This year’s “Double Eleven”
The sentence "Three, two, one, link up" in the live broadcast room put computing power into consumers' shopping carts for the first time. 100,000 AI membership monthly cards and about 2 trillion Tokens can be sold in half an hour, and "hoarding Tokens" has become a hot topic of discussion. At the same time, consumer scams such as AI celebrity fake live broadcasts and AI buyer shows continue to emerge. Can I stock up on Tokens during the “Double Eleven” promotion? How to guard against “AI fraud” when shopping? Please keep this consumption tip.
Have you stocked up on Tokens during this "Double Eleven"?
What is a Token? Why buy it? Token (word element) is the smallest unit for large models to process text. Let AI write copy, make PPT, and generate pictures, all of which consume word units. However, consumers cannot accurately calculate the tokens required to use AI, so the platform performs a "conversion" to turn Tokens into countable and quantifiable points and memberships. Consumers only need to recharge their membership or purchase points to use AI.
Tokens are put on the shelves and sales continue to increase. Data shows that on October 20, the first day of “Double Eleven” sales, Tmall Token category transaction volume increased by 450% month-on-month. A live broadcast room has launched AI office products with a quota of 20 trillion Tokens. The product side disclosed that within half an hour of the sale, nearly 100,000 monthly cards had been sold, corresponding to a call limit of approximately 2 trillion Tokens.
Blindly hoarding Tokens is risky, so be careful before placing an order. The reporter searched multiple e-commerce and second-hand platforms and found that the pricing of various AI recharge, membership, and transfer interface services vary, and discounts that are too low are often "watered down." Some sellers use the banners of "unlimited harvesting" and "low-price sharing" to sell the rights to use various large AI models at prices ranging from a few yuan to dozens of yuan. In fact, the so-called "unlimited membership" is essentially a "multi-device + multi-account" cyclic operation. Some sellers set up a transfer workbench server to provide shared accounts, while others sell keys and can call interfaces for large models. In response, multiple AI large model platforms responded that the rental and sale of accounts on second-hand trading platforms are unofficial services and are not authorized. Users' conversations and information using such accounts are fully visible to the lessor, posing risks of data leakage and fraud.
Ouyang Rihui, deputy director of the China Internet Economic Research Institute at the Central University of Finance and Economics and a member of the National Data Expert Advisory Committee, reminded that the tokens purchased by users are essentially the qualifications to call services, not independent assets. Training data and copyrighted content are also bundled behind the words. Once used to generate infringing content, there are no clear rules for revenue distribution and liability division. Risks caused by refunds and service provider outages lack unified supervision regulations and consumer protection mechanisms.
Beware of these types of AI consumption traps, keep your eyes open, and be careful of “falling into traps”. If the risk of blindly hoarding tokens lies in unstable services and unclear rules, then what is more worthy of vigilance during the "Double Eleven" consumption boom are various consumption traps set by AI algorithms.
AI celebrity face fake live broadcast. As the threshold for AI face-changing and AI onomatopoeia technologies has been lowered, individual merchants are using AI to replicate the faces and voices of celebrities and hosts, mass-produce fake recommendation videos for live broadcasts, and rely on public trust to attract traffic to sell goods, but in fact they are selling inferior and non-existent products. 📝Tips to avoid pitfalls: If these three characteristics are met, this "Celebrity Live Room" may be an AI face-changing: the picture is templated, the words are repeated, and there is no interaction in the whole process.
AI buyer show. Merchants use AI to quickly generate exquisite pictures and texts, unify praise copywriting and evaluation lists, and deliberately cover up product defects, resulting in serious discrepancies between the pictures and texts and the actual products. 📝Tips to avoid pitfalls: When purchasing products, focus on reviewing reviews with pictures and detailed real-life pictures. If necessary, ask the merchant to provide the original camera video for verification.
AI algorithm black box and "big data mature". The prices seen by different accounts for the same product at the same time may vary depending on the user profile, device type, and membership level; the platform promotes preferential prices to "price-sensitive" new users and displays the "original price" to old users who frequently repurchase, making it difficult for consumers to provide evidence. 📝 Tips for avoiding pitfalls: Compare prices before placing an order, switch accounts of friends and relatives, and check prices on different devices. If there is a significant price difference, there is a high probability of being sold.
AI “high-yield” financial management. During the major promotion period, some platforms used the gimmick of "AI smart financial management" to promote guaranteed profits and ultra-high returns. In fact, AI investment consultants from formal licensed institutions only provide reference recommendations and never promise guaranteed capital and high returns. 📝 Tips for avoiding pitfalls: If you encounter an unfamiliar platform that claims AI smart financial management, high yields and stable profits, do not follow them easily; do not download, register, or transfer funds; do not disclose bank card numbers, payment passwords, identity information, verification codes, etc. to unfamiliar third parties.
In addition to avoiding various AI consumption routines when shopping, when you find that you are not satisfied with the product and prepare for after-sales service, you may also encounter a new problem - AI customer service. The China Consumers Association's "Analysis of Complaints Accepted by National Consumers Association Organizations in the First Half of 2026" shows that after-sales service issues account for 26.79% of the total complaints, and "AI customer service false promises, manual access difficulties, and inaccurate generated content" are listed as new hot spots for complaints. If you encounter a situation where the refund is overdue or the warranty period is missed due to delays in AI customer service, enter keywords such as "manual service", "complaint" and "12315" to trigger the transfer; if it fails, call 12315 where the merchant is located or submit a work order through an external complaint platform.
Remember one sentence for "Double Eleven" consumption: Verify before placing an order when buying something, buy tokens on demand and do not blindly hoard them, pay attention to identification when shopping, and beware of AI fraud.
(CCTV News Client Comprehensive)
