The Email That Tried To Steal My Wallet This Morning

This morning I woke up, brewed my tea, and opened my inbox like I usually do before heading out to work at the park. Sitting there in the pile was an email that, at first glance, looked like it came straight from OpenAI. The subject line read:

Action Required: Update Your Payment Method for ChatGPT Plus

Now, I do use ChatGPT Plus, so my first reaction was, “Oh, maybe my card just expired or glitched.” But years on the road and three seasons as a park operator have taught me one thing... don’t rush when something smells off.

Here’s the email exactly as it landed in my inbox:

Update your payment method to keep using Plus
We attempted to process your subscription payment for ChatGPT, but unfortunately, the payment was declined.

This may be due to an issue with your payment method. To continue enjoying uninterrupted access to ChatGPT, please update your payment information.

Update Payment Method
Extended limits on messaging, file uploads, and voice mode
More image and video generation
Extended access to deep research and reasoning models

If you have any questions, we're here to help at supportatopenai .com.

Best,
The ChatGPT Team

3180 18th St
San Francisco, CA 94110

Terms Privacy OpenAI .com
© 2025 OpenAI. All rights reserved.

At first glance it looks sharp. It has the logo, the San Francisco address, even the usual footer you’d expect. But I wasn’t about to click.

I checked the sender’s address... and there it was:

“Open ai” nehaputhran3108 @gmail .com

Not an official domain. Just a Gmail account with someone pretending to be OpenAI. Right there, I knew I was looking at a scam.

But I went a step further. I hovered over the “Update Payment Method” button. Instead of pointing to OpenAI, it pointed here:

https ://zpr.io/vDQnejvUBJWv

A shortened link. Nothing that said “openai.com.” I’ve been around this block enough times to know that once you click a disguised link like that, you’re one bad decision away from typing your credit card number into a hacker’s form.

So I turned to GPT itself. I copied the whole email into ChatGPT and asked, “Is this legit?” The breakdown came back clear... scam. Between the Gmail sender, the shady shortened link, and the urgent subject line, it fit the phishing profile to a tee.

The Lesson in All This

This wasn’t just about an email. It’s about how something that looks perfectly normal can, in reality, be someone fishing for your wallet.

I could have clicked without thinking. I could have been half awake, sipping tea, and just trying to get my morning started. But slowing down, double-checking, and asking for a second set of eyes saved me from handing my details to a scammer.

For us in affiliate marketing, our business lives and breathes online. We’ve got accounts, logins, and payment methods scattered across networks and platforms. If we’re not careful, it’s not just one subscription at risk... it’s our whole income stream.

What You Can Do

If you get something like this, here’s the process I’d recommend:

1. Always check the sender’s address. If it isn’t the company’s domain, it’s suspect.
2. Hover over the links before clicking. If the URL doesn’t clearly belong to the company, leave it alone.
3. Go directly to the official site. If you think your payment really failed, log in manually and check.
4. Use tools. Even ChatGPT itself can help break it down step by step.

Wrapping It Up

I wanted to share this because it happened this morning, not last week, not last month. It was fresh in my inbox and it reminded me how easy it is to get caught if you’re not paying attention.

For anyone building their affiliate business... your security is just as important as your content, your SEO, and your marketing.

So here’s my question to you... have you ever had one of these “too real to be fake” emails land in your inbox? What tipped you off before you clicked?