A Metro Bank customer has spent months fighting to recover more than £14,000 taken from his account by fraudsters who used the stolen funds to buy credits for the artificial intelligence chatbot Claude.
Zoli Rutter, a businessman based in Sussex, said a total of £14,244 was drained from his account in a scam that saw criminals purchase usage credits for the chatbot developed by Anthropic. Rutter told the lender the money was being taken without his authorisation, but its systems failed to stop the transactions.
“Before it was like, ‘I don’t know if we’re going to see it,’ but now I’m still waiting for a resolution,” Rutter said of the drawn-out refund process.
The case highlights an emerging category of financial fraud in which stolen payment details are used to fund access to commercial AI tools, whose credits can be resold or exploited. Such transactions can be harder for banks to flag because they resemble legitimate technology purchases rather than the high-value transfers typically associated with fraud.
Cases of customers struggling to secure reimbursement after unauthorised transactions are far from new. In one prior instance, a woman who lost her life savings in a real estate wire fraud only recovered her funds after a six-month ordeal, underscoring the lengthy disputes customers often face.
The dispute arrives at a sensitive moment for Metro Bank, which has been working to strengthen its balance sheet and rebuild investor confidence following a turbulent period. In its first-half earnings update, the lender pointed to progress on cost discipline and a return toward stability after years of restructuring pressure.
Reputational risks tied to fraud handling remain a concern for the sector. Under UK rules, banks are generally required to reimburse victims of authorised push payment fraud in most circumstances, placing greater scrutiny on how quickly and consistently lenders resolve customer claims.
The involvement of an AI product also spotlights the growing footprint of Anthropic, the company behind Claude, which recently settled a major copyright lawsuit for $1.5 billion as it expands its commercial services.
Metro Bank has not detailed the specifics of the case publicly. The outcome of Rutter’s claim is expected to hinge on whether the transactions are classified as unauthorised, a determination that would obligate the bank to refund the full amount.
As AI platforms become more deeply woven into everyday commerce, banks and regulators are likely to face mounting pressure to adapt fraud-detection systems to a new generation of digital purchases.