From the apocalyptic AI of Marvel’s Ultron to the time-traveling homicidal programming of “The Terminator,” we can all agree that movie robots are often creepy. And while real code-based bots are embedded in eCommerce for all the right reasons, shopping bots can also be bad.
As The Wall Street Journal reported in October, “Malicious bot activity, which includes bots that log into and check out from retail sites, has increased 19% from Sept. 4 to Oct. 26, according to networking-services company Akamai.”
What is a malicious bot in the eCommerce context? The variety is astounding.
News site Security Intelligence recently supplied a long list of bad bots and the automated evil they perform on eCommerce sites. They singled out “scalping bots” designed to search for hard-to-find items and automatically buy them — no doubt to be sold at far higher prices elsewhere.
The work of “inventory denial bots” seems truly spiteful, impersonating “human traffic to access e-commerce websites and fill items in large volumes in checkout baskets. This act fools the system into thinking that the inventory has been sold out” per Security Intelligence.
“Scraper bots” are evil genius personified, using code to place fraudulent orders that cause well-stocked eCommerce sites to report out-of-stocks, and even sell info on the Dark Web.
According to The 2021 Holiday Shopping Outlook, a PYMNTS and Kount collaboration, 12% of online shoppers had a fraud experience while holiday shopping last year. You can bet your boots that bots were involved then, as they most assuredly are this holiday season.
Get the study: The 2021 Holiday Shopping Outlook
There are Good and Bad Shopping Bots
All shopping bots are not bad. In fact, they’re quite helpful in crawling online marketplaces and eCommerce sites for cool toys and hot accessories that are being snapped up fast.
As PYMNTS recently reported, “Bots have been used to purchase hard-to-find gifts like a ‘Gabby’s Dollhouse’ playset from Spin Master, a Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Blow Mold Nostalgic Boy Reindeer and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle items, along with video games, trading cards and more.” These are the good shopping bots.
Fraudsters have advanced tech too, making automated gifting scams more prevalent. And it doesn’t have to be wicked bots making fraudulent buys. Sometimes it takes other forms.
In a recent interview with Karen Webster, Featurespace Founder Dave Excell talked about the proliferation of fake businesses online selling too-good-to-be-true access to limited items.
Per that article, “In the bid to steal data and money, fraudsters can go so far as to send notifications that delivery has failed and that order ‘details’ need to be re-entered. In other cases, they set up sites that look just like trusted retail brands in an attempt to lure unwitting shoppers to transact.
“There can even be ‘sub’ sites,” Excell said, dangling the temptation to “jump the queue and buy that Xbox — but all you’ve got to do is hand over sensitive information.”
Fake online stores aren’t technically bots, but their objectives are often the same.
Read also: Supply Chain Shortages Fuel Fraudsters With Fake Storefronts To Trick Holiday Shoppers
Bots Attacking the Bottom Line
What’s at stake in 2021 with the attack of malicious bots? Rampant cost inefficiency for a start.
A recent study from Aberdeen commissioned by digital security firm PerimeterX estimates that “75-80% of ecommerce operational costs (e.g., the cost of website infrastructure, website marketing, and checkout fraud) are negatively impacted by malicious bots, which represents a material and growing problem for eCommerce merchant profitability.”
That study also said, “bad bot traffic at checkout corresponds to attacks that have reached the stage of making fraudulent purchases, which is reflected in declines, chargebacks, other fraud, and the cost of making decisions about which transactions are legitimate.”
In a statement, PerimeterX CMO Kim DeCarlis said “Heading into the year’s biggest shopping season, it is critical that retailers fully understand the significant impact that bad bots pose to websites and mobile apps. It has gone beyond security and brand protection to become material to their overall financial performance.”
See also: Shopping Bots See New Use During Holiday Season
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