Online luxury resale shop The RealReal said it is reworking its bot screening to make life harder for AI shopping agents. The Verge reported days earlier that an agent could exploit how the site holds items. A cart reserves an item for 20 minutes. In a test, The Verge told Meta's Muse agent to re-add listings whenever a hold ended. That effectively blocked other shoppers for hours or longer.
Chief technology officer Luke Friang said that the company has addressed the Muse case. He said agents now find it much harder to log in, add items to a cart or check out. They can still show listings and send Muse users to product pages. Meta did not immediately respond to a request for comment. No detail has been given on how the defense works or when it began.
Analysis: this looks like a design gap, not a software bug. A hold is a reservation with a timer, and the test suggests nothing limited renewals. The defense, as described, works at the login, cart and checkout steps. Features built around human patience can fail once the buyer is software. Retailers could check for renewal limits, per-account caps or agent-aware rate limits. Meta said shopping is the most common use of Muse so far, with purchases averaging over $200.