Schumer's next target: shopping bots

If you've ever gone online to buy hard-to-get theater or rock concert tickets, you know about the bots that gobble up available seats to be resold at astronomical prices _ $1,000 a piece or more.

Now the perfidious bot is invading the visions of sugar plums _ and toys _ dancing in children's heads as they nestle all snug in their beds on Christmas Eve.

Much like the hijacking of already high-priced tickets, bots are purchasing large quantities of the top-selling Christmas gifts for children.

But Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-NY, said Wednesday that he will do all he can to make sure the "Grinch bots," as he terms them, do not steal Christmas 2018.

"These cyber-scalpers use Grinch bots ... to purchase at lightning speed the hottest Christmas toys en masse, create a false shortage and then resell them to desperate parents and grandparents at obscene mark-ups," Schumer said. "It is a cynical rip-off, pure and simple, and we should put the clampdown on these predatory scammers ASAP."

Schumer _ along with Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Tom Udall of New Mexico, and Capital Region Congressman Paul Tonko _ has introduced the Stop Grinch Bots Act of 2018 and urged Congress to fast-track it so that is law "as soon as possible."

It parallels the BOTS Act of 2016, which Schumer and Tonko, D-Amsterdam, helped steer through Congress.

The Better Online Ticket Sales Act prohibits unfair and deceptive use of mechanisms such as bots in order to scoop up tickets before consumers get a fair chance to buy them. But the BOTS Act applied only to tickets, not toys, and bots are capable of scooping up other items at a rapid-fire pace.

Among 2017's hot toys that Schumer said his office staff researched last Christmas season:

Fingerlings, going for $14.99 in 2017, were out of stock online at Toys R Us, Walmart and Target, but were readily available on Amazon and eBay _ for as much as $1,000 each.

A Super Nintendo entertainment system NES Classic Edition, $79.99, couldn't be had online from Best Buy, Game Stop, or Target. But they found them last year on Amazon and eBay for as much as $13,000 each.

The L.O.L. Surprise! Doll, $9.99, was sold out online at Toys R Us, Target and Walmart but available on Amazon and eBay for up to $500 each in 2017.

Consumers who look online for such purchases are at a disadvantage.

"When it comes to speed-of-purchase of hot holiday gifts, your average consumer is bringing a knife to a gun fight," Schumer said.

Bots are only the latest technique used by scalpers, who have long thrived on the profit margins that exist between the normal asking price and what a frenzied consumer might pay to get that must-have concert ticket or toy.

Congress may not be able to put it under your tree in time for this Christmas, but Schumer vows to keep on trying. "No New Yorker should have to fork over hundreds _ or even thousands _ of dollars to buy Christmas and holiday gifts for their children and loved ones," he said.