Simon Willison • 7/26/2026

An Inside Look at the Relay Market Powering Token Resellers and Fraud

This article explores the underground market for reselling LLM tokens at discounted rates, primarily in China. Resellers use open-source proxy software like one-api and new-api to pool API keys from free trials, unprotected support bots, stolen credit cards, and chargeback attacks. Buyers seek cheap tokens, bypass geo-restrictions, or collect data for model distillation. The author warns about the risks of exposing LLM applications publicly due to this ecosystem's ability to exploit unprotected endpoints, urging vendors to implement strict API key caps.

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#Fraud Detection #LLM Token Reselling #API Key Abuse