An investigation detailed a marketplace, operating mainly out of China, for reselling discounted LLM API tokens using open-source proxy software such as one-api and new-api to pool stolen or abused API credentials. Resellers obtain cheap access by exploiting free trials, unprotected support bots, and fraudulent payment methods, then sell that access on to buyers seeking cheap tokens, geographic bypass, or bulk data for model distillation. The piece argues that LLM vendors need stricter per-key spending caps to curb this abuse.
