Free Tokens for Sale: How Fake Signups Drive AI Fraud
Okta, Tuesday, August 4th, 2026
Okta documents a fraud economy harvesting free AI trial credits through mass fake signups.
Okta Threat Intelligence documents a fraud economy in which bad actors mass-register fake accounts to harvest free trial and promotional credits from AI providers including Anthropic, Google, and Amazon.
The resulting API access is then resold at a discount on secondary markets. The economics work because signup friction is low relative to the value of the credits.
Okta explains the mechanics and what providers can do to detect the pattern.