ELI5: How to bot amazon

Botting on Amazon means using a super-fast computer program that acts like an Olympic sprinter to automatically buy rare sports gear before any regular person can even blink.

Imagine a championship football game where the stadium sells a very limited batch of signed jerseys. Thousands of fans are waiting outside the gates. When the doors open, normal people must run on their own two feet, search the racks, and wait in line to pay. A shopping bot is like having an Olympic gold-medalist runner who stands at the very front of the line, dashes straight to the shelf in half a second, buys the jerseys, and finishes the checkout before anyone else takes a single step.

People use these automated tools to grab hard-to-find sports items, such as limited-edition basketball sneakers, rare baseball cards, or high-end golf clubs, through a few simple steps:

• The Scout: The user sets up the bot by giving it the exact details of the sports item, just like a coach giving a game plan to a player. The bot constantly watches the Amazon store page, refreshing it hundreds of times a second to see the exact moment the item goes on sale.
• The Relay Team: Just like a relay team uses multiple runners, the software uses many different internet pathways called proxies. This tricks the store into thinking thousands of different sports fans are visiting the website at the same time, preventing the store from blocking the program.
• The Fast Break: The moment the whistle blows and the item is in stock, the bot skips looking at pretty pictures or reading reviews. It shoots the item straight into the digital shopping cart.
• The Slam Dunk: The program automatically fills in the shipping address and credit card information that was saved beforehand, finishing the purchase instantly.