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
(Score: 2) by legont on Thursday August 29 2019, @01:57AM (2 children)
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
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
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?