Stop Denial of Inventory Attacks with Prosopo

What is a Denial of Inventory Attack?

A denial of inventory attack occurs when bots repeatedly add items to online carts or reservations without completing purchases. This locks up inventory and prevents real users from buying.

Why It Matters

Retailers lose revenue and reputation when inventory is artificially limited. Events and exclusive products are especially vulnerable, leading to frustrated customers and lost sales. Bot operators exploit these situations for profit, often reselling items at inflated prices. Sneaker drops, concert tickets, and limited-edition releases are common targets.

How Prosopo Prevents Inventory Denial

Prosopo runs in front of every add-to-cart, reservation and checkout endpoint and decides — per request — whether the visitor is a real buyer, a trusted shopping agent, or hoarding infrastructure:

• How the visitor behaves. Mouse movement, scroll rhythm and typing cadence. Automation repeats itself in ways a person does not, and that holds even when every other detail about the session looks ordinary.
• Where the traffic really comes from. Attackers route through home broadband connections and racks of real phones so each request looks like a separate ordinary visitor. Bot protection recognises those networks even when the individual address has no history.
• Surge detection on inventory endpoints. Sudden bursts on a high-demand drop — especially from hosting networks or out-of-country ASNs — trigger automatic step-up verification on that traffic without affecting legitimate shoppers.
• Detection that moves during the attack. When an operator changes tactics mid-attack, the platform adjusts while it is still happening rather than in a write-up afterwards.
• Trusted shopping agents stay welcome. AI agents acting for real customers are recognised and let through; unauthorised hoarding scripts face a CAPTCHA challenge-response or an outright block. Policy is configurable per endpoint via Access Control.

Real buyers and trusted agents complete checkout; hoarding scripts stop dead at the cart.

What to use

• Enterprise (Prosopo Protect) — verify every add-to-cart and checkout request before any inventory is reserved.
• Access Control — block ASNs and fingerprints associated with inventory-hoarding bots during peak events.
• Bot Protection — score each cart action so your backend can throttle or reject high-risk patterns in real time.

Book a Bot Exposure Assessment to see what is reaching your checkout today.