"I Never Used It, Yet I Was Charged 299,000 Won"... Wave of Unauthorized ChatGPT Pro Payments

[Financial News] Reports say financial regulators and the card industry have begun responding as cases have continued to emerge in which the premium subscription plan for the generative AI service ChatGPT, known as ChatGPT Pro, was charged without users' consent. The number of suspected fraudulent transactions confirmed so far has exceeded 800.
According to SBS, office worker Lee received a text message on the 3rd saying that 299,000 won had been charged for a ChatGPT service he had never used. The charge was for one month of ChatGPT Pro and was billed to his debit card.
Lee said, "I never entered my card information, yet the payment was suddenly made." He added, "I was worried that the same thing could happen with other cards."
According to the card industry, a total of 1,368 ChatGPT Pro payments worth about 400 million won were made in South Korea this month. Of those, 858 transactions, worth about 250 million won, were classified as suspected fraudulent payments.
The suspected fraudulent payments were found at nine major card issuers, including Lotte Card, NH Nonghyup Card, and KB Kookmin Card.
Experts are focusing on the possibility that information needed for payment, such as card numbers, expiration dates, birth dates, and the first two digits of passwords, may have been leaked externally or traded illegally.
Professor Hwang Seok-jin of Dongguk University Graduate School of International Information Security told SBS, "Criminal groups may be using leaked card information to check whether the cards can actually be used, then attempting payments, or they may be making money by bundling and selling payment accounts."
OpenAI, the operator of ChatGPT, said in response to the incident, "We have confirmed that ChatGPT did not trigger payments without user consent, but that stolen card information was used without authorization." It added, "The payment methods in question have been immediately deactivated."
NICE Information & Telecommunication, which handles domestic electronic payment processing, has also canceled more than 700 payments among the suspected fraudulent transactions. It is still verifying the facts in the remaining cases.
To prevent further damage, it has also temporarily suspended new card registrations and additional payments. The company said it plans to strengthen payment security by introducing mobile phone identity verification in the future.
The Financial Supervisory Service (FSS) has also reportedly asked card companies to strengthen monitoring of the Fraud Detection System and expand inspections for similar cases.
y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter