial details, and similar stories have appeared on Reddit. Rutter had been a paying subscriber to Claude for several months, using it for business invoice tracking and analysis.

Resolution and Broader Implications

After Guardian Money contacted Metro Bank, the bank temporarily refunded Rutter while pursuing a chargeback from Anthropic. This case underscores vulnerabilities in banking fraud prevention systems, particularly when dealing with recurring payments to new technology services like AI chatbots, and raises questions about the responsibility of both banks and AI service providers in preventing such financial crimes.