--- title: "Elon Musk Tries to Convince Followers to Let Grok Control Their Credit Cards, in a Stunt That Immediately Backfires in a Very Embarrassing Way" description: "Elon Musk tried to encourage his fans to hand over their credit cards to Grok, but his attempt of leading by example backfired hilariously." date: "2026-10-13" modified: "2026-10-13" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/elon-musk-grok-control-credit-cards-backfires" categories: - "Artificial Intelligence" - "Elon Musk" - "Future Society" - "The Industrialists" - "xAI" --- # Elon Musk Tries to Convince Followers to Let Grok Control Their Credit Cards, in a Stunt That Immediately Backfires in a Very Embarrassing Way ![A photo illustration of Elon Musk over a hand holding a credit card.]() *Getty / Shutterstock / Futurism* Let Elon Musk never be accused of not leading by example. Last week, the world's richest man sung the praises of his new Grok Bot AI agent, encouraging his followers to let it control their credit cards and shop for them. "To buy stuff, you can just take a picture of your credit card, drop it in the chat and Grok @Bot will scour the Internet for the best deal on the item you want and order it," he [wrote](). The next day, he posted a screenshot of how he'd used Grok do exactly that, telling it "to research the most fun Lego Star Wars kits for young kids and order them." If it wasn't a testament to [how much of a thoughtful dad he was](), it at least showed that Grok could, in fact, use your credit card. But almost as if provoking pranksters, Musk didn't censor his screenshot at all. There, on proud display, was his order number, his email, and even the last four numbers of his credit card. Immediately, a user named Enderman [posted]() screenshots showing how he supposedly tricked a LEGO customer service bot into canceling Musk's order. The post went mega viral, and an outraged Musk, taking the bait, [fumed]() in the replies and insisted his order wasn't canceled. https://twitter.com/Enderman/status/2109207348283924509 True or not — Musk certainly isn't [above a little lying]() — imitators followed. Another jokester showed how they used the LEGO support bot to un-cancel Musk's order and place 400 more orders of the same product. To top things off, he also claimed to change the shipping address to Little St James, the infamous island owned by Jeffrey Epstein, which Musk [discussed visiting in emails]() with the deceased sex trafficker. LEGO passed up on providing a surreal statement for the ages, [declining]() *Wired*'s request for comment. Anyway, it's probably not a good idea to let an AI agent, Grok included, control your financial information. Scammers have been [targeting AI chatbots to manipulate]() them into recommending — or buying — scam products, such as by propping up entire fake storefronts to phish for your information or imitate defunct businesses. And the more permissions you give an AI, the more chances it has [to make a terrible mistake](). **More on AI:** [*Completely Unused ChatGPT Accounts Are Telling Users They’re in the Top Percentiles of Intelligence*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()