User hit with $87K Google Cloud Gemini bill after downloading malware from a Google ad
AntCalculus · reddit · 2026-09-18
Reddit user Ioannis Tsiokos says he downloaded what looked like Claude Code from a Google ad that pointed to a spoofed Anthropic domain. Two weeks later Google Cloud tried charging him $87K for Gemini image generation.
Key details:
- His Gemini account was free/low tier; the hacker bypassed spend limits by creating multiple projects
- Google Cloud offered a "courtesy" erasing $65K, leaving $22K in debt now moving to collections
- He argues Google Ads' ToS disclaims responsibility for malicious ad links, Gmail/Chrome carry no security guarantees, and GCS offers no absolute spending cap
- Greek police are investigating, but he stresses this was a criminal compromise, not a leaked API key
The post questions why users bear full liability while Google holds payment identity data for both the ad account and the perpetrator's paid Gmail.
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