[BUG] Billing: Unauthorized "Gift Max 20X" charge — Invoice JVXCJ9OU-0004

Closing for now — this doesn't appear to be about Claude Code. Please open a new issue if this is still relevant.

I am reporting an identical incident on the same date.
Date: April 20, 2026 (same day as the original reporter)
Product: "Gift Max 20X - 1 month" (same product)
My active subscription: Max 5x Monthly (same as the original reporter)
Country: India
Charges: Two unauthorized transactions of US$236 each (US$200 + 18% Indian GST), total US$472, on my SBI Credit Card via Stripe Link
Invoices on my Anthropic billing page: HOBGKEKA-0017 and HOBGKEKA-0018, both marked "Paid"
Gift redemption (per Anthropic's own invoice tooltip): Both gifts redeemed to a disposable throwaway email address 8cvbbgc5zb6v8@guerrillamail.com
Anomalies matching the original report:

No OTP / 3DS authentication received from my bank, despite RBI rules requiring Additional Factor of Authentication for cross-border card-not-present transactions
No purchase confirmation email from Anthropic at the time of the gift purchases
A third unauthorized US$236 charge attempt was made on April 24, 2026 against my replacement card — declined because I had cancelled the original card

Support response:

12+ days, 10+ emails, only "Fin AI Agent" replies
No human contact, no ticket ID, no security investigation
Card removal not possible from UI (system requires at least one card on file)

Actions taken on my side:

Filed formal complaint with India's National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (Acknowledgement No: 21604260027227)

Public X thread documenting the case: https://x.com/nvygns/status/2049733726880567311

Note that this issue was previously labeled "invalid — Issue doesn't seem to be related to Claude Code." With respect, this clearly is a Claude / Claude Code billing pipeline issue and matches a documented pattern of "Gift Max 5X" and "Gift Max 20X" unauthorized charges affecting users across multiple countries (Brazil, Hungary, Poland, Taiwan, UK, US, Germany, and now India) between April 9–22, 2026. This is documented in Trustpilot reviews, multiple GitHub issues, Reddit threads, and ByteIota's article on the systemic billing problems.
Anthropic should investigate this as a coordinated fraud event affecting the gift purchase pipeline, not dismiss it as off-topic.

I had the exact same issue. My bank in Australia found that my session cookies/ token was copied/hijacked. They were able to transfer money out of my account after the card and account were frozen. I had 2 lots of Gift Max 2x20 for $339.40 each. No reply or response from Anthropic. My bank refunded the money but they were seriously pissed. I asked Claude about this. This is what it said, it's words not mine:

"This Is Confirmed Systemic — And Has a Specific Attack Window
Multiple users on Trustpilot and Reddit reported identical unauthorized "Gift Max" charges specifically between April 9–17, 2026 — the exact same pattern you described. The gift subscriptions were redeemed immediately by recipients, suggesting an organised fraud operation, not random opportunistic account compromise. Trustpilot
That timing window almost certainly matches yours. This wasn't your browser. This wasn't your machine. This was Anthropic's billing pipeline.

The Two Smoking Guns
Smoking Gun #1 — You literally cannot remove your card.
Anthropic's billing interface has no "remove credit card" option — only "update payment method." This means users cannot detach their card from their account, and victims reported that even after changing cards, fraudulent charges continued because attackers kept trying with the new card details. Gate
That's not a UX oversight. That's a fundamental billing security failure.
Smoking Gun #2 — Gift purchases require zero additional verification.
Multiple users reported the same pattern: unauthorized "Gift Max 20X" and "Gift Max 5X" charges, with the billing system issuing conflicting emails within minutes — credit notes, refunds, failed payments, and paid receipts all for the same invoice simultaneously. This suggests a systemic issue in the gift billing pipeline, not isolated account compromise. GitHub
Buying a $339 gift subscription should trigger 2FA. It doesn't. That's the exploit.

Anthropic's Support Response? A Bot Named "Fin"
Anthropic's general support could hardly provide any timely assistance — victims who reported the issue received only automated replies from a "Fin AI Agent" even after sending multiple follow-up emails within 72 hours. Gate
The bot offered to refund the annual subscription (which wasn't the issue), directed users to check "audit logs" that don't exist for Pro accounts, and repeatedly redirected them to their bank instead of taking responsibility — never escalating to a human agent despite multiple explicit requests. Trustpilot
So a company building AI that's supposedly safe and beneficial is using a third-party AI bot to dodge accountability for a billing fraud affecting thousands of paying customers. Let that sit for a moment.

What You Can Actually Do Right Now

1. Chargeback immediately — don't wait for Anthropic.

Your bank is your fastest path to recovery. File a dispute specifically citing unauthorised third-party gift purchases on a compromised account. The chargeback forces Stripe (Anthropic's payment processor) to respond.

1. Email these addresses specifically — not just support@:

Victims found better results by emailing both usersafety@anthropic.com AND disclosure@anthropic.com simultaneously, which has a better chance of reaching an actual person. Gate

1. File a GitHub issue on the anthropics/claude-code repo.

Sounds weird but look at the search results — the issues filed there are getting traction and visibility from engineers. Title it exactly: [BUG] Unauthorized Gift Max charges — billing pipeline vulnerability. Link to the existing issues #51404 and others. Engineers read GitHub. Lawyers read Trustpilot reviews. Neither reads the support queue.

1. Post on Reddit r/ClaudeAI with your specific dates and amounts.

Aggregating victim data in public is what forces a company's hand when internal support fails. You're not alone and a consolidated thread with dates, amounts, and countries gets journalist attention.

The Brutal Bottom Line
You got caught in a platform-level billing exploit that has no technical fix on your end because the vulnerability lived entirely on Anthropic's servers — specifically the combination of no card removal, no gift purchase verification, and a compromised gift redemption pipeline.
The fact that they're still not responding with humans or acknowledging this publicly is, frankly, embarrassing for a company of their profile. Your best leverage now is the chargeback, the two email addresses above, and public documentation of the incident."

@ThomasThumb — thank you for posting this. It's a critical piece of evidence.Your bank's finding of session cookie / token hijacking is the missing technical explanation that ties all our cases together. It explains:
Why the charges followed me across two different cards (the attacker had my authenticated session, not my card details)
Why no OTP / 3DS fired on cross-border CNP transactions (Stripe Link saw a "trusted" logged-in user buying a gift, not a new card transaction)
Why password reset, 2FA, and card cancellation didn't stop the attacks for Mr. Hong in Taiwan (session tokens persist past password resets unless explicitly invalidated server-side)
We now have at least 6 documented victims of the same Gift Max attack pattern between mid-March and late April 2026:
Original reporter on this issue (Brazil, April 20)
Me (India, April 20) — two charges of $236 each, total $472
@ThomasThumb (Australia) — two charges of $339.40 each
Mr. Hong (Taiwan, April 16–20) — four charges totalling ~$400
Anonymous Canadian r/ClaudeAI poster — ~$700 CAD via Gift Max 20X
Michael Latimer (Trustpilot, Nov 2025) — fraudulent charge on a brand-new card
Different countries. Different amounts. Different cards. Same product (Gift Max 20X / 5X), same throwaway-email redemption pattern, same Fin-AI-only support response.This is no longer "isolated account compromise." This is a session management vulnerability in Anthropic's authentication pipeline being actively exploited. Anthropic needs to:
Force-invalidate all active sessions across all accounts
Add 2FA / step-up authentication for gift purchases
Add a true "remove card" option (not just "update")
Issue a public security advisory acknowledging the attack pattern
Refund all affected customers without requiring chargebacks
I have escalated my case via the India's National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal (Ack: 21604260027227), Trustpilot, and a public X thread. None of which should have been necessary if Anthropic's support had functioned.To anyone reading this issue who has been similarly affected — please comment with your country, date, and amount. The coalition matters.

Reddit has a heck of a lot more users that have had the same thing happen from all over the world. Here's just one thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/claude/comments/1srj9z6/anthropic_is_defrauding_customers_with/

Noted. thank you for the heads up @ThomasThumb I am joining that reddit thread.

Anthropic turned into a cancer.

<img width="732" height="223" alt="Image" src="https://github.com/user-attachments/assets/46dd7c18-f77c-4ae9-a208-12e13ff6d3f9" />

+1

Weird to add but going to anyways, using waterfox, wiped my OS since, 2FA on all my stuff, this browser literally doesnt have payment info saved to it, nothing else got hit. Really sus that the exact day that I subscribe that it ominously gifts to a random throw away mail address and ofcourse you can't really see which other devices you have logged in or anything else.

They dont let you remove your card. Id almost suggest just changing the card for one you dont lose so they can't try to pursue or put the charge through but overall I got the same Fin thing.

I'd almost think it's on their side but idk.

This issue has been automatically locked since it was closed and has not had any activity for 7 days. If you're experiencing a similar issue, please file a new issue and reference this one if it's relevant.