DDR5 Scalper Bots Outnumber Shoppers 10:1, Driving Price Increases

Bot Activity Dominates DDR5 Product Pages

Jérôme Segura, VP of threat research at DataDome, stated that bad bots constitute 91% of traffic on one retailer's DDR5 memory product pages. This indicates approximately ten automated requests for every legitimate human visit. This figure updates DataDome's March research, which previously reported a 6:1 bot-to-human traffic ratio across several e-commerce sites.

Automated Scraping and Price Surges

DataDome's March report detailed one operation that generated over 10 million blocked requests. A one-hour sample showed 91 DDR5 listings being polled around 551 times each, or once every 6.5 seconds. These requests used cache-busting parameters to bypass cached stock data and targeted both industrial module makers and consumer brands. Concurrently, the price of a 32GB DDR5-6000 kit has risen from an average of $72 to $392 over the past year.

DRAM Supply Constraints Exacerbate Issue

The bot activity occurs amidst significant DRAM supply challenges. Apacer CEO C.K. Chang projected that DRAM supply to independent module makers could drop to 30% of 2026 levels next year. TrendForce anticipates conventional DRAM contract prices to increase by another 13% to 18% in Q3, following a 60% rise in Q2. Hyperscale buyers have reportedly placed deposits for most of 2027's DRAM output, further limiting availability for other markets.

Impact on Consumer Availability

Unlike previous scalping incidents for graphics cards and consoles, which eventually saw increased supply, there is no equivalent restock date for consumer DDR5 anticipated before 2027. This prolonged scarcity, combined with bot activity, makes it difficult for consumers to acquire DDR5 memory at reasonable prices. Some retailers, like Framework, have stopped selling standalone RAM due to scalpers, and Micro Center sells certain DDR5 bundles in-store only.