URGENT: Key leaked, $300 bot usage, Support is stuck in a loop (Case #15623567)

ChatGPT Support
,
1

Hi everyone,

I’m an independent developer and I am desperately hoping an OpenAI staff member can help manually look into my case, as I am currently trapped in an automated support loop.

The Situation: On September 17th, I made a rookie mistake and accidentally pushed an API key to a public GitHub repository while working on a personal portfolio project. Within minutes, a malicious bot scraped the key and ran up $296.99 in charges, driving my account into a massive negative balance before I even received the spend alert.

The Evidence: The usage was entirely fraudulent. If you look at my OpenAI Logs dashboard for Sept 17th, you can see massive 80,000-token function calls (using write_todos, run_command, etc.) with prompts entirely written in Chinese. I do not speak Chinese, and my application is a simple personal website.

The Problem: I submitted the Unauthorized Activity forms on 9/17 and 9/21. On September 22nd, I received an email stating:

“Case Number: 15623567. Escalated to a support specialist; You can expect a response in the coming days.”

It has now been 10 days, and my balance is still sitting at -$196. When I try to politely follow up on the email thread or through the Help Chat widget, the AI Support Bot instantly replies with a generic message about “Access to certain models or features may be temporarily limited…”

Because my account is restricted due to the negative balance, the AI bot thinks I am complaining about a rate limit and refuses to route my messages to the billing specialist who has my ticket!

I fully understand that key security is my responsibility. I have learned a very hard lesson and have already:

  1. Revoked and deleted all API keys.
  2. Scrubbed my repositories and moved everything to .env.
  3. Reset my password and enabled MFA.
  4. Set a strict $10 hard billing limit on my account.

As a student/indie dev, a $300 charge is devastating for me. Could an OpenAI staff member please look into Case #15623567? I just need a human to review the blatantly fraudulent Chinese bot logs so I can get the negative balance cleared and safely return to building on the platform.

Thank you so much for your time and any help you can provide!

3

Hi @jconroy7272, thanks for reaching out!

Billing questions, including payments, charges, refunds, subscriptions, invoices, and billing credits, require account-specific review and cannot be handled on the Community Forum.

Please contact support@openai.com from the email address associated with your OpenAI account and share the relevant details privately.

For your privacy and security, please avoid posting payment details, account information, API keys, or personal information here.

-Keerthana