svendeal
Member
OP
Deal Sniper
- Joined:
- Jul 2024
- Posts:
- 301
- From:
- Miami, US
Contabo's "last 3 servers" deal dropped Feb 14. I had
curl -s contabo.com/api/stock | jq '.remaining'
running every 30 seconds from 3 AM to noon. Here is what I logged:
- 03:00 — 3 remaining
- 03:47 — 2 remaining
- 04:12 — 3 remaining (REFRESHED?!)
- 04:33 — 1 remaining
- 04:35 — 3 remaining AGAIN
- ...this pattern repeated...
By 11:30 AM I counted 47 "refreshes" back to 3. Never hit zero. SNAPPED IT UP at 04:35 once, got cart-errored, stock "returned."
Either Contabo's inventory is Schrödinger's server or something fishy. I track price history—this "scarcity" loop is new. Anyone else watching?
world record: 4min Arch install
olespete
Member
Trust No One
- Joined:
- Jun 2024
- Posts:
- 270
- From:
- Unknown
I ran the same curl against their API from three exit nodes! Results matched within 2 seconds. Not regional caching.
What could go wrong:
- Fake scarcity engine to harvest emails at "sold out" page
- Bots eating stock, failing payment, instant requeue—no CAPTCHA
- Your curl pattern now in their logs as "inventory scraper"
Set fail2ban on your own box at minimum. This smells like engagement farming. WARNINGS: check if they pre-auth your card before "stock check."
airgapped, encrypted, faraday'd, still worried