How 'Grinch Bots' Affect Our Holiday Shopping

Whether you like Charles Schumer or not, he's right about stopping 'Grinch bots' from buying the holidays hottest toys and reselling them for enormous amounts of money.

Hey, we've all been there. Money's tight, and little Suzy want's that popular toy for Christmas, but it's nowhere to be found because they've been scooped up by cyber bots. Now the only way to get ahold of one is by basically paying ransom from a third party seller. It's highway robbery!

Schumer says "Retailers must do more to stop Grinch-like scammers armed with cyber bots from snapping up the hottest holiday toys and reselling them at crazy high markups." The bots use high tech programs to locate the 'product page' of a popular toy before it goes sale. Then it buys thousands before we can fill out our payment method.

The New York Daily News reports:

Fingerlings toys (pictured above), retail for $14.99, are now being sold on third-party websites for $1,000.
Super Nintendo NES Classic Edition sold for $79.99 but is out of stock and is found on secondary sites for as much as $13,000.
Barbie Hello Dreamhouse playset retails for $300 now selling for $1,500.

“Simply put: It is high time we help restore an even playing field for consumers by blocking these holiday bots,” Schumer told reporters.

[Information from NYDailyNews.com]