diff --git a/backend/src/api/controllers/user.ts b/backend/src/api/controllers/user.ts
index fda1be35f..3ed967642 100644
--- a/backend/src/api/controllers/user.ts
+++ b/backend/src/api/controllers/user.ts
@@ -325,14 +325,26 @@ export async function getUser(
       //if the user is in the auth system but not in the db, its possible that the user was created by bypassing captcha
       //since there is no data in the database anyway, we can just delete the user from the auth system
       //and ask them to sign up again
-
-      await FirebaseAdmin().auth().deleteUser(uid);
-      throw new MonkeyError(
-        404,
-        "User not found in the database, but found in the auth system. We have deleted the ghost user from the auth system. Please sign up again.",
-        "get user",
-        uid
-      );
+      try {
+        await FirebaseAdmin().auth().deleteUser(uid);
+        throw new MonkeyError(
+          404,
+          "User not found in the database, but found in the auth system. We have deleted the ghost user from the auth system. Please sign up again.",
+          "get user",
+          uid
+        );
+      } catch (e) {
+        if (e.code === "auth/user-not-found") {
+          throw new MonkeyError(
+            404,
+            "User not found in the database or the auth system. Please sign up again.",
+            "get user",
+            uid
+          );
+        } else {
+          throw e;
+        }
+      }
     } else {
       throw e;
     }