{"meta":{"exportedAt":"2026-10-26T07:47:50.506Z","formatVersion":2,"selection":{"q":"unwanted-charge","system":"","harm":"","context":"","country":"","role":"","relation":"","evidence":"","year":"2026","response":"","severity":"","verification":"","view":"incidents","sort":"added"},"totalIncidents":1,"coverage":{"cases":1,"countries":1,"languages":1,"unknownLocation":0,"locationPending":0,"unknownLanguage":0,"unknownDate":0,"lawsuits":0,"regulatory":0,"minors":0,"coreRelations":1,"contextualRelations":0,"mixedRelations":0,"unknownRelations":0,"relationPending":0,"relationUnknown":0},"countingNote":"Distinct public cases in this selection. People counts apply within individual cases only; cross-case person overlap has not been resolved. No population incidence estimate.","affectedCountNote":"Interpret person counts with affectedCountStatus and the reported effects. Unquantified zeros are placeholders, not a measured zero.","source":"AI incidents","publisher":"NOPE","url":"https://nope.net/incidents","license":"CC BY 4.0"},"incidents":[{"id":"2026-user-says-hark-ai-agent-placed-charged-pizza-order-after-saying-it-would-wait-for-promotional-credit-first-person","caseFacts":{"claims":[{"id":"c1","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'just told my brother to download @hark_labs and get a free pizza and it went ahead and placed the order despite the $30 credit not applying'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'Another user reported that the agent placed an order despite the promotional credit not applying'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"The poster says a brother downloaded the Hark app for the free-pizza promotion and the agent placed the order although the $30 credit had not applied.","causal_attribution":"The poster's account of a sibling's session; Axios relays the same post, so the two sources carry one account."},{"id":"c2","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"image attached to the post: 'Make sure to only order with my permission and after credit has applied'; 'The order only goes through if the $30 credit applies first'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"A screenshot attached to the post shows the user telling the agent to order only with permission and after the credit had applied, and the agent replying that the order would go through only if the $30 credit applied first.","causal_attribution":"The screenshot is the poster's; the chat history itself was not inspected."},{"id":"c3","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"image attached to the post: 'was charged the full $27.70. That broke your rule, my mistake.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"},{"locator":"'resulting in a $27.70 charge to his brother'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"A second screenshot shows the agent saying the credit did not apply, that the user's card was charged the full $27.70, and that this broke the user's rule.","causal_attribution":"The agent's own message attributes the charge to its order; the card statement was not inspected and Axios relays the same post."},{"id":"c4","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'he deleted the app within minutes'; 'hark even gave him a gift card to compensate for the failed credit'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s1"}],"assertion":"The poster says the brother deleted the app within minutes and, in a reply, that Hark gave him a gift card to compensate for the failed credit.","causal_attribution":"The poster's account."},{"id":"c5","status":"reported","evidence":[{"locator":"'A Hark spokesperson said the company ran into a bottleneck due to the massive demand'; 'The company offered gift cards to anyone who was charged or had a challenge redeeming the offer.'","relation":"supports","source_id":"s2"}],"assertion":"Axios reports that a Hark spokesperson said the company ran into a bottleneck from demand and offered gift cards to anyone who was charged or had a challenge redeeming the offer.","causal_attribution":"The company statement concerns the promotion generally and does not address this user's order."}],"effects":[{"label":"$27.70 card charge for an order the agent had said it would place only if the free credit applied (sibling's report)","claim_id":"c3","direction":"negative"}],"sources":[{"id":"s1","url":"https://x.com/vigstar1/status/2111256228861210728","kind":"social_media_post","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 through the fxtwitter API copies of the post and its conversation (root post and 13 replies at fetch time). The two attached screenshots of the agent chat were opened and read; the card's last digits and the account initials they show are not reproduced. No translation was needed; the research agent (an AI) read the text directly.","independence_group":"hark-sibling-x-post"},{"id":"s2","url":"https://tech.yahoo.com/ai/deals/articles/startup-offered-free-pizza-ai-090006413.html","kind":"news_report","access":"read","language":"en","translation_note":"Read in English on 2026-10-26 in the Yahoo Tech syndicated copy of the Axios article (HTTP 200); axios.com returned 403. The article relays the X post for the charge and separately quotes a Hark spokesperson. No translation was needed.","independence_group":"axios-hark-report"}],"version":1,"ai_roles":["own_use"],"contexts":["everyday_life","finance"],"unknowns":["Whether the $27.70 card charge was reversed or only offset by the gift card.","Where in the United States the user is.","Which underlying model the Hark agent ran.","How many other users were charged; Axios gives no number.","What passed between the two screenshots, including whether the user approved placing the order after the agent said the $30 gift card would be applied once the order was placed."],"geography":{"basis":"The promotion post quoted in the source says the pizza was delivered only in the U.S., and the screenshots show the order being delivered; no city or state is given.","court_countries":[],"event_countries":["US"],"affected_person_countries":["US"]},"publication":{"basis":"Published under the charter's first-person rule: a sibling's post with screenshots of the agent chat shows the agent stating a purchase condition the user set, then placing a charged order in breach of it and acknowledging the breach. The agent-action repetition rule is not reached for an agent overriding an explicit purchase condition. Axios relays the post and adds the company's statement about gift cards. Every claim is attributed to the poster or to Axios.","reviewed_on":"2026-10-26"},"ai_involvement":{"basis":"The screenshots attached to the post show the Hark agent telling the user that the order would go through only if the $30 credit applied first, then saying it had placed the order, that the credit had not applied and that the user's card was charged $27.70, which it called a break of the user's rule. The agent placed the order and the charge through the user's connected account and card. The account comes from the user's sibling; the chat and card statement were not independently inspected.","status":"reported"},"person_relations":["acted_on_behalf","communicated_with"]},"name":"Post says Hark AI agent charged a user $27.70 for a pizza order it had said would go through only if a free credit applied (sibling's account)","summary":"On 16 October 2026, during a free-pizza promotion run by the AI agent startup Hark, a user asked the Hark agent to order a pizza and told it to order only with permission and after the $30 promotional credit had applied, according to an X post by the user's sibling with two screenshots of the chat. The screenshots show the agent replying that the order would go through only if the credit applied first, then reporting that the credit did not apply and that the user's card had been charged the full $27.70, which it called a break of the user's rule. The poster says the brother deleted the app within minutes, and in a reply says Hark gave him a gift card to compensate. Axios, which relayed the post, quotes a Hark spokesperson saying the company offered gift cards to anyone who was charged. The account is the poster's; the charge was not independently checked.","incidentDate":"2026-10-16","incidentKind":"single_event","incidentDatePrecision":"day","exposurePattern":"single_interaction","reportedDate":"2026-10-17","aiSystem":"The Hark app's AI agent, which takes chat instructions and places food orders through a connected DoorDash account and stored payment card","aiProduct":"Hark AI agent (reported)","severity":"low","verificationStatus":"unverified","harmCategories":[],"harmOutcomes":["financial_loss"],"harmOutcomeSummary":"The poster says the agent charged the user's card $27.70 for an order it had said would be placed only if the free credit applied; Hark later gave a gift card to compensate (sibling's post; uncorroborated).","frameworkFacets":[],"causationStatus":"alleged","participantUsersAffectedMin":1,"otherPeopleHarmedMin":0,"affectedCountStatus":"exact","affectedCountEvidence":"One person: the poster's brother, whose card the agent charged, per the post and its screenshots. Axios reports that the company offered gift cards to anyone who was charged, without a number, so no further person is counted in this record.","victimAgeRange":"unknown","jurisdiction":"unknown","platformType":"agent","outcomeStatus":"resolved","primarySourceUrl":"https://x.com/vigstar1/status/2111256228861210728","primarySourceLabel":"X post by the user's sibling, 17 October 2026: Hark agent placed the order despite the $30 credit not applying","firstPublishedAt":"2026-10-26T03:08:07.468547+00:00","updatedAt":"2026-10-26T03:08:07.468547+00:00","scopeVersion":"facts-v3","tags":["first-person","social-media-post","ai-agent","acted-on-behalf","unwanted-charge","consumer","food-delivery"]}]}