Can’t find that current? Blame the ‘Grinchbots’: Online hackers are using sophisticated software programs to frustrate buyers by buying popular products and selling them at inflated prices when stocks run out.
- Sophisticated software programs – called Grinchbots because they ruin families’ Christmas plans – are being used to target in-demand products.
- Once items run out, they reappear on Internet Marketplace at a higher price
- The practice is similar to ‘scaling’ online tickets, when automated bots take off
Online hackers are frustrating buyers by buying popular products and selling them at inflated prices when stocks run out.
Sophisticated software programs – known as Grinchbots because they ruin families. Christmas The schemes are being used to target in-demand products in split-second raids when supplies are limited or running low.
Once items — from toys to limited-edition trainers — expire, they reappear on Internet marketplaces or secondary selling sites for a higher price.
Shoppers say the hottest Christmas gifts from brands like Lego, Gravitrex and Cocomelan were among those that became a rarity for the big day and then went on sale at inflated prices at resellers such as EBAY,
The practice is similar to online ticket ‘scaling’, when automated bots land on websites for major music or sporting events as soon as sales begin.
The tickets are then sold by brokers on other sites.
Online security firm Cyberint said its UK retail customers were sounding the alarm over the bots, which were already notorious in the US. Its senior analyst Avital Leshem said: ‘We are seeing these types of bots becoming more and more popular.’
Online hackers are frustrating buyers by buying popular products and selling them at inflated prices when stocks run out. Above: Gifts from brands including CoComelon were among those that became a rarity for Christmas
US legislators are trying to crack down on activity with the Stopping Grinch Bots Act, a reference to the mean Dr. Seuss character who steals Christmas.
Software is traded on underground forums on the ‘dark web’.
Ms Leshem said interest in buying Grinch bot software has risen 500 percent since 2018 and is selling for anywhere from $10 (£7) to several hundred dollars.
Gary Grant, founder of The Entertainer Toy Shop chain, said: ‘It’s not unusual when items run short for us to see a sudden increase in volume.
People want a particular toy, or in a certain color, and Internet merchants pile it up and buy it—especially where the industry hasn’t predicted the popularity of a design well enough.
‘Knowing that families have to round their money, we start limiting the product to one per person if we know something is going short.
‘It doesn’t have to be difficult. We want the product to go into the hands of the families and not any trader.
‘I want my customers to be treated fairly, not to go to the secondary market and pay exorbitantly inflated prices when something is sold.’
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