For years, CAPTCHA has been the mainstay of online security, blocking bots from invading websites. Since its introduction in 2007, CAPTCHA has continued to evolve in its fight against advanced automated threats, and Google's reCAPTCHA has been at the forefront. From being highly human-friendly to highly bot-unfriendly, the game has completely changed with the introduction of AI capabilities. Thus, the sensitivity towards CAPTCHA is at high stakes with respect to its survival in the detection of bots.

Welcome back to our series on the evolution of scalper bots. So far, we have traced scalping from its early ticket resale roots to the rise of automated bots. We have explored the ongoing battle between bot developers and anti-bot defenses and examined how scalping evolved into a professionalized, multi-million-dollar industry. In our last post, we uncovered a hidden sub-market where traders aggressively bought, sold, and exchanged bot licenses just like the products they acquired.

According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), shoplifting in the UK is surging. Reported cases jumped from 3.7 million to 20.4 million within a year. Viral social media clips show brazen daylight shoplifting. Reports quote frustrated shopkeepers afraid to intervene. Experts in retail, law, and economics debate the causes, blaming the economy, policing, organized crime, and justice systems. While physical shoplifting dominates headlines, digital shoplifting is equally bold and costly.