Walmart Blocked Over 20 Million Bot Attempts to Buy a PlayStation 5

Walmart has blocked over 20 million bot attempts to buy a PS5. Taking to the official corporate […]

December 16, 2020, 2:34pm

Walmart has blocked over 20 million bot attempts to buy a PS5. Taking to the official corporate Walmart website, Chief Information Security Officer Jerry Geisler revealed how the retailer has combated “grinch bots” that “are trying to steal would-be presents.” As Geisler notes, blocking bots isn’t easy as bot scripts are constantly being evolved and re-written to get around the work retailers do to halt them. That said, Geisler notes it’s working hard and updating its bot detection tools regularly in order to make sure customers have a chance of getting not just the new PlayStation, but the Xbox Series X as well.

Adding to this, Geisler notes that when its first PS5 pre-orders went live on November 25, the retailer blocked not one, not two, but 20 million bot attempts within just the first 30 minutes. Building on this, it also audits and quickly cancels any orders that it confirms were purchased by bots. As a result, Geisler claims the “vast majority” of next-gen consoles have been purchase by actual real Walmart customers.

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Concluding, Geisler reveals that the retailer has a restock for both next-gen consoles coming soon, but, unfortunately, this is the extent of specificity.

“We have more next-gen consoles coming online soon, and we’re continuing to work hard to get them into the hands of as many customers as possible,” said Geisler. “We hope others across the retail industry will join us by asking lawmakers to do more to prevent these unwanted bots on retail sites, so customers have equal access to the products they want.”

This week, GameStop, Best Buy, and Walmart all pushed a restock of both the PS5 and Xbox Series X. For the former two, it went horribly, but not for Walmart. It’s latest restock proved to be a gold mine, all but confirming everything Geisler says above.

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