How Spinner and Scalper Bots Threaten The Travel Industry Have you ever tried to book a flight for a specific date, only to find it’s completely sold out? Or checked back five minutes later to find the cheap flight you originally saw has gone, and you’re left to choose from a list of more expensive flights? We naturally attribute this lack of availability to not being fast enough to place our orders. In reality, an army of spinner and scalper bots are programmed to target flights and hoard tickets to purposefully drive up prices or sell them through a third-party website for a profit.
The ticket resale market in the United States recently swelled to $5 billion
On average, scalped or spun tickets are sold on third-party websites at an increased price of
49%
Scalper and spinner bots have been known to make up 90% of the traffic on popular websites
Bots have been known to make purchases for up to 60% of the available tickets
Spinner bots add items to a basket and “spin” them, ensuring they are held until the threat actor decides to complete the checkout process.
Scalper bots automate the checkout process and
allow bots to purchase tickets faster than any human user could.
Threat actors use bots to achieve a range of objectives, including: Re-listing the item on a third-party site for a profit, completing the purchase only when their re-listing is sold Preventing genuine customers from purchasing items
Deliberately holding items to make them appear unavailable
Whether it’s spinner bots, scalper bots or both wreaking havoc on your website, the result is the same— bot operators make easy money and genuine consumers are left ripped off.