diff --git a/src/hf_hydrodata/gridded.py b/src/hf_hydrodata/gridded.py
index 3d94cf7..109e42d 100644
--- a/src/hf_hydrodata/gridded.py
+++ b/src/hf_hydrodata/gridded.py
@@ -796,6 +796,8 @@ def _validate_user():
     email, pin = get_registered_api_pin()
     url_security = f"{HYDRODATA_URL}/api/api_pins?pin={pin}&email={email}"
     response = requests.get(url_security, timeout=15)
+    if not response.status_code == 200:
+        raise ValueError(f"No registered PIN for email '{email}' and PIN {pin}. See documentation to register with a URL.")
     json_string = response.content.decode("utf-8")
     jwt_json = json.loads(json_string)
     jwt_token = jwt_json["jwt_token"]
diff --git a/tests/hf_hydrodata/test_gridded.py b/tests/hf_hydrodata/test_gridded.py
index eb2ed24..1d808dd 100644
--- a/tests/hf_hydrodata/test_gridded.py
+++ b/tests/hf_hydrodata/test_gridded.py
@@ -21,11 +21,11 @@ class MockResponse:
     def __init__(self):
         self.headers = {}
         self.status_code = 200
-        self.content = b"test content"
+        self.content = b'{"email": "dummy@email.com", "jwt_token":"foo"}'
         self.checksum = ""
 
 
-def mock_requests_get(url, timeout):
+def mock_requests_get(url, headers=None, timeout=5):
     """Create a mock streaming response."""
 
     response = MockResponse()