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While trainers remain the favourite purchase by scalper bots this quarter, during the upcoming summer the automated online purchasers are expected to target festivals & other big events, a cyber-analyst forecasts.
The scalper bot industry is staying active & searching for new targets. Netacea, a cybersecurity firm specialising in detecting & mitigating bot attacks, has predicted that as the weather gets warmer, scalpers will likely follow consumer habits & target in-demand festival and concert tickets.
Organisers should Mitigate Risk
In March, scalper bots were to blame for the disappointment of Eurovision fans, as the tickets to the grand final in Liverpool sold out within 36 minutes. 1,000s of tickets were scraped, & illegal ticket-touting communities were found reselling them at over £11,000 each, infuriating many.
Cyril Noel-Tagoe, Principal Security Researcher at Netacea, explained that festival & concert organisers should prepare & mitigate the potential risks of scalper attacks in advance. It could be done by using online tools to familiarise with the tactics & techniques used by scalper bots.
Release Strategies
“Once scalper bot capabilities are understood, organisers should look at their release strategies & site architecture to identify how scalpers might attack their site & implement mitigation strategies to counter these attack vectors.
For example, stronger authentication at the account registration phase & restricting the number of purchases made per user,” explained Noel-Tagoe.
Trainers still in top 5
During the 1st quarter of 2023, shopping bots heavily targeted the Nike Dunk Low “Panda” trainers. After that the 2nd most popular target were Nike & Tiffany “Air Force 1 1837” trainers, followed by Nike Dunk Low Grey Fog footwear.
There has been a change, with PlayStation 5 (PS5) pushed outside the top 5 of most scalped items: it used to be the primary target, with scalper bots responsible for inflating the gaming consoles market.
In contrast to 2022, the situation now marks a meaningful change as the competition for electronics has diminished, according to Netacea. The distribution of PS5s has stabilised & the demand for graphics cards by gamers and crypto miners has decreased, resulting in this change.
Scalping
The firm’s report on scalper bot activities revealed that whilst trainers were by far the most popular purchases for the machines, resellers used them to buy various other types of items as well.
Among these were designer clothing from streetwear brands like Stussy & Broken Planet, while some bot users set their sights on Lionel Messi Argentina shirts following the football superstar’s triumph in the World Cup.
Collectables, such as Funko POP! figurines, Supreme Tamagotchis, & signed copies of Elton John’s Honky Chateau 50th Anniversary Gold album were also highly sought after, with the latter fetching a huge 32,000% profit when resold.
Scalper bots also targeted drinks, with packs of the Logan Paul & KSI sports drink, Prime Hydration, being bought in bulk.
Damaging Businesses
In 2022, Netacea commissioned an independent survey of 440 enterprise organisations across the UK & US to understand their experiences dealing with bot attacks.
Of the respondents, 96% who had experienced a scalper bot attack explained it had negatively impacted their customer satisfaction. On average, these attacks resulted in a loss of 2.8% of the annual online revenue for the respondents.
“Scalper bots have an unfair advantage since they can make purchases much quicker than humanly possible. This frustrates legitimate customers, & would-be customers, who end up waiting in queues only to reach an out-of-stock page & having to turn to the scalper to purchase the item at a marked-up price,” outlined Noel-Tagoe.
Unlikely to Return
He believes that if a 1st-time customer is unable to make a purchase from a business, they are unlikely to return to it, especially if they feel that the outlet could have done more to prevent bot attacks.
“Loyal customers may also be lost to competitors who offer a fairer shopping experience if they repeatedly can’t make purchases,” he concluded.
