Just How Easy it is to Gain Access to Scalping Bots?

Seeing as how scalping has been such a hot topic recently, one is left to wonder how it is that the business works. When understanding how easy it is to download or create bots that can purchase in online retailers, it becomes evident why it became such a big problem. Upon researching how scalping bots work, some articles and videos pointed out that the majority of the time, scalpers just exploit products that already exist for consumers. Basically, some third-party companies create bots that they sell to consumers. These bots are meant to be for those customers who want to get their hands on certain items but won't be near their computers at the time of launch. The user can let the bot know what online store it wants to buy the product from, the product they want to buy, as well as other specifications. The idea was to have people pay for the bots to buy one product since they would not have access to a computer. However, scalpers have invested in these bots and set them to buy up to hundreds of units of a product automatically at launch. Since they can then resell the product at an inflated price, there is a lot of room for profit. 

   

When I looked up how scalping bots worked, sources pointed to another method scalpers use, and that is to create the bots themselves. This preferred by larger groups of scalpers since they'd have more control over what they are using.  The source code is available on a ton of websites, and there are also tons of tutorials on how to use Python to easily code your own shopping bot. Alternatively, some scalpers just change the code of the bots available that were mentioned before. Another reason scalpers prefer to code their own bots is that there are ways to create bots that bypass the bot-detection precautions that companies have taken. For instance, ironically one can make the bot pass the CAPTCHA questions that users often have to answer to ensure they are not a robot. Having the control to build such sophisticated and efficient bots is why scalping groups invest in making them. 

Articles and videos cited:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iF8C1yFRqQo&t=14s

https://automatetheboringstuff.com/2e/chapter12/