The AI credits heist

When you hear about £14,244 heist, you might have thought someone robbed an ATM or looted a house, or bought an expensive piece of hardware through a stolen credit card. But what if I told you it is something a majority of people would not even understand. Claude Code credits! Yes, I was amused too. An English man's credit card details were stolen and it were used to purchase £14,244 worth of Claude credits.

The credit card company, although flagged the transaction, but failed to block the transaction. The bank refunded the amount to the man from their own pockets and then tried reaching out to Anthropic to refund the amount. Anthropic went out to directly refund the man, after which the bank got their own money back.

This reminds me of India's credit card payment infrastructure. I remember paying $25 for a Google Developer Console using my credit card. It was so seamless. Enter cards details, date of expiry, name of card holder, and security code on the back of the card. Zap! Payment done. Now I see how it is done in India. Any app, be it of a big organization or a new one, you need to verify your transaction with a one-time password on your phone number registered with the bank. Only then is your transaction approved. I used to blame it for the friction it used to create, but now I appreciate it for the peace of mind it assures.