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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday August 28 2019, @09:31PM   Printer-friendly
from the concert-ticket-sales dept.

In a growing number of online activities, bots are the main means of interaction. Online shopping is increasingly one of those areas. Vice has an interview with someone who built their own bot in order to compete against the other bots when buying online, just to have a chance at making a purchase for sought after items.

A tool for beating others to buying the items you want consists of three main components, finalphoenix explained. A monitoring bot, which scouts the target websites for new items; an account creation part, which will make a load of accounts on the site so you have a higher chance of pushing through the crowd as you control more of it; and a purchase bot, the part that actually orders and pays for your item. Users will also need to get some server space to run their bots.

Hiding from the clothes websites that you're using a bot is a bit more complicated; companies will likely ban you if they suspect you're scraping their website. Here, buyers need to use different accounts, proxies to route their traffic, and other technical means as workarounds.

Earlier on SN:
Facebook and CMU's AI Poker Bot Beat Five Pros at Once
TrickBot Malware Learns How to Spam -- Ensnares 250M Email Addresses
How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually


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  • (Score: 2) by legont on Wednesday August 28 2019, @11:18PM (14 children)

    by legont (4179) on Wednesday August 28 2019, @11:18PM (#887032)

    There is that issue to get through the door first even if one is good... but let me give you another real life example.

    Currently the US is demanding accounts from visa applicants. Presumably they are checking online activities for whatever that makes the apploicant accessable. I am sure there are many folks who would want this part - creating online identity that satisfies the US requirements - to be automated. I am not talking about terrorists, mind you, but simple tourists.

    Another example. I am already an employee of a corporation with liberal values. Recently they started to check their employees. I want my online ID to match my employer's. I do not want to click or god forgive read liberal texts, mind you.

    --
    "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
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  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Wednesday August 28 2019, @11:33PM (12 children)

    by Arik (4543) on Wednesday August 28 2019, @11:33PM (#887039) Journal
    There is no requirement to have an account on one of these sites to get a visa. They just ask for any accounts you do have. 'None' is a fine answer.
    --
    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
    • (Score: 2) by legont on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:01AM (11 children)

      by legont (4179) on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:01AM (#887058)

      Trust me on this, please. None is not fine.

      --
      "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
      • (Score: 1) by Arik on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:12AM (10 children)

        by Arik (4543) on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:12AM (#887062) Journal
        It was the last time I cleared customs.

        Got a source or citation?
        --
        If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
        • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:19AM (1 child)

          by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:19AM (#887066)

          Then you cleared customs as a US national or whatever category of already-inside, and you are likely white-passing and male. Alternately, if you pass or 40 or older, there's not the same assumption that you have an online lie.

          It is NOT ok in general, not even for you. At the border they can stop you indefinitely for any reason without telling you why, and not having accts online is a surefire way to get someone interested in you. Then it's just a case of whether they FEEL like making this day the day that you get jailed for two months while they test your honey.

          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @02:55AM

            by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @02:55AM (#887146)

            Here, and a diesel truck forum that specializes in 30 year old mechanical diesels.

            Does an online account with a printed circuit board manufacturer count?

            I do not have any sort of Google or Facebook, LinkedIn, or whatever.

        • (Score: 2) by legont on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:46AM (7 children)

          by legont (4179) on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:46AM (#887076)

          OK, I'll elaborate. Lying for the purpose of entering to the US is a crime. What's more, that crime has no statue of limitation at least for the purpose of obtaining citizenship. Simply put, a naturalized American citizen can be denationalized if he/she lied to get one at any point in the future. https://immigrationforum.org/article/fact-sheet-on-denaturalization/ [immigrationforum.org]

          That's just an example. In general, lying to the US authorities is a big offense. I understand you probably never suffered consequences of it, but one day you might and it will be painful.

          --
          "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
          • (Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:53AM (6 children)

            by Arik (4543) on Thursday August 29 2019, @12:53AM (#887079) Journal
            You're assuming it's a lie.

            I didn't say anything about lying. My answer is truthful.
            --
            If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
            • (Score: 2) by legont on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:09AM (5 children)

              by legont (4179) on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:09AM (#887085)

              You do have an account here, which you did not report.

              --
              "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
              • (Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:11AM

                by Arik (4543) on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:11AM (#887087) Journal
                I wasn't asked about here.
                --
                If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
              • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Arik on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:33AM (3 children)

                by Arik (4543) on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:33AM (#887099) Journal
                I looked around a bit to see if I couldn't get a source for what we're talking about and this appears to be one: https://tech.co/news/us-immigration-social-media-details-2019-06

                So that's new and not exactly what I went through, but it's even more clear it doesn't apply. They have a drop down list of social media sites, including the now defunct Google+. I've never willingly had an account on any of them or anything resembling them. I guess Google+ created an account for me without my consent at some point, but I never used it, and anyway they're shut down now. So there would be nothing for me to report there.

                Furthermore, it turns out you're also allowed to simply refuse to answer the question, they'll process the application anyway. The article I link suggests that might delay your application; but I see no reason to believe it. It's *possible* of course, but it seems at least as likely that giving them fewer details to confirm results in faster processing.

                This like pure CYA to me. They're looking to avoid a case where someone carries out an attack and then the media investigate after the fact and find out this person was posting crazy stuff online for years under their own name and immigration would have known if they'd just taken a few minutes to investigate. So they collect the accounts you give them, and presumably delay your application long enough for an intern to give them all a once-over and confirm there's nothing suggesting violent insanity.

                It would be absurd to require someone have accounts with these companies in order to apply for a visa, and in fact I'm pretty sure it would be absurd enough that the courts would put their foot down immediately if it was ever tried.
                --
                If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
                • (Score: 2) by legont on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:57AM (2 children)

                  by legont (4179) on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:57AM (#887119)

                  Man, they don't have to explain to anybody why a visa was refused. You think they would believe that a person does not have an account? From their point of view he is either lying or some nut case who should be kept away.

                  --
                  "Wealth is the relentless enemy of understanding" - John Kenneth Galbraith.
                  • (Score: 2) by etherscythe on Thursday August 29 2019, @02:11AM

                    by etherscythe (937) on Thursday August 29 2019, @02:11AM (#887124) Journal

                    I'd much sooner disbelieve an American that says they don't have an account on a major social media site, despite being a counterpoint myself. I'm less concerned about someone not from here - our natural bias is to assume everybody else in the world is backwards and ignorant, so claiming not to have a social media account and just "talking to people the old-fashioned way" would play right into it.

                    --
                    "Fake News: anything reported outside of my own personally chosen echo chamber"
                  • (Score: 2) by Arik on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:13AM

                    by Arik (4543) on Thursday August 29 2019, @05:13AM (#887176) Journal
                    You must be living in a bit of a bubble. I don't know many people, but I'd have no trouble naming other people that I know that do not have any accounts at any of the listed sites. Or at the most maybe posted something on pinstasnapbook and then forgot her login and/or which site it actually was, and never figured out how to recover it.

                    I'd expect that to be even more true of immigrants, especially the ones from less well off countries trying to claim refugee status, which is the demographic the administration is clearly focused on.

                    Like I said, it's CYA. I'm not suggesting anyone should lie on it. The best policy is to have no truck with any of those sites.

                    And I doubt very much that the bad guys we're trying to stop would do actually report themselves here. They WILL lie, and only if the lie is particularly crude and ill-conceived is there much chance they'll be caught in it.

                    Security theatre. Redundant where it is not impotent. I'm not in favor of it. I'm also not in favor of making it out as even more sinister than it is. It's the same thing we've been doing in airports for nearly two decades now.

                    --
                    If laughter is the best medicine, who are the best doctors?
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @02:40AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 29 2019, @02:40AM (#887136)

    I am already an employee of a corporation with liberal values.

    I do not understand a corporation with liberal values nor I believe its possibility: Corporativism was defined as Fascism by Benito Mussolini himself. Maybe you were tricked somehow to believe that you are part of something liberal. Maybe you tricked yourself to keep sanity. Corporations are technically a feudal residue, by methods of control and by goals too.