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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

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 a someone who built their own bot in order to compete against the other bots when buying online [vice.com], 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 [soylentnews.org]
TrickBot Malware Learns How to Spam -- Ensnares 250M Email Addresses [soylentnews.org]
How Much of the Internet Is Fake? Turns Out, a Lot of It, Actually [soylentnews.org]

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