A sophisticated scalping operation is using automated bots to scrape pricing data for memory chips and components, making requests as frequently as every 6.5 seconds. The bots target the entire supply chain, from consumer DDR5 RAM to industrial components, using advanced techniques to mimic human behavior and avoid detection.
This activity exacerbates the existing memory and storage chip shortage, driven by high demand from AI and data centers. Analysts warn that continued supply constraints could severely impact the availability of consumer electronics, including potentially ending the market for entry-level PCs by 2028.
The main topics covered are automated scalping bots, the memory chip shortage, and the broader impact on the electronics supply chain.
DRAM bots reportedly being deployed to hoover up memory chips and components — one operation ran 10 million web scraping requests, hitting DDR5 RAM product pages every 6.5 seconds
That’s six times more frequent than the average user, meaning only one in seven requests comes from legitimate buyers.
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Scalpers are reportedly deploying web scrapers to make a quick buck while we’re deep in the memory and storage chip crisis. According to DataDome, a firm that protects websites and other online assets from automated attacks run through bots and AI, it has detected an operation trolling for the latest pricing data on memory modules and their components, sending queries every 6.5 seconds — that’s over 550 requests for each page, resulting in more than 50,000 requests per hour in total. The company says that it has blocked over 10 million requests that have been sent by the scalping bot, even using advanced techniques like cache-busting and ensuring that the request frequency stays under the alarm thresholds that companies use to protect their websites.
What’s interesting is that the bot isn’t just looking at consumer products. Instead, it was also looking at various levels of the supply chain, including DIMM sockets and CAMM2 connectors, as well as industrial memory modules designed for B2B transactions.
This isn’t the first time that we’ve seen scalpers take advantage of a supply situation in the electronics and computer industry. In fact, this has been a problem with every item that’s been limited or is experiencing a shortage in recent history, like the Sony PlayStation 5 Pro 30th Anniversary pre-orders, RTX 5090 GPUs a few days after its launch, the limited edition MSI RTX 5090 Lightning Z, and even scalpers taking advantage of selling DDR5 kits for 7x their original value on eBay. But what’s insidious about this operation is that it seems to be a deliberate attack orchestrated by an organized entity with access to sophisticated bots.
DataDome said that the bots used a day-and-night pattern to mimic human activity and also deployed cache-busting parameters — that is, the addition of unique parameters to every request to ensure that they get the latest information and not the one stored in cache. Despite that, there were several telltale signs that these were automated bots. For example, they exclusively targeted RAM listings, and they didn’t interact with other site features like search or shopping cart. The traffic also did not vary to consider breaks, reduced traffic during weekends, and the peak in activity during early evening. When the bot encountered a technical issue, the traffic dropped considerably for several minutes before returning to 100% capacity — something that just does not happen with organic human traffic.
This incident shows how bad the AI infrastructure build-out is hitting the memory and storage industries. Data centers are already expected to consume nearly 70% of the world’s memory supply this year, resulting in limited stocks for every other segment. If this continues in the next several years, analysts say that this will spell the end of entry-level PCs by 2028. We hope that the memory chip manufacturers like Micron, Samsung, and SK hynix increase their manufacturing capacity to stabilize prices once more, but this is easier said than done, with new fabs and production lines taking several months, if not years, to build from scratch.
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Jowi Morales is a tech enthusiast with years of experience working in the industry. He’s been writing with several tech publications since 2021, where he’s been interested in tech hardware and consumer electronics.
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abufrejoval Good thing DRAM is either soldered or DIMMs are firmly clipped in: no amount of hoovering ever removed any RAM I bought :LOL:Reply
But gently cleaning your system to protect it from dying may be far more important now, since it's so difficult to replace.
Perhaps you should combine it with patch days, backup-1, clean/hoover, patch, backup-2 (without deleting backup-2, obviously). -
bigdragon I would upgrade from a 5900X to a 9900X3D if the DRAM crisis wasn't a thing. I've been seeing deals show up for the CPU, but the RAM I'd need costs more than the CPU and motherboard combined. I'm going to sit on the sidelines until the industry gets its house in order and the scalpers get burned.Reply -
vanadiel007 Scalpers never get really burned. We have seen this in the past.Reply
The industry does not really want to address the scalper issue, because to them money is money. -
80251 I remember the cryptocurrency driven GPU crisis around the time of ampere featured the same kind of shenanigans and is the whole reason I had to wait until Ada to upgrade my 1080ti.Reply
It would be nice to hear some good news once in a while... -
Shiznizzle Reply
I had a 1060 6gb and had to wait till the near end of the 3000 series to get my 3060 12 gb for 330 pounds.80251 said:I remember the cryptocurrency driven GPU crisis around the time of ampere featured the same kind of shenanigans and is the whole reason I had to wait until Ada to upgrade my 1080ti.
It would be nice to hear some good news once in a while...
Turns out it was a 3000 series dumping sale on amazon since about 3 weeks after i bought my card the 4000 series came out and a light bulb went off.
I stayed with the 3060 till last summer when i got a 9060 xt 16gb for 379 pounds. Standard 9060's were at teh time 330 but i got a sapphire nitro due to reviews. And it was worth it. Same card now is nearly 400. Was 480 only a few months ago so things are coming "down". -
abufrejoval Reply
I can only compare 5800X and 5800X3D to 7945HX and 7950X3D/7945HX3D.bigdragon said:I would upgrade from a 5900X to a 9900X3D if the DRAM crisis wasn't a thing. I've been seeing deals show up for the CPU, but the RAM I'd need costs more than the CPU and motherboard combined. I'm going to sit on the sidelines until the industry gets its house in order and the scalpers get burned.
Both the generational uplift and the V-Cache effect aren't nearly as noticable as benchmarking in niche conditions seem to indicate, unless you live and game in that specific niche and winning pays the rent.
In my case it's mostly the GPUs and resolutions that determine performance, my primary displays are 4k and a KVM decides who feeds those screens. There are obviously differences between the 5950X (no V-cache) with an RTX 5070ti and the 7950X3D with an RTX 4090 with some games. But with many others the 144Hz refresh limit of the monitor limits may be reached by either, or even the big GPU isn't enough to get there.
So enjoy your games, chances are you're not really missing that much with that upgrade anyway, CPU power isn't such a big factor in gaming as you might be led to believe. -
logainofhades Replybigdragon said:I would upgrade from a 5900X to a 9900X3D if the DRAM crisis wasn't a thing. I've been seeing deals show up for the CPU, but the RAM I'd need costs more than the CPU and motherboard combined. I'm going to sit on the sidelines until the industry gets its house in order and the scalpers get burned.
Yea, unless you live near a Microcenter, or catch a good Newegg combo deal, it can be difficult to get ram right now.
Meridiano
