The expert explained why men who buy gifts online can be mistaken for bots.

If an online resource does not have subtle protection from bots and uses standard approaches to traffic filtering, then the average man choosing a gift for March 8 may have problems — he may be mistaken for a bot and blocked. Anton Chemyakin, head of Servicepipe's analytical department, told Izvestia on March 4. He explained what this is about and how to buy gifts online and not be blocked.

"In the run-up to March 8, bot activity on online shopping and marketplace sites will traditionally increase by about a third. This is a kind of competitive element — to parse prices from other players, put 5 rubles lower at home and get all the client traffic. Sometimes parsing also greatly slows down the work of the attacked resource," the expert noted.

According to him, online retail uses various information security solutions to prevent bots from attacking, and legitimate users from making purchases.

"But if an online resource does not have subtle protection from bots and uses standard approaches to filtering traffic, then the average man choosing a gift for his beloved may have problems - he will be mistaken for a bot and blocked. The reason is that on the eve of the holiday, many men behave somewhat irrationally on online shopping sites - they throw everything in the basket, rush from one section to another, and so on," explained Chemyakin.

In cases where you really need to get to a specific site, but problems arise, the specialist gave some advice. He recommended trying to turn off the VPN. If the resource requires authorization and the user has a registered account, then you should log in to it.

"Since the parsing on the eve of March 8 may come from a specific subnet or provider, there may be a block for users from this subnet when protecting against bots. If there are any problems and it is possible to reconnect via another Internet provider, for example, mobile Internet, you can try this way," Chemyakin added.

The expert advised to check whether all possible incognito modes or similar extensions are enabled to hide your identity, as well as to stop using them during online shopping.

In addition, you should try to clear your cookies, and if it doesn't help, change your browser altogether.

"Plan your shopping a little in advance. Then you will have the opportunity to either choose another site, or visit another one you are interested in after an hour, when the attack subsides," Chemyakin added.

Earlier, on February 23, it was reported that since the beginning of 2025, retailers and online services that incur losses due to a new fraudulent scheme of stealing points from loyalty programs. Participants of the IT market told Izvestia about this. The attackers began using special software bots that massively register on the websites of retail chains, cafes, and delivery services, imitating real users.

Such fake accounts receive welcome bonuses, birthday points, or various promotions. And then anyone can buy these points in special Telegram chats.