A Korean Claude user on a free plan with no payment method on file alleged that Anthropic attempted to charge $16.6 million for API usage despite the dashboard showing zero usage. The user received two invoices via Stripe from Anthropic’s official domain: the first for $1,669,875.90, which increased tenfold to $16,627,739.70 within 24 hours. The user’s bank recorded and declined two attempted overseas charges from Anthropic on July 8; no funds were transferred. Anthropic has not responded to clarify whether the incident was caused by a security breach, AI hallucination, or technical billing error.