“A PS5 for every room in the house, even the swamp.”
Another day of new PlayStation 5 stock, another day of money changers. This time, UK retailer Argos is in the limelight for having the stock picked up before it was officially offered for sale.
IGN reports that the inventory update planned for today was impacted by the fact that many consoles were attacked yesterday by an organized scalping group.
This group, which we will not name here, claims to have been able to find and access checkout URLs on the Argos website before they are made publicly available.
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Unconfirmed reports from anonymous members of the Argos team posted on social media last night suggested that network managers were informed of the first sales and that these orders were being canceled.
But this morning, members of the paid scalping ring posted pictures of themselves walking to Argos to pick up the click and take orders. We contacted Argos for comment.
Other networks were also hit by money changers again.
Another subscriber to the same scalping ring bragged on social media that he had used the service the night before to buy seven consoles at four different outlets.
“A PS5 for every room in the house, even the swamp,” he wrote.
The group itself, however, celebrated being named in the media coverage of its actions – something it hoped to attract more paying customers for its services.
Last week, British retailer GAME downplayed the report from another scalping group that secured 2,000 PS5 consoles in just one day, saying these orders were just pre-orders that it still needed to verify.
And while these scalping groups have had some success – as today’s photos show – it’s also worth remembering why they like having such a big mouth on social media: because they’re constantly trying to attract new customers of their own. These scalping groups are managed as businesses for their owners, with access to members blocked by high monthly subscription fees.
Last month, a group of Scottish lawmakers suggested that UK legislation was needed to prevent scalping up for items such as game consoles, especially since the practice is already banned for event tickets.