It’s PS5 launch day and dedicated fans have been queuing all morning to get their hands on the limited number of consoles available. So far, we’ve seen John Lewis, Tesco, Currys PC World, Game and Argos struggle under the enormity of tens of thousands of visitors. John Lewis was offline entirely while those with a queuing system in place found that slowing the flow of traffic alone was not enough to protect retailers from over selling stock.

Scalper bots, also known as inventory hoarding bots, are the bots that thrive on supply and demand. These malicious bots are used to target merchandise that is typically in high demand or limited supply, buying it and selling it on for a tidy profit. The key thing here, is that scalper bots can make purchases extraordinarily quickly, much faster than any genuine user can.