IT之家 news, October 21: According to a report today by China National Radio of the Central Radio and Television Station, recently on some second-hand trading platforms, quite a few sellers have been doing a 'gray business' in paid services for AI large models, selling various AI large model usage rights at low prices under banners such as 'cracked version' and 'low-price sharing'.
Are so-called 'cracked AI' services really reliable? What risks are hidden behind this?
The report says that on second-hand trading platforms, the paid usage rights of several popular AI large models such as Doubao, DeepSeek, and Kimi are all being sold. These products are generally marketed with 'low price', 'safety', and 'flexibility' as selling points.Some charge by number of uses, some rent out by usage duration, and some sell cracking tutorials, with prices generally ranging from a few yuan to tens of yuan。
The services offered by these sellers vary depending on the usage characteristics of different large models. Some merchants sell so-called exclusive 'cracking tutorials',claiming that by following the tutorial, buyers can repeatedly claim Doubao membership trial benefits, even touting 'unlimited membership farming'. The reporter spent 1.2 yuan to buy the tutorial, logged into the account as required, and sent the so-called 'internal code' in the chat box, but did not receive membership trial benefits. The seller said it was recommended to try again with a different device.
The tutorial described the seller's own 'track record', claiming that a single device could claim up to four memberships under extreme conditions, and also suggested buyers use family members' or friends' phone numbers and devices to keep trying. According to the tutorial,the essence of so-called 'unlimited membership farming' is precisely cycling operations across multiple devices + multiple accounts。
Can you really 'farm Doubao benefits without limit'? In response, Doubao stated:Doubao subscriptions are only issued through official channels; there is no 'cracking' method, and the false advertising effect of 'unlimited farming' cannot be achieved. It also reminded users not to trust information such as 'cracking tutorials' or 'low-price memberships' released through unofficial channels, to avoid personal information leaks or losses.
Besides selling so-called 'cracking tutorials', some sellers have also gone into the business of renting out AI large model accounts. One seller rents out Kimi large model premium memberships, charging by rental duration. From 10 minutes to 1 hour, rental prices range from 4.7 yuan to 21.7 yuan.
The reporter spent 4.7 yuan to buy 10 minutes of usage time. After payment, the seller sent a login URL and a temporary account. Clicking the link, the reporter found that what opened was not the official Kimi website but a webpage called 'Kimi 计时工作空间'. After entering the temporary password, the Kimi chat interface appeared, with a countdown at the top reminding users: this is a shared account, mind the remaining time.
When the 10 minutes of usage time ended,the webpage immediately popped up a renewal reminder, requiring the user toreturn to the second-hand trading platform to buy more time. The seller said the data follows the account; even if the usage time expires, conversation records will be retained for 24 hours, and users only need to renew to continue using it. The reporter paid again and logged back into the webpage, finding that the previously submitted PPT generation task was indeed still in the conversation records.
In response, the Kimi team said that renting out or selling Kimi accounts on second-hand platforms is not an official service and is unauthorized; such behavior violates the user agreement and will be firmly cracked down on. The response noted thatconversations and information of users of such accounts are fully visible to the lessor, posing risks of data leakage and fraud。
In addition, on second-hand trading platforms,some sellers are selling not accounts but strings of API keys. So-called APIs can be simply understood as calling interfaces provided externally by AI large models; through these interfaces, developers or users can invoke the capabilities of large models in other software and tools without having to log into the official website directly.
One seller claimed to have purchased a large number of official API keys and sells the call quotas split up. He offers packages at multiple price points, priced from 1.99 yuan to 99.99 yuan, corresponding to call counts from 220 to 14,000.
Cybersecurity expert Li Tiejun analyzed that the supply sources of these API keys sold for profit are mixed and unreliable.
Selling API keys is a highly mature black-market industry. Some hackers use bulk tools on open-source websites to search for publicly exposed key information, while others directly break into other people's systems through hacking methods to obtain data.
This means that the call quotas buyers pay for may not belong to the seller at all.Once the true holder of a key notices anomalies and takes measures to revoke or ban it, the service in the buyer's hands could be interrupted at any time。
The expert warned that every prompt users enter, every file they upload, and every piece of code generated could be retained by some unscrupulous relay stations, or even resold, posing prominent security risks.
Wu Shenkuo, a professor at the Law School of Beijing Normal University and deputy director of the Research Center of the Internet Society of China, stated thatsome of the sellers' behavior has already crossed legal red lines. For example, if interfaces are obtained through technical means such as reverse engineering and cracking crawlers, this infringes upon the service providers' technical measures and intellectual property rights. If one engages in large-scale resale of interfaces without obtaining the required business qualifications, it may constitute illegal business operation. Furthermore, if user-submitted information of various kinds is intercepted and resold during the resale process, this may directly violate the relevant provisions of the Personal Information Protection Law.