How Sneaker Bots Work
Bots Explained: How Do Sneaker Bots Work? – Queue-it
How do sneaker bots work?
Because sneaker bots are just software programs following instructions, they work in many ways.
On the simpler end, there are automated bots that scrape inventory information from a web page. For example, this YouTuber shows how he pulls inventory information from the page URL. This bot could then be used to notify the bot operator when there’s a re-stock of sneakers.
On the more complex end, there are sneaker bots that inject pre-recorded mouse and click behavior from human users to fool sophisticated bot mitigation software.
In one instance, a bot operator knew what signs the bot mitigation software looked for and spent hundreds of hours recording thousands of “human” interactions on the sneaker website. As the company’s VP of web security said, “We have not seen that level of investment and time and energy and building for exploits or bypasses in other markets. ”
RELATED: Everything You Need to Know About Preventing Sneaker Bots
Bot operators also go to great lengths to cover their tracks. The more sophisticated reseller bots will use proxies and VPNs to mask their IP addresses, for example. This makes it appear the bots are coming from unconnected, individual residential addresses instead of one coordinated address.
Sneaker bots go by many names. AIO bot, KodaiAIO, NikeShoeBot, and GaneshBot are just a few. Some are custom-made to target certain retailers, like Foot Locker, Nike, or Adidas.
The best way to group sneaker bots is based on their functions.
Some bots have just one. Some have several. Here’s the most common types of sneaker bots and how they work.
Scraping bots
Like we saw above, scraping sneaker bots work by monitoring web pages to facilitate online purchases. These bots could scrape pricing info, inventory stock, and similar information.
Here we can see the unfairness of sneaker bots.
Imagine a sneakerhead wanting to compete with this bot. The sneakerhead would need to sit at her computer, manually refresh the browser, and stare at her screen 24/7 until the re-stock happens.
She could only keep this up for a few hours. And what if the re-stock happens when she’s having lunch or using the bathroom?
Scraper bots don’t eat. They don’t take breaks. And they don’t tire out.
Humans have no chance to compete with them.
Footprinting bots
Footprinting is like scraping, but involves the bot probing and scanning the website. For example, a footprinting bot could search for live web URLs that haven’t yet been made public.
Footprinting bots were the culprits behind the cancelled Strangelove Skateboards x Nike SB Dunk Low collaboration. Strangelove wrote that “the raging botbarians at the gate broke in the back door and created a monumental mess for us this evening… We regret to inform everyone that tomorrow’s launch has been cancelled and we will not be selling them on the site. ”
The footprinting sneaker bots clearly accessed the products a day before the release even happened.
Account creation bots
For bot operators to finalize purchases, they need an account with the retail site. They can generate a list of free emails and then use an account creation bot to create hundreds or thousands of accounts in bulk.
Account takeover bots
Instead of creating new accounts from scratch, bad actors sometimes use bots to access other shopper’s accounts.
Both credential stuffing and credential cracking bots do multiple login attempts with (often stolen) usernames and passwords. In a credential stuffing attack, the bot will test the list of usernames and passwords to see if they allow access to the sneaker retailer’s site. A credential cracking bot will start with one value, maybe an email, and then test different password combinations until the login is successful.
Scalping bots
Scalper bots, also known as resale bots or reseller bots, are probably the most well-known kind of sneaker bot.
Scalper bots use their speed and volume advantage to clear the digital shelves of sneaker shops before real sneakerheads even enter their email address.
A typical scalper bot will “sit” on the sneaker product page, constantly refreshing to click “add to cart” the second the sneaker drops. It will let the bot operator complete any CATPCHA tests, then zoom through the checkout process, autofill billing and shipping information, and press “buy” at lightning speed—as little as 0. 2 seconds.
Denial of inventory bots
Ever wonder how you’ll see sneakers listed on secondary markets like StockX or eBay before the kicks even drop? Denial of inventory bots are to blame.
A perfect example of the sophisticated, next-gen bots, these bots add sneakers to online shopping carts and hold them there. They don’t buy them—at least not initially.
Holding sneakers in the cart denies other shoppers the chance to buy them. Often, discouraged sneakerheads will turn to resale sites and pay double or triple the MSRP to get what they couldn’t on the retailer’s site.
Only when a shopper buys the product on the resale site will the bot operator have the bot complete the purchase.
Cashing out bots
Some bot operators don’t just use bots to put sneakers in shopping carts. They’ll also use cashing out bots to validate stolen credit card information and then use the bots to buy the products reserved by their scalping or denial of inventory bots.
How can sneaker retailers prevent sneaker bots?
If bots were easy to stop, someone would have done it by now.
Bot operators use cutting-edge methods of attack. As a sneaker retailer, your defenses need to be just as sophisticated.
In practice this means you need a combination of tools and strategies tailored to bots’ diverse attack vectors.
Here’s a list of some actions you can take to prevent sneaker bots from ruining your sneaker drops.
1. Block known bot traffic
One telltale sign of bot traffic is outdated browser versions.
Real visitors should be using an up-to-date version of a browser, but bot scripts frequently run on outdated versions.
Cyber security company Imperva recommends blocking browser versions that are over 3 years old and CAPTCHAing browser versions over 2 years old.
CAPTCHA
End of life over 2 years ago
BLOCK
End of life over 3 years ago
Chrome version
< 73
< 65
Firefox version
< 66
< 60
Safari version
< 12
< 11
Edge version
< 44. 18
< 42
Updated as of March 2021. Release version history is available for Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge.
Traffic from data centers often comes from sneaker bots—in fact, 70% of bad bots emanate from data centers.
Scalpers and other bad actors can purchase server space in a data center and easily obtain hundreds of IP addresses.
That’s why Imperva also recommends blocking traffic from Digital Oceans, GigeNET, OVH Hosting, and Choopa, LLC data centers, and CAPTCHAing traffic coming from data centers.
Just like with the browser version, the most sophisticated bots won’t be making these mistakes. But you can take these decisive actions to cut down on low- to medium-sophistication bots.
2. Monitor & identify traffic
If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. So, if you don’t have tools to monitor and identify sneaker bot traffic, you’ll never stop it.
Professional bot mitigation platforms analyze behavioral indicators like mouse movements, frequency of requests, and time-on-page to identify suspicious traffic. For example, if a user visits several pages without moving the mouse, it’s most likely a bot.
Bot mitigation solutions help identify sneaker bots with digital fingerprinting. They look at known information like browser type, IP address, cookies, browser extensions, and so on to create a profile of users that can be flagged as suspicious.
Remember to look for bot mitigation solutions that monitor traffic across all channels—web site, mobile apps, and APIs. Sneaker bots can plug directly into retailer’s APIs to access products more quickly. You need to cover all entry points.
Finally, the best bot mitigation platforms use machine learning to constantly update to the threats on your specific web application. In the cat-and-mouse game of bot mitigation, your playbook can’t be based on last week’s attack.
3. Act on flagged traffic
Once you’ve identified suspicious traffic, you need to figure out what to do with it.
Your bot mitigation solutions should let you test suspicious traffic. Common tests include Google’s CAPTCHA and PerimeterX’s Human Challenge.
When you confirm visitors as bots, you need to tag and mitigate them. These actions range from blocking the bots completely, rate-limiting them, or redirecting them to decoy sites.
Logging information about these blocked bots can also increase your chances of preventing future attacks.
4. Filter bots with web traffic management
At airport security checkpoints, passengers are screened before they can proceed to their flight.
Similarly, a virtual waiting room acts as a checkpoint inserted between a web page on your website and the purchase path.
A virtual waiting room is uniquely positioned to weed out sneaker bots. It lets you run visitor identification checks before visitors can buy their sneakers.
And a virtual waiting room has the added benefit of providing a fair user experience during hyped sneaker releases. All early visitors are randomized when the sale starts, just like an old-fashioned sneaker raffle. Anyone arriving after the start of the sale gets their place in line in a first-come, first-served order—the gold standard of fairness.
Related: Protect Against Bad Bots & Prevent Abuse With a Virtual Waiting Room
5. Allocate time for after-sale audits
Even with the most bulletproof bot blocking strategy, some sneaker bots will still get through.
But just because the bot made a purchase doesn’t mean the battle is lost.
Dedicate resources to review order confirmations before shipping the sneaks. This is a strategy used by retailers including Walmart and Very, and can do much to boost consumer confidence that you’re truly trying to keep releases fair.
Review the orders and ask:
Are there multiple orders shipping to the same address?
Were several orders made using the same IP address?
Was the same credit card used by different customers?
Is there social media chatter from customers bragging about how they used bots to game your site?
The most advanced bot operators work to cover their tracks. They use residential proxies to obscure IP address and tweak shipping addresses—an industry practice known as “address jigging”—to fly under the radar of these checks. But taking a critical eye to the full details of each order can help identify illegitimate purchases.
Sneaker Bots: How Do They Work? | Highsnobiety
Not long ago, Newcastle-based streetwear retailer END. Clothing revealed its intentions to stand fast on the front lines of the war against bots, with its new “Launches” system that was touted as bot-proof. The announcement was widely covered across the blogosphere, including here on the e-pages of Highsnobiety, as the latest in a string of bulletins signaling a call to arms within the retail the past year or so, brands as well as retailers have been rallying against the use of bots during online sneaker releases, not limited to Supreme, Nike, adidas and other smaller retailers. The battle is waging on, and while sneakerheads are often S. O. L. when release day comes around, stores and brands are still seeing their stock fly off shelves faster than is humanly Made EasyTo understand why this is happening, we first need to understand what a bot is and how it, some websites already write their own “bot code” of some sort. Used as a programming tool for quality-assurance purposes, this is known as acceptance testing. These bots are operated internally by the online stores themselves to run a suite of tests every time the site’s code is updated, making sure the store is running in top sentially, the bot enters the front-end of the store, runs an automated add-to-cart scenario and then checks out. This is done to make sure there will be no technical problems with the site once the product is actually released. One of the most common tools for writing codes meant to evaluative a script in this way is Selenium, which isn’t positioned as a bot tool for buying sneakers, but can easily be used to automate such a test is exactly how bots are abused by others to gain “backdoor” access to sneaker releases. While bots are usually hundreds of lines of intricate code that keep changing and evolving, others use as little as 10 lines of code to defeat an e-commerce backend that may have cost months of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars to reality is, there is no secret black market where bots are bought and sold, companies like AIO Bot and NikeShoeBot plainly purvey their services, advertising which websites – from renowned sneaker boutiques like Concepts and Hanon, to bigger names like Foot Locker – are Bot Plot ThickensBots complete these commands in mere microseconds, far faster than any human could select an item and add to cart. Interestingly enough, one particular measure taken by Supreme was to automatically block any order that didn’t dwell at checkout long enough, assuming these orders were placed by bots. Unfortunately, the New York brand soon encountered an unexpected problem: some Supreme veterans were simply insanely quick at checking out, causing the temporary system to reject their orders. With the impending online-only release of Supreme’s new Air Max 98 pack, it will be interesting to see how the New York skate giant handles even deeper problem than this, however, comes when the product is pre-loaded onto a given site a few days ahead of its release. This allows bots to find product IDs for each size and automatically add the product to cart before the release. The only step left is to head to checkout when the product is finally ftware engineer and sneakerhead James Murphy, reveals, “I can tell you with 100% confidence, any non-lottery site is bottable. Sometimes even finding the link for the purchase is easy with a bot, for example with YEEZY Supply and MR PORTER, or sometimes you just need the bot to click around, in the case of Supreme. “Any e-commerce page hosted with Shopify is notoriously easy for bots to hook into, but your favorite sneaker stores aren’t the only businesses being victimized, as it’s been widely reported that bots of a more complex nature have been used to infiltrate Ticketmaster since 2011, and even in the stock market, through a method called “high-frequency trading. “Nike Leading the WayThe fact of the matter is: the problem is only likely to become worse. Any e-commerce framework that operates on a “first-come, first-served” basis is a perfect target for bots, as computers are indisputably faster than humans at clicking. In a word, as long as people pay resell prices, bots will only true way to block out bots is by implementing a lottery or raffle system that requires pre-entry information such as shipping details. For YEEZY drops, adidas is using a system similar to this, although even the Three Stripes’ e-commerce setup is susceptible to “backdoor” access. In the past, the “add to cart” URL found on was located by bots, which allowed people to figuratively jump the queue. These links were then sold for hundreds of dollars. It remains to be seen if adidas is able to combat this method for future YEEZY releases, but for now, you can view the entire YEEZY product list though some sites speak of “leveling the playing field for genuine sneaker fans, ” as of now the only system that is truly bot-proof and crash-proof is Nike’s SNKRS, which is in many ways perfect because payment is entered ahead of time, and Nike charges you automatically if you seems like the Swoosh has presented the only viable answer at this point in time. As the situation evolves, however, new and more innovative solutions will be required to truly regulate how we are buying sneakers. Here’s hoping every retailer can win the battle against our robot overlords.
The Sneaker Bot War: Who is on the Front Lines? – Highsnobiety
The easiest analogy to explain the reselling of sneakers is concert tickets; they often sell for more then their retail price, and some people use automated bots to buy them. The ticketing industry and the footwear industry are both plagued by the issue of tailers, brands, and designers often speak out about the issue, including KAWS who recently posted saying he was cancelling and blocking orders made by bots. Berrics tricked one bot user into spending $11, 000 on one shoe, while Kith used a similar bait-and-switch tactic to dupe someone into buying 21 pairs, or $1, 700 worth of “Wheat” Jordan the while, bot services abound, as well as YouTube tutorials on how to use them. It’s an ongoing grapple, with both sides consistently re-positioning to gain new who is on the front lines of the sneaker bot war? What are sneaker bots? A sneaker bot is an application, or an automated script, which is used to speed up the checkout process when buying products online. While any computer can run a bot, servers are commonly used for eaker bots facilitate the purchasing of extremely limited items; in some cases these products make their way to the aftermarket where they are sold for profit. Many of these items are nearly impossible to buy without using bots, given that others are simultaneously “botting” the same items, so they sell out very most commonly botted sites are Supreme, Footsites (Foot Locker, Champs, Eastbay and Footaction), and Shopify stores like YeezySupply and Dover Street Market, given that they regularly drop covetable do sneaker bots work? In a nutshell, you enter your information into the bot (like your credit card details, name, delivery address etc) and then instruct the bot what to buy – this can be done in multiple ways, but the most common is to enter a URL link or keywords into the bot. Buyers will often search for early information (like the product URL) from so-called “cook groups, ” which provide support to the bot is initiated, it will automate the checkout process and purchase items quicker than is humanly possible – bots can checkout items in as little as 0. 2 Erik Fagerlind from Sneakersnstuff previously pointed out to Highsnobiety: “In order for any release to actually be fair, everyone has to be using the same speed of internet. Moreover, everybody must be the same physical distance away from the servers, as that also effects the amount of time it takes to be first in line. “Although it sounds fairly simple, using sneaker bots can actually become quite complicated, as you usually have to use proxies and a server alongside the bot. A server is a virtual PC that you can use to run bots on, increasing their speeds and connection to the site. Proxies are unique IP addresses that can be used to make you seem like you are multiple people. If you wanted to mass-enter into an online queue to buy YEEZYs, for instance, more entries result in higher chances of completing your purchase. If you don’t use proxies to appear as multiple buyers, the site is able to identify all entries are coming from one source, resulting in an IP sneaker bots guarantee you success? No, they don’t, as botters are now competing with other botters. Some site, such as adidas, YeezySupply and Nike, release their products with a raffle-based system. Each buyer enters a queue and then a small amount of people are randomly selected to purchase the item. While this might sound like it could eliminate the success of bots, this isn’t the case, as they are also used to put mass entries into queues and raffles. So, while bots do not guarantee success, they drastically increase your chances of sneaker bots illegal? Bots aren’t illegal, but they do go against a lot of sites’ terms and conditions. Most sites actively make changes to try and combat sneaker bots. Supreme, Shopify, Nike, and adidas are very aware of bots, and regularly update their online protection against them. However, bots are usually quick to update their operating software, too, in order to bypass any new protective measures. These updates usually entail changes in coding that aim to tell the difference between a bot and a human user. Although sneaker bots are legal, this must not be confused with ticketing bots, which are illegal in the are retailers doing to combat sneaker bots? We spoke to Simon Lister, the marketing director at End Clothing, who says that sneaker bots are a “big focus” and that they’ve “implemented a number of solutions designed to make life more difficult for bots. ” When End release limited products, they do so through their new Launches Platform. Instead of having manic FCFS (first come, first served) online releases where bots will triumph, End have decided to let their customers enter a raffle – the lucky winners will be able to purchase the limited item. Simon asserts that releasing limited products like this is a way of “ensuring fairness for customers. ” A lot of other retailers have since followed Bone, general manager of Livestock, shares a critical outlook on sneaker bots, referring to bot users as “vampires” who “suck the life out of whatever it is they’re trying to make a buck off. ” Bone mentions that in-store releases and raffles are the way forward to combat the issue, stating that Livestock is constantly “working to get these releases into the right hands. ”Some retailers are now also implementing CAPTCHAs onto their site to try and stop bots. Supreme recently tried this tactic, though it wasn’t successful – bots now allow you to login to Gmail accounts, and if enough activity is monitored on the email account, the site will not ask you to solve a also spoke to Simon Bus from SNIPES, who mentions that the brand “uses a market-leading system to successfully block bots, ” and that “suspicious orders, which were classified technically flawless, are edited by our staff. ” This means that even if you manage to get passed their anti-bot protection, your order is still at risk of being cancelled. Highsnobiety also reached out to JD Sports, Dover Street Market, and Foot Locker, who all declined to comment on what measures they are taking to combat sneaker are bots staying ahead of retailers? The best sneaker bots are sold out. One well-known example retails for £300 and is one of the most popular and successful bots; it is so hard to get that you will probably end up paying at least £4, 000 to buy the bot from a reseller. Ironically, all of the best performing bots are extremely hard to get at retail – it is actually harder to purchase the best bots at retail value than it is to get an average pair of collectible sneakers like YEEZYs. Though the bots occasionally restock, due to the unprecedented demand for them, they sell out in tapped a UK-based bot developer who chose to remain anonymous, to ask what steps bot services are taking to stay ahead of retailers and brands. “I don’t think that retailers will ever truly win this cat and mouse game of anti-bot protection. I put it down to 2 main factors. The first being that it is difficult and time-intensive for retailers and brands to tackle “patching” the plethora of bot methods out there. People working on bypassing bot protection systems will all have their own unique take on how to get about cracking it. This is the biggest pain point for anyone providing security against bots. Secondly, where there is money… there will be a way. There is so much money to be made in the botting industry, and with bots like Cyber boasting the fact that their users collectively spent over 30 million dollars in the last year, the money is definitely there. ”
Frequently Asked Questions about how sneaker bots work
Are sneaker bots effective?
Do sneaker bots guarantee you success? No, they don’t, as botters are now competing with other botters. Some site, such as adidas, YeezySupply and Nike, release their products with a raffle-based system.Jan 10, 2020
Do bots work on Snkrs?
Users are encouraged to tune into SNKRS Live sessions as ways that will help them increase their chances of gaining exclusive access. Nike also confirmed that bots will not do anything to help users get greater chances. … It is to be acknowledged that it is not something new for Nike to give its members Exclusive Access.Jul 8, 2021
How do bots release sneakers?
There is no law that forbids you from using an actual sneaker bot to buy sneakers or anything else. However, sneaker bots usually violate the store’s terms and conditions and whatnot. You see, some stores have a 1 pair per customer policy.Jul 1, 2021
