diff --git a/backend/src/auth/handlers.rs b/backend/src/auth/handlers.rs
index b3679f5..2c3c378 100644
--- a/backend/src/auth/handlers.rs
+++ b/backend/src/auth/handlers.rs
@@ -175,20 +175,18 @@ pub async fn recover(
     }
 
     for user in &users {
-        // Check PIN lockout. If the lockout has expired, also reset the failed-attempt
-        // counter so the user gets a fresh 3-strike window — otherwise the counter
-        // stays at 3+ and every subsequent wrong PIN immediately re-locks them, even
-        // after waiting out the cooldown. Without this reset, a once-locked account
-        // is effectively permanently fragile.
+        // Check PIN lockout. The failed-attempt counter is deliberately NOT reset
+        // when the window expires — it drives the *escalating* backoff below, so a
+        // determined guesser faces an exponentially growing wait. A successful
+        // recovery (and a host PIN reset) is what clears it. The counter only ever
+        // grows on a *wrong* PIN, so a legitimate user is unaffected.
         if let Some(locked_until) = user.pin_locked_until {
             if Utc::now() < locked_until {
                 return Err(AppError::TooManyRequests(
-                    "Zu viele Versuche. Bitte warte 15 Minuten.".into(),
+                    "Zu viele Versuche. Bitte warte und versuche es später erneut.".into(),
                     None,
                 ));
             }
-            // Lockout window expired — wipe the counter and the timestamp.
-            User::reset_pin_attempts(&state.pool, user.id).await?;
         }
 
         let pin_matches =
@@ -227,13 +225,19 @@ pub async fn recover(
             "recover: wrong PIN"
         );
         if attempts >= 3 {
-            let lockout = Utc::now() + chrono::Duration::minutes(15);
+            // Escalating backoff: 15min, 30, 60, … doubling per failure past the
+            // threshold, capped at 24h. Makes sustained guessing against the
+            // 6-digit space (1M combinations) astronomically slow.
+            let exp = (attempts as u32).saturating_sub(3).min(10);
+            let minutes = 15i64.saturating_mul(1i64 << exp).min(24 * 60);
+            let lockout = Utc::now() + chrono::Duration::minutes(minutes);
             User::lock_pin(&state.pool, user.id, lockout).await?;
             tracing::warn!(
                 user_id = %user.id,
                 event_id = %event.id,
                 ip = %ip,
-                "recover: account locked for 15 minutes"
+                minutes,
+                "recover: account locked (escalating backoff)"
             );
         }
     }