19/01/2021 GAME tells The Loadout that it has “strong measures in place” to prevent scalpers
A UK-based console scalping group claims that its members successfully bought 2,000 PS5s in a restock by retailer GAME today, January 19. Members use the Carnage software to automate checkouts and quickly grab a console before anyone else has a chance. It also seems that Carnage notifies members before restocks happen, so they can join queues before the majority of people.
Carnage sells its bot for £250 up-front and then a £25 monthly subscription fee, so it would be an unreasonable investment if you just wanted to grab one console for yourself or your child. Most members seem to use the bot to grab as many consoles as possible, presumably to resell at inflated prices.
This is shown by the bot’s Carnage Success Twitter account, which shares user’s “wins” – when they manage to buy as many consoles as possible. One tweet from today’s restock shows a user with 30 successful orders on the GAME website, and it is implied each is a PS5.
However, users don’t just use the bot to get consoles. The bot has ‘supported sites’ which they offer restock notifications for. These include GAME, Smyths, Chaos Cards, Zatu Games, and Magic Madhouse. The latter three appear to be targeting Pokémon cards, which are rapidly increasing in value at the moment thanks to the biggest streamers engaging in livestreamed pack openings of rare sets.
Over 2,000 Checkouts successfully logged for today's GAME restock on the PS5.. 😳
Just keeps getting easier every time 😈
— Carnage (@Carnagebot) January 19, 2021
Carnage users also look to buy rare or in-demand trainers. Last week they targeted a restock of the Nike Dunk Low UNLV, and claimed one individual bought “more than half of a single region’s stock.”
GAME tells The Loadout that it is committed to ensuring that consoles are sold one per customer, but that many of its automated checks occur after orders have been confirmed via email. Orders, even those with confirmation, are classed as pre-orders until the checks are complete, after which payment is taken. Here is the statement in full:
“PlayStation 5’s continue to be in very high demand and that demand far outweighs current supply. We have strong measures in place to help ensure that our ‘1 per customer’ statement is maintained to allow for as many individual customers to successfully purchase as possible. All pre-orders are subject to automatic checks and order updates such as cancellations following these checks take place after a customer will have received a valid order confirmation email. At the present time these orders are still pre-orders and as such no payments have yet been taken from customers. Payments will commence once our order checks have been completed.”
The Loadout has contacted Carnage for comment about the matter.